Idan Ivri Ivri is a third-year political
science student just giving his opinion. E-mail your opinion to him
at [email protected].
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The Daily Bruin had an opportunity to interview Chancellor
Albert Carnesale about many important student issues last
Friday.
Chancellor Carnesale was forthcoming on some issues but remained
vague about many others.
Regarding the possible 8 percent budget cut looming at UCLA, the
Chancellor said that certain “crucial” areas would have
to be preserved, and that the cuts would not be uniformly applied.
He did not exactly establish which areas are “crucial,”
except to say that he would preserve excellent academics and
research at UCLA. I got the impression that the cuts, if they are
applied, will probably be decided inside the departments.
Since the history graduate students publicized their concerns a
few weeks ago, the issue of selective spending inside departments
has become important. The news editors asked Carnesale about the
possibilities of applying money originally intended for one purpose
(say, a new conference table) for another (allowing TAs to
photocopy more documents, for example). Besides reminding us of
some state appropriations restrictions, however, the Chancellor
again left that issue up to the departments.
The Daily Bruin asked Carnesale about recruitment of younger
professors and whether a “˜soft’ hiring freeze was in
effect. The Chancellor reiterated that UCLA always seeks to retain
and recruit great faculty ““ no one really doubts this,
though. The Chancellor did mention, however, that UCLA is better
than other schools in recruiting faculty ““ it gives tenure to
professors at the associate professor level, whereas Harvard and
other schools do not.
The Chancellor gave his most convincing points during the
interview when he spoke about the reapportioning of credits for
courses.
Some background: The state of California mandates that we must
take at least 15 quarter-units per term to be considered
“˜full-time’ students. The amount of funding UCLA
receives is dependent on its number of full-time students. Since
UCLA courses are almost always four units, three classes only
amount to 12 units and four classes equal 16.
The Chancellor said that we should re-examine the number of
credits each course is worth to make 15 units a more common
combination. Some courses should be three units that are now four.
Some that are now four should be worth five. I agree. We’ve
all taken classes that were extremely difficult and some that were
totally easy in our time here. Chances are that both those classes
were worth the same amount of credit.
The Chancellor’s opinions on the Student Health Insurance
Program, unfortunately, were fairly vague. He admitted that the
system was not perfect and would certainly be improved over time.
But he did not specify what improvements he would suggest or how
the process of improvement would begin.
Carnesale did give some very interesting opinions regarding high
school testing. He believes that high school GPA is the best single
predictor of a student’s success in college. He supports the
predictive value of SAT II tests in a large state like California
where most high schools teach a standard curriculum. He seemed
slightly dubious of the value of the SAT I and opposed over-testing
in high school. The Chancellor was right on in all these
points.
Carnesale also reminded me of the significant fact that 40
percent of UCLA upper-division students are community college
transfers. It is a great achievement that UCLA has helped so many
students advance from their communities to a nationally respected
university.
The Chancellor has to please many interests, so it’s not
surprising that he can’t always give specific answers. I had
hoped for a greater number of firm stances or approaches, but it is
very promising that the Chancellor grants these interviews at all.
Above all else, the most important part of college administration
is student access to it.