Administration should stop playing schoolyard bully

Rentschler is a third-year cybernetics student.

By Scott Rentschler

Back when we used to bring G.I. Joe lunch boxes to school, many
of us would engage in daily skirmishes on the playground to
determine who got to play with the coolest things. The sandbox,
slide, swings and monkey bars often fell into the hands of the
bullies while the smaller kids got stuck playing where no one else
wanted to. The only thing that mattered was size, because reason
and compromise didn’t belong in the world of playground
politics.

Now that we’re at UCLA, most of us probably believe that
fighting over the sandbox is simply a distant memory. Well, grab
your lunch boxes, because playground politics are back.

UCLA is one big playground filled with kids. The students would
like to think they have a fair amount of control over what they
play with here, but a bully is in control. That bully happens to be
the university administration. Just as smaller kids are helpless
against a bully, so are the students at UCLA at the mercy of the
administration.

Consider, if you will, the closing of the Academic Technology
Services computer lab located in the Math Sciences building at the
end of this quarter (“ATS
computer lab to close at the end of the quarter,” Daily
Bruin, News, May 25). It will be converted into a research
facility called the Technology Sandbox.

Currently, the ATS lab is the only computer lab accessible to
all UCLA students in South Campus with a Bruin Online ID. If you
happen to be a North Campus student, don’t turn to the
crossword puzzle just yet. You, too, will be affected by the
closing of the ATS lab.

The former ATS lab dwellers will be forced to flock to ““
you guessed it ““ the College Library Instructional Computing
Commons at Powell Library, the only other computing facility
accessible to all UCLA students. There are 14 other computer labs
on campus, but most of them are restricted to students affiliated
with certain departments or taking certain classes.

This is going to lead to a marked increase in the usage of the
already-overburdened CLICC lab, which receives between 1,000 to
3,000 log-ins per day (Daily Bruin, News, May 25). There are 178
computers and 80 laptops at CLICC.

  Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin There are 58
computers in the ATS lab; that’s over one-fifth the size of
CLICC. If the majority of ATS lab users go to Powell from now on,
as they most likely will, there will be a significant increase in
traffic at CLICC. I have often waited in line for up to 15 minutes
to use a computer in Powell during peak hours. With the closing of
the ATS lab, students will now look forward to an even longer
wait.

Don’t be fooled by claims that the Technology Sandbox will
benefit students by creating student internships. If you look at
the number of students who will benefit from those internships and
the much larger number of students currently utilizing the ATS lab,
it’s obvious that the loss to students far outweighs the
gain.

The administration is playing the part of the bully by taking
such a valuable facility away from the students. According to Val
Poliuto, manager of the Information Technology Alliance,
“Students will have access to the technology available today
as well as the technology available tomorrow,” (Daily Bruin,
News, May 25).

By “students,” however, he must mean interns,
because it’s unlikely that ATS will allow all UCLA students
to wander into their Technology Sandbox and fiddle with their
expensive gadgets.

The closing of the ATS lab is indicative of a much larger
problem on this playground we call UCLA. If the administration
continues to bully the students by taking away needed facilities
and resources at its own discretion, in which direction is the
quality of education at UCLA headed?

The administration’s mantra, “More money, less
planning,” is an effective policy if the goal is to increase
the size of UCLA’s bank account, but decidedly
counterproductive if the goal is to increase the quality of
education.

Examples of administrative bullying abound. Look at the recent
debate surrounding the university’s denial to grant tenure to
Professor Joshua Muldavin, a 1998 Distinguished Teaching Award
recipient and chair of International Development Studies. His
abilities as an educator and dedication to his students apparently
did not factor heavily into the university’s decision
process. If he eventually leaves UCLA because the university denied
him tenure, the quality of education on this campus will
suffer.

Look at the dire parking situation and the cramped on-campus
housing situation. As the number of students forced to live
off-campus rises, the number of campus commuters rises.
Consequently the number of people denied parking permits at UCLA
rises.

All of this happens because the administration continually
admits more students than this campus can handle to increase
funding. The well-being of the students is not a priority when such
decisions are made.

Since our campus can no longer expand, the only way to extend
programs or departments is to cut back or eliminate others, because
expanding upward is something I don’t see happening anytime
soon.

Realistically, programs and faculty generate funding, patents
and publicity that stay and overtake the less lucrative programs.
When is the last time you read a headline in the Daily Bruin
stating, “Research lab to be converted into
classroom?”

Hopefully it is becoming clearer that the administration has
indeed been bullying the students on this big playground we call
UCLA.

If the university sees itself as a world-class research
institution, it should advertise itself as such instead of
misleading prospective students. On the UCLA home page, I see the
following passage from Chancellor Albert Carnesale’s welcome
message: “UCLA’s leadership in teaching, research, and
public service makes it a beacon of excellence in higher
education.”

It’s funny that he mentions teaching first, because at
this institution of “higher research” ““ I mean
“learning” ““ teaching seems to come last.

I feel for the prospective students who see UCLA’s
consistently high rankings in U.S. News and World Report and read
quotes like the chancellor’s, being misled to believe that
the quality of undergraduate teaching and student facilities at
UCLA reflect its high ranking and praise.

If the decision of ATS to convert its much-needed computer lab
into a Technology Sandbox where technologists can “play with
and collaborate on different ideas” is an indication of the
university’s prioritization of its students, our future
doesn’t look so bright.

It’s time to let the administration know that the students
of UCLA want their playground back.