Finding Faculty

MIKE CHIEN/Daily Bruin Professor of biological chemistry
Alex Van Der Bliek looks over the shoulder of
Daniel Rube, a fifth-year graduate student of
biological chemistry.

By Rachel Makabi
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected] There isn’t enough space. It is a
thought many researchers have as they try to work in cramped
conditions ““ the same thought prevents many potential
professors from coming to UCLA in the first place. It is a thought
Leonard Rome has several times a day as he tries to figure out how
to recruit new research professors to an overcrowded university.
“It keeps me up at night,” said Rome, vice chancellor
of research for life and health sciences. Though UCLA has a
reputation as a top research university and lies in a major city,
the scarcity of space in research labs makes it increasingly
difficult to attract top research professors, Rome said. Worst of
all, no one seems to think they can fix the problem and most fear
Tidal Wave II, the influx of 60,000 students to the UC over the
next 10 years, will only exacerbate the situation. Even after
initiating a serious building campaign throughout Westwood,
officials are concerned about the university’s growing
reputation as one of the most overcrowded schools in the nation.
The university is trying to plan carefully for the expected growth,
particularly in the sciences, so it can let the state legislature
and state government know what its needs are, said Executive vice
chancellor Rory Hume. The university cannot build or borrow money
without getting approval from the regents beforehand, Hume
continued. “It’s an enormous challenge that we are
facing,” Hume said. UCLA has equipment and resources for a
large number of faculty members, but not for everyone, Rome said.
Many faculty are desperate for more space ““ to the extent
that it thwarts their ability to complete their funded research, he
said. “If you ask me what is my biggest challenge … it is
finding adequate space for my faculty to do their work,” Rome
said. “Our faculty is very good at going out and getting
grants to do very good research, but if they have no place to do
their work and put their students in, then it’s a
problem.” Recruiting faculty in the sciences is one of the
most costly undertakings of the university, said vice chancellor of
budget and finance Steve Olsen, citing that an average recruit
costs the university about $200,000 while a life sciences recruit
costs the university nearly $500,000. Tidal Wave a surging problem
The faculty shortage will probably only worsen with Tidal Wave II.
UCLA will take in about 4,000 students and will have to provide the
professors and building space to teach students. But without the
resources to replace professors who are leaving now, the task of
recruiting even more to deal with Tidal Wave II is incredibly
daunting, Olsen said. The spurt of professors who entered the
university during the first tidal wave in the 1960s are approaching
retirement, leaving the university to find replacements for them as
well, Olsen said. Over the course of the next decade, UCLA will
have to hire 1,000 new faculty in all departments, he continued.
Many officials say they fear Tidal Wave II will only exacerbate the
situation by cramming more people into a dense space that is
already at its limit. “(Tidal Wave II) is just going to make
it worse, we are going to have to bring in more faculty … there
needs to be new space for the new faculty and for their new labs.
We already have that problem right now,” Rome said.

Building a future UCLA has some of the most advanced
laboratories and equipment in the nation, but the quality of labs
supercedes the quantity the university needs, Rome said. Some
professors enjoy conditions in state-of-the-art labs. Others, like
those who work in the Life Sciences building which was constructed
half a century ago, work in facilities “really past the point
where (they are) useful,” Olsen said. UCLA is planning on
renovating the building, but will have to complete three other
buildings to replace spaces damaged by the 1994 Northridge
earthquake first. The new buildings will yield little new space,
and will serve as transfer zones for professors as the university
remodels other buildings, Olsen said. “For every 1 square
foot that we build, we knock down another space,” he
said.

Researchers feel the effects Officials are hoping to decant
faculty into the first two buildings, called seismic replacement
buildings 1 and 2, when they start renovating the Center for Health
Sciences building in 2005. But in the meantime, they don’t
know where they will put people, Rome said. In addition,
researchers who already have labs are not able to hire new people
because of space constraints, said chemical biology professor
Alexander Van Der Bliek. Many people who work in the labs do not
have separate rooms and are already “cooped up in the
lab,” Van Der Bliek said. Though the university continues to
propose building plans, there are few places to build on and even
less money with which to work. Some researchers, like Cheryl Zimmer
and her husband Richard, who work in the organismic biology,
ecology and evolution department, avoid the scarcity of space by
sharing a lab that is larger than a normal lab. “We are not
crowded, but we are also kind of an anomaly,” Cheryl said.
Sharing space allows them to use the same equipment, but, Cheryl
added, it may not be a viable option for most researchers. For
researchers stuck in small labs, the scarcity of space is a
terrible problem, said medical cardiology and microbiology
professor Aldons Lusis. “Part of getting work done is working
in a sort of happy environment, where you feel good and put in long
hours,” Lusis said. “If the space is very tight, and if
you are just squeezed in it, it’s just hard to
function.” It is also difficult to recruit department chairs,
Lusis said, because people require space in addition to the
“wonderful research programs and environment” that UCLA
offers.

Students bear the brunt Officials who must recruit faculty
aren’t the only ones affected by the shortage ““
students may bear the brunt of it as well. As a research
university, the reputation of UCLA is intimately tied to the
excellence of the research institutions, Rome said. “The best
education in the sciences is done by the best scientists,” he
said. UCLA’s reputation is one of the main reasons both
faculty and students attend the university. If one of them falters,
they both will. “The best faculty go where the best students
go and vice versa, and having the best students is just as
important as having the best faculty,” Rome said.
“That’s another argument for why we have to be able to
stay able to recruit the best faculty ““ so we can stay able
to keep the best students.”