UCLA actively supports academic innovation

The Daily Bruin is right when its editorial board suggests
(“Administration needs to focus on teaching,” Feb. 13)
that a top priority for UCLA is to continue to create and support
innovations in undergraduate education.

Our work to enhance the quality of the undergraduate experience
is always important to the campus, and maintaining that momentum is
especially crucial right now, as economic uncertainty in the state
budget grows.

Yet, in spite of growing financial problems (and as The Bruin
mentioned), UCLA has created several new programs for
undergraduates in recent years that are part of our long-term
commitment to undergraduate education.

In particular, the General Education Clusters and the new Fiat
Lux Undergraduate seminars represent the type of commitment that we
actively support ““ especially for freshmen and lower-division
students.

The GE Clusters (a massive, six-year effort to fundamentally
rethink and improve undergraduate education at UCLA) provides
students with the opportunity to engage in intensive, year-long,
team-taught interdisciplinary exploration of broad themes. Topics
that include globalization, interracial dynamics in America,
evolution or social justice are taught by our finest
faculty. Hundreds of entering freshmen started their academic
careers at UCLA in a GE cluster, and we support the continued
growth of this program.

The Fiat Lux seminars, held for the first time last fall, are
highly-specialized courses that span the rich array of disciplines
at UCLA.  With freshmen receiving enrollment priority, Fiat
Lux seminars explore topics of intellectual importance and give
students an opportunity to critically discuss these topics within a
small group of peers and faculty. Our goal is to offer a place
in a Fiat Lux seminar to every freshmen who wants to enroll .

In addition to these specific programs, we recently completed a
revision of GE requirements ““ a five-year process that gives
undergraduates a stronger liberal arts experience and broader
academic opportunities.

Other programs for undergraduates are evolving. For
instance, last fall UCLA Professors Utpal Banerjee and Robert
Goldberg each received $1 million in grants from the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute to create innovative programs for teaching
science to undergraduates. UCLA was the only university in the
nation to receive two awards.

The Bruin is also correct when it recognizes that faculty at
UCLA have commitments beyond teaching — in particular, research
and public service. But it is those very commitments that make
the quality of undergraduate instruction distinctive and the
character of education distinguished. UCLA is a major research
university, and the benefits for students are many. Professors
transfer their knowledge from the laboratory, field or archive to
the classroom. Seminars are first-hand, informed and
updated. UCLA faculty don’t just dispense knowledge;
they create it and communicate it. And in turn they learn through
their teaching. At UCLA, research and teaching are inextricably
linked, each one enhancing the other.

The connection between the quality of undergraduate teaching and
our faculty’s commitment to public service may not be
apparent to students who have not availed themselves of the many
opportunities for hands-on, experience-based education at
UCLA. Here I would single out UCLA’s Center for
Experiential Education and Service Learning, which offers students
a variety of opportunities for applying their skills in the real
world and helps faculty develop service-oriented courses in fields
as diverse as psychiatry, community health science, history,
sociology, communication studies, Asian American studies, and world
arts and cultures.

Each year nearly 2000 undergraduates, as well as numerous
faculty and hundreds of organizations in the greater L.A.
community, are served through CEESL’s internship and service
learning programs. Undergraduate students at UCLA enjoy
unparalleled opportunities to apply knowledge acquired in the
classroom and to return such knowledge to the broader
community. 

I encourage you to take advantage of the scope of courses and
special programs that are offered for UCLA undergraduates.

Neuman is executive vice chancellor of UCLA.