L. A. Times: UCLA Alumni Group Is Tracking ‘Radical’ Faculty
A fledgling alumni group headed by a former campus Republican leader is offering students payments of up to $100 per class to provide information on instructors who are “abusive, one-sided or off-topic” in advocating political ideologies.
The year-old Bruin Alumni Assn. says its “Exposing UCLA’s Radical Professors” initiative takes aim at faculty “actively proselytizing their extreme views in the classroom, whether or not the commentary is relevant to the class topic.” Although the group says it is concerned about radical professors of any political stripe, it has named an initial “Dirty 30” of teachers it identifies with left-wing or liberal causes.
Some of the instructors mentioned accuse the association of conducting a witch hunt that threatens to harm the teaching atmosphere, and at least one of the group’s advisory board members has resigned because he considers the bounty offers inappropriate. The university said it will warn the association that selling copies of professors’ lectures would violate campus rules and raise copyright issues.
The Bruin Alumni Assn. is headed by Andrew Jones, a 24-year-old who graduated in June 2003 and was chairman of UCLA’s Bruin Republicans student group. He said his organization, which is registered with the state as a nonprofit, does not charge dues and has no official members, but has raised a total of $22,000 from 100 donors. Jones said the biggest contribution to the group, $5,000, came from a foundation endowed by Arthur N. Rupe, 88, a Santa Barbara resident and former Los Angeles record producer.
The Daily Bruin: Alumni group pushes right: New association hopes to air conservative voice in guiding UCLA’s direction
Andrew Jones didn’t want to be part of the official UCLA Alumni Association. So the recent UCLA graduate started his own.
Enter the Bruin Alumni Association.
The local non-profit organization, founded and run by Jones, wants to tackle what Jones alleges is a strong liberal bias ñ he calls it a “cancer of political radicalism” ñ at UCLA by soliciting donations from alumni, then using the money to campaign against activist professors, the UCLA Alumni Association and administrators in Murphy Hall.
Allegations of political bias are nothing new at UCLA, or even in higher education in general. But many prior attempts at addressing it have focused on what can or cannot be said in the classroom.
Jones is taking aim at two areas UCLA is considered strongest: outside fundraising and alumni.
Also check out The Daily Kos on the Bruin Alumni Association’s offer to pay students for monitoring “radical” professors, an act that would be in violation of the UCLA Student Conduct Code, which prohibits “selling, preparing, or distributing for any commercial purpose course lecture notes or video or audio recordings of any course unless authorized by the University in advance and explicitly permitted by the course instructor in writing.”
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