UCLA will become a tobacco-free campus effective April 22, 2013. I am proud to inform you that I have accepted the recommendation of UCLA’s Tobacco-Free Steering Committee that UCLA become a tobacco-free campus effective April 22, 2013. Once the policy is implemented, the use of cigarettes, cigars, oral tobacco, electronic cigarettes and all other tobacco…
Chancellor Block welcomes students, staff and faculty to the start of the 2012–13 academic year. Welcome to 2012–13 at UCLA! Even as we celebrate the promise of a new academic year, and the opportunities that lie ahead, this is shaping up to be a momentous year for UCLA. In the upcoming weeks and months, the…
Chancellor Block recognizes the sesquicentennial of the Morrill Act, a major milestone in expanding and democratizing American public higher education. One hundred fifty years ago today, on July 2, 1862, in the cruel crucible of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act into law. Often referred to as the Land-Grant College Act,…
In a message to the campus community, Chancellor Block highlights UCLA’s achievements of the 2011-12 academic year. As we prepare to close the book on 2011-12, we are well positioned to continue UCLA’s upward trajectory toward our centennial in 2019 and beyond. Recounting all of our campus’ important achievements of the past 12 months would…
Chancellor Block reaffirms his commitment to diversity at UCLA in light of several court challenges to existing law. Diversity is a vital part of campus life at UCLA, as it prepares students to work in a global economy and live in a multicultural world. While I personally believe Proposition 209 was bad policy, it is…
Chancellor Block commends the passage of AB 131. I am very pleased that the California Dream Act (AB 131) has become law. Like their peers, undocumented immigrant students are admitted to UCLA on the basis of their academic credentials. They are highly competitive and highly motivated students on a path to become doctors, engineers, teachers…
Chancellor Block invites the campus community to observe a moment of silence on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Although a decade has passed since our nation was forever changed by the attacks of September 11, 2001, we continue to remember those who perished that day. While we are on opposite sides…
Chancellor Block shares a message on the state budget. To a large degree, research-driven innovation and an affordable college education have been the foundations of California’s post–World War II vibrancy, driving both economic growth on a large scale and socioeconomic opportunity for countless individuals. As a leading public research university, UCLA has played a major…
Chancellor Block addresses attacks on researchers. Militants opposed to the use of laboratory animals in research recently posted online and distributed a claim that anonymous parties had mailed letters and “dangerous present[s]” to a current UCLA professor and a retired professor who no longer operates a lab. In the claim, the extremists made threats against…
Chancellor Block shares latest UCLA recognition. I am heartened to see UCLA acknowledged again for providing access to a world-class education for so many outstanding students from diverse backgrounds. The following appeared today in a New York Times blog: “To give credit where it’s due, the University of California, Los Angeles, leads all elite colleges…