UCI On-Campus Housing Problems

The recent hubbub about banning all flags from a small portion of the UCI campus, not surprisingly, brought out all the xenophobic, racist, and ignorant trolls in the country.
These idiots obviously have never attended a university.

And not surprisingly, a state Senator (Janet Nguyen, a Republican, predictably) couldn't resist exploiting this issue for political grandstanding. She said she would sponsor an amendment to the CA Constitution to prevent such banning of the US flag.
As a politician, she really should know that the US Constitution prohibits such an amendment. I am sure she has heard of the 1st. Amendment. If not, she would obviously be unqualified for any public office.
She obviously just hopes that her constituents are sheep who don't know nor care about the US Constitution. In other words, Mrs. Nguyen is anti-American! Shame on her!

The students exercised their Constitutional rights to free speech. They should be applauded, not condemned.
But in Republican-controlled Orange County (where the racist "Minutemen" originated), even the UCI Chancellor caves in to racists and xenophobes. Shame on Chancellor Gillman!
Of course, current UCI Chancellor Gillman isn't the first UCI Chancellor to cave in to the Republican donors of Orange County. Former Chancellor Drake did the same when he rescinded the appointment of the first Dean of the UCI Law School (he reverted course later.) That was the beginning of the end of Chancellor Drake. I hope that the current display of a lack of a spine is the beginning of the end for Chancellor Gillman!
UCI needs a real Chancellor, one who stands up for the students, one who supports the students, not these spineless appointees!

There is a resolution out to support the students. I signed it and I urge everybody to sign it as a voice against racism, xenophobia and bigotry!

Over the years, I have written several times about Bill Zeller, former Housing Director at UCI. A university official who apparently found it normal to lie to people. He lied to my face, as I have documented in this blog.
After screwing up at UCI Housing, he got demoted and demoted again, until he was just a "funding coordinator."
According to the current UCI directory, he now has retired from UCI (presumably with a good pension; our tax dollars at work...):

Title Retiree

Good riddance. I hope he never gets hired anywhere else where he has to interact with people. He has shown to be unable to handle that...

Some years back, I wrote about how former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Housing at UCI, Bill Zeller, got fired from his job and ended up as Director of the Graduate Student and Postdoc Resource Center.
Apparently, he didn't keep that job, either. The current UCI directory shows him as External Funding Initiative Coordinator.
So, he went from Assistant Vice Chancellor to Director of a Resource Center to a Funding Coordinator...
A quite impressive downhill path
I would be more sympathetic if he hadn't repeatedly lied to my face...

Lisa Cornish, the UCI Housing director, has sent out an email on a new cat policy, which was under discussion for some time:

From: "Cornish, Lisa" <arcornis at uci dot edu>
Date: April 1, 2010 11:53:20 AM PDT
Subject: Cat policy decision

...
I do not want to delay, any further, informing you that I have a decision on the Cat Policy Review. Effective April 19, 2010, there will be a two year moratorium during which new clients to Palo Verde and Verano Place Housing will not be allowed to bring cats into the community or acquire them.
...
I announced this decision to the GFH staff today and will request that the current clients in the communities be informed by resident newsletter on April 16th. Efforts to inform prospective clients will be underway immediately after the community announcements.

For prospective graduate students, this is pretty much a bait-and-switch. They are supposed to accept or decline an offer from UCI by April 15, right before they will be informed that they can't have pet cats in housing.
What a great way to p*ss off incoming students even before they have set a foot on campus...

Update: It seems they changed the announcement timings quickly after the April 15 date was pointed out to them. From another email from Lisa Cornish:

I will move all communication up. Website notification today, current residents tomorrow. Waitlist residents next week.

Update 12/16/2011: I have been informed that the cat moratorium will be lifted by July 1, 2012.
Lisa Cornish, the Senior Executive Director for student housing, send out an email announcing this decision. Excerpt:

On April 19, 2010 a two year moratorium was instituted during which time new clients to Palo Verde and Verano Place Housing would not be allowed to bring cats into the community or acquire them during the moratorium. I am writing to inform the Cat Moratorium Committee and the Coordinated Governance Group that effective July 1, 2012, the moratorium will be lifted. I would like to thank the members of the Graduate and Family housing staff and the graduate student resident council representatives who worked collaboratively as a committee to address the challenges affecting the communities, and to provide recommendations for the future.

I have been forwarded a message that the Palo Verde Housing office sent out earlier today to all residents living in Palo Verde.
This message leaves me speechless. It is completely tasteless and offensive. Quite frankly, this smacks of Nazi-style tagging of people.
Are these people completely out of their mind??? What's next? Yellow stars???

As part of a precautionary measure to help prevent the spread of the flu, the Palo Verde Housing office will be delivering "Notice of Sick Anteater" door hangers to each apartment. In the event that you, your family member(s), or apartment mate(s) experience flu like symptoms, please place the door hanger on the front door of your apartment.

If you would like additional door hangers, please stop by the Palo Verde Housing office during normal business hours.

Flu Information and Updates are available at :
http://www.ehs.uci.edu/flu

I hope somebody gets fired over this.