UCI On-Campus Housing Problems

From the LA Times:

University of California, Irvine, Chancellor Michael V. Drake and Erwin Chemerinsky have reached an agreement that will return the liberal legal scholar to the dean's post at the university's new law school, the university announced Monday.

This was pretty much the only possible outcome (other than Drake's resignation.)
Still, Chancellor Drake's authority has suffered, since it is now clear that he way too easily succumbs to political pressure. It will take a long time for him to recover from this mess, and it may be best for the university if he would resign.

At least that's the impression people get because of UCI chancellor Drake ripping up the contract with Erwin Chemerinsky, who was slated to become the first Dean of the new law school UCI wants to establish.

Dana Parsons of the LA Times calls it as it is:

UCI comes across like a backwater community college holding its first raffle.

Several faculty have called for the resignation of chancellor Drake.
Essentially, Drake has killed the law school before it even started. Nobody of any star power will actually come to the UCI law school as faculty, so the law school will end up as a third-class law school.
As the LA Times said, it was "cowardize", and

Rescinding Erwin Chemerinsky's job offer as the school's founding law dean was an act of self-destructiveness.

And the NY Times calls it "a disgraceful decision." They say:

The University of California system should admit its mistake and, with apologies, extend the offer again.
...
If the U.C.-Irvine law school proceeds without Mr. Chemerinsky, it will open under a cloud. Law professors and students should be wary of signing on with a school founded in a spirit of intellectual intolerance.[emphasis mine] Just as unfortunate, we will never get to see the law school that the talented Professor Chemerinsky would have created.

This whole fiasco shows once again that the UCI administration is completely out of their league here. They are indeed on the level of a community college, and are not fit for a UC campus.

This Thursday's (8/23/07) LA Times has an article about a "critique of University of California operations" by UC Board of Regents Chairman Richard C. Blum.
He calls the way the UC administration operates "outmoded and dysfunctional" and calls for a "major overhaul."
From the article in the LA Times:

Blum ... said in an interview that the 10-campus UC system should cut back its administrative staff and devote more resources to education.

And,

Among his proposals Wednesday were ... eliminating millions of dollars in unnecessary or duplicative administration.

We have a prime example of "unnecessary or duplicative administration" right here at UCI Housing. Housing is way overstaffed, compared to commercial residential communities, and there is lots of duplication between Verano and Palo Verde. In my opinion, at least 1/2 of Verano and PV personnel could be let go without any significant impact on the (sadly already rather bad) service the offices provide.
Another example of a waste of money and unnecessary administration is the so-called ""co-curricular program component" aka "first-year initiative" that is now run by Bill Zeller, who before that assignment seemed to do his best to run UCI Housing into the ground.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Blum (who is the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein) is successful in reforming the UC administration and getting rid of the waste that currently permeates the administration. A world-class university deserves a world-class administration, not the third-rate administrators we have right now.
In that context, another quote:

"Cumbersome and enormously expensive layers of bureaucracy have been added over the years, many of which may no longer make sense -- if indeed they ever did," Blum wrote. "Unless the University seriously and accountably commits itself to a new direction, we risk losing the perpetual battle for excellence in many areas."

Oh, and just to be clear: there are some world-class administrators at UCI, e.g., in the network operations (NACS.) I have nothing but praise for them.
But if there's light, there also is a lot of shade. And the UCI Housing administration is unfortunately on the lower end of the scale...

NOTE: This blog post is not about the Princeton Graduate student Bill Zeller.

I have received a copy of an email that Manuel Gomez, the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, sent out today.
According to that email, Bill Zeller is no longer director of UCI Housing.
Of course, to allow him to keep face, they didn't fire him outright, but put him on a position where he (hopefully) can do less damage. And they call it "temporary"...
They did the same kind of thing before with Kevin Ansel, then Housing's IT director (see here and here.)

Anyway, here is the email:

From: "Manuel N. Gomez, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs"
Date: June 28, 2007 6:43:48 PM PDT
To: "All Campus Employees": ;"All Campus Employees":;
Subject: Housing Update

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing to announce a staffing change in the Division of the Vice Chancellor Student Affairs. Effective July 1, 2007, Dr. William Zeller, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Housing, will temporarily be assigned to develop Co-Curricular Programs for the Office of the Vice Chancellor Student Affairs. Over the past four years, Bill has made good progress in implementing a strategic plan for Student Housing which has set a new direction for the organization. In particular, the co-curricular program component has great potential for enhancing student life at UCI. I am charging Dr. Zeller to help expand our goals for supporting the transition of new undergraduate and graduate students to the campus, and provide the highest quality of campus life experiences for our students. Bill will be working collaboratively with various campus partners, both within and outside Student Affairs.

While Bill is performing these duties I have asked Associate Vice Chancellor Dan Dooros to assume the leadership responsibilities in Student Housing.

Sincerely,

Manuel N. Gomez
Vice Chancellor
Student Affairs

Of course, the "co-curricular program component" is what used to be called the "first-year initiative," which is just a big waste of (rental) money. Essentially, they think that graduate students are unable to manage their lives, and need hand-holding... That is particularly funny when they try to give "advice" to somebody who, before going to grad school, had earned more money than they do...

And the "first-year initiative" was run by a person under Zeller. So this is obviously a demotion, from running a multi-million Campus Housing operation to running a committee.

Having mentioned the Palo Verde Residents Council elections, I also want to point to the Verano Residents Council elections going on right now.
From the info (again, the email is obfuscated to foil spammers):

The election will occur between May 30 and June 6. The election is electronic and each contract holder will be sent a ballot via email.
If you are a spouse, domestic partner or dependent over 18, you need to email your email address to gfroy at uci dot edu in order to receive an electronic ballot.

PVRC and VRC have successfully worked together in the last year to help improve the housing conditions for the residents of both communities. Lots of work remains to be done, so we need strong resident representation in both communities.