Students knew they weren’t going to any regular office
hour when they showed up Tuesday on the second floor of Murphy
Hall.
Like he does every quarter, Chancellor Albert Carnesale held
student office hours, where any student could come discuss
grievances, requests, aspirations or other issues.
Carnesale’s decision to hold office hours is a nice
gesture in a large, public university known for depriving students
of personal attention. It’s nice to think that if I ever had
a problem, I could go talk to the man in charge.
If only it were that simple.
The chancellor’s office hours, which aim to promote
student contact similar to that in smaller institutions, are
heavily laden with red tape.
Carnesale typically dedicates one hour per quarter to these
office hours. To obtain a meeting, students respond to an e-mail
that enters them into a lottery in which six students are chosen at
random and assigned 10-minute meetings.
So in a school of 38,000 students only 18 are able to actually
meet with the chancellor every year through this program.
These few students represent such a narrow portion of the
student body that their interactions with him are largely symbolic:
a media spectacle to produce the image that UCLA cares about its
students regardless of school size or level of administration. Yet
students may have an easier time getting tickets to “American
Idol.”
I decided to stand outside the chancellor’s office to talk
to students who had come to his office hours. Most of them came to
discuss personal issues or just to chat.
“You always get the e-mails about his office hours, and
since he’s leaving this year I wanted to say I actually got
to talk to him,” said second-year cognitive science student
Susan Tran.
Fourth-year psychobiology student Navid Ezra came for a similar
reason.
“I’m graduating this year, and realized this was my
last opportunity to talk to him, since he’s leaving too. We
reflected on my experiences, what I liked and didn’t like
about UCLA, and he responded very well.”
The students expressed disappointment that they were only able
to meet with him for 10 minutes.
“There was no real time to discuss things, and he made it
clear that it was either talk to a few students for a long time, or
more for less time,” Tran said.
“It was definitely too short. It seemed more like five
minutes when I was actually in there,” Ezra said.
When the new chancellor is selected and takes office this fall,
he or she should follow in Carnesale’s footsteps in making
attempts to have personal contact with students.
However, rather than having a few random students come to office
hours once a quarter, the new chancellor should make efforts to
meet with a broader range of students in a less formal and
regimented scenario.
A simple way the chancellor could connect with more students is
by becoming a more visible figure at campus events.
The only time in my UCLA career when I saw the chancellor,
before writing this column, was a few days after I moved in this
year at an event for freshmen. He spoke for about 10 minutes on a
distant stage in Pauley Pavilion.
Though busy, the chancellor should be able to spare a few nights
a year to show school spirit with everyone else. It would have been
amusing if Carnesale had been a celebrity judge at this
year’s Spring Sing.
As head of the University of California system, Robert Dynes
still found time after taking office to visit each campus and go on
a morning jog with students and faculty. Regardless of a
person’s role in a university, interacting with students on a
daily basis should always remain a priority.
Once a month, why not get a smoothie at Bruin Cafe and ask
students about midterms? Or perhaps the chancellor could pop in on
a lecture in Moore 100 and sit next to a slacker in the back row.
By interacting with students on a daily basis, the chancellor can
gain an unfiltered sense of the needs, concerns and aspirations of
UCLA students.
In the midst of Undergraduate Students Association Council
elections and increased talk of bureaucracy addressing student
needs, it’s time for students to ask what the head of this
institution is doing to address their personal concerns ““
because these office hours aren’t adequate.
Apply for office hours with Noble at bnoble@media.ucla.edu.
Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.