It is in the best interest of both UCLA and the city government – and most importantly, of the Angelenos voting on Tuesday – for the relationship between the city’s higher education institutions and City Hall to grow.
Los Angeles plays host to several high-profile universities, notably the California Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California. The next mayor should make it a priority to strengthen collaboration with and between the city’s schools.
These universities act as much more than a set of classrooms and laboratories – they hold the capability of producing the city’s next generation of leaders and innovators in both public and private sectors. They have the greatest potential for ensuring an economically and socially successful future for our city.
In recent years, UCLA’s partnership with the city has been strengthened under alumnus and current mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said Felicia Brannon, executive director of local government and community relations at UCLA. The ties to the city extend to numerous areas of campus, both administrative and academic, Brannon added.
Every year, thousands of incoming undergraduates and transfer students participate in UCLA Volunteer Day, descending on parks, beaches and poverty-stricken areas like Skid Row to put in a day’s work cleaning and helping improve Los Angeles for its residents. While this project is still in its first years, and its real impact is hard to gauge, both the university and the city can use the event as a starting point to help students develop lasting ties to serving the diverse communities of Los Angeles.
Most recently, graduate students from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs sat down with city and county officials at City Hall to discuss ways in which the L.A. Department of Water and Power could improve its environmental impact in an economically sensible manner. These efforts allow students to work on solutions to real-world problems both in and outside of an academic setting and should be expanded by the next mayor.
In turn, we hope that City Hall can enact policies that will directly benefit college students. Since city government is organized at the municipal level and the UC is coordinated at the state level, it may seem there is not much the mayor can do.
One reason this board endorsed Eric Garcetti is his thoughtful proposal to try to retain engineers graduating from the city’s universities, both to provide students with jobs and to boost the local economy.
This board encourages students to go out and vote Tuesday, taking into consideration the important role of the university and its young people in the future of the city. Similarly, Los Angeles’ next mayor would do well to continue identifying and putting to work the capabilities of UCLA students and faculty in building a promising future for all Angelenos.