Bumped. Happy New Year Chancellor Gene Block. Expect lot more of this as long as you keep Chianti Dan in charge of UCLA's dysfunctional athletic department. -BN Eds.
Let me preface this post by saying that I've been a Bruin my whole life. I graduated from UCLA in 2001 and from the Anderson school in 2006. I have invested an unfathomable amount of time, money, and emotion in support of the school that I love.
While I have not regularly donated to the athletic department, I have been a consistent donor to other areas of campus. From the general scholarship fund, to the business school, and especially to the Pathway Program at UCLA Extension.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Pathway Program, here's a brief synopsis:
Pathway at UCLA Extension is a two-year certificate program for students with intellectual and other developmental disabilities, offering a blend of educational, social, and vocational experiences, taught and supervised by experienced instructors sensitive to the individual needs of our students. On campus, Pathway students attend classes and participate with UCLA students in the many social, recreational, and cultural activities of a major university.
I wholeheartedly support this program. Sharing the school that I love with those who are less fortunate and hopefully giving them a fighting chance of living a more fulfilling and meaningful life is important to me. The extension program helps give young adults with intellectual and other developmental disabilities a true college experience and teaches them skills that can be applied to a career. Really, isn't that why we all went to school?
As a proud Alum, UCLA and its related programs have always gotten top billing from me when it comes to making charitable donations. There are many wonderful initiatives and causes that are part of the "UCLA ecosystem" that are tremendously worthwhile and noble causes. I only wish that I had more to give. The school that has given me so much has always been at the top of my list - UNTIL NOW.
It has been a difficult and painful decision not to contribute to these programs and initiatives, but given the discussions that we've all been engaged on here at BN, it is my only recourse. I have called the Chancellor, I have sent e-mails, and I even scrapped plans to buy basketball tickets at the Honda Center (side note: as an OC Bruin and die-hard hoops fan this was particularly painful). Unfortunately, my largest contributions to the school are through hiring new employees, and making charitable donations. I will not consider stopping our campus recruiting, but I have chosen to make my charitable donations elsewhere.
In the last few weeks, I have found several other worthwhile causes to donate to, and as the year draws to a close, I sent checks to 4 non-UCLA related non-profits.
UCLA deserves better than Dan, we all do.