Bumped. A must read letter for all Bruin alums, students, and season ticket holders. If you wrote to the Chancellor please make sure to share a copy in our comment thread below. If you have not done it yet, make sure to sign the petition to Chancellor Block calling for a wholesale regime change at UCLA. - BN Eds.

Hi friends. Per BN moderators request, I am sharing the letter I emailed and snail mailed to Chancellor Block in a fresh thread. You can send your emails to chancellor@ucla.edu or if you prefer snail mail here is the address:

UCLA Chancellor's Office
Box 951405, 2147 Murphy Hall 
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1405 

You can also call his office (his office line is: 310-825-2151) to let them know how you feel. If you are writing to Chancellor Block, please consider sharing it in this thread:

I am an alumnus from the class of 2006. I grew up following Ed O'bannon as he won a national title in basketball and Cade McNown who led the football team to a near national championship and four straight victories over USC. 

I loved UCLA well before I ever stepped foot on campus. My ties are very deep as my uncle is a former All-American soccer player and many other relatives are alumni or current students. There was no other choice for me but UCLA. Why would anyone want to pass up on a school that offers excellence in every single criterion a student could ask for? This is a university that excels in nearly everything. It used to be a school where it offered something unique - top notch academics, athletics, and a wonderful social scene. From law, to medicine, to being home to the most beautiful campus in the nation, UCLA has a reputation of excellence. However, this reputation that has been built up over the past 50 years is being eroded by our football program every single week.
 
The UCLA football program has become a national laughingstock. My co-workers continually ask me, "How does a school in Los Angeles with such a beautiful campus and great academics always embarrass itself in football?" Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be embarrassed to tell others that I was a UCLA alum - but during college football season, even the Stanford grads are poking fun of us now. We have become the butt of every joke in every office wherever a Bruin alumnus or fan works.

Living in a city like Washington DC, there are alumni from all across the country. The one thing that binds the alumni from all these schools is college football. This is where alumni meet and network. This is where a UCLA family could grow. However, for students who have never witnessed a half-way decent UCLA team, the football program is an afterthought and the bonds that other students and alumni around the country currently have are non-existent in Westwood.
 
USC's meteoric rise in the academic rankings coincided with their tremendous rise in football. Having a football program that makes our students and alumni proud to adorn UCLA apparel leads to more fans and more donors to all the athletic and academic programs at our school. This is why the past philosophies of not fully supporting football at UCLA in the same manner that USC and even Berkeley currently do must be changed now. In no other area at UCLA is mediocrity accepted. The football program, led by Dan Guerrero, has accepted mediocrity and now even worse, we are a national laughingstock. The alumni and fan base are now apathetic and this will likely lead to tremendous losses in future donations to all programs at the school by disenchanted donors.

The administration must show the Bruin family that they no longer will tolerate the mediocrity from Dan Guerrero, Bob Field, Pete Blackmon, and the rest of the Morgan Center who have embarrassed UCLA alumni, donors and fans. As seen already in Los Angeles, Frank Mccourt destroyed an iconic franchise by destroying all the good will the franchise built up over nearly half a century. The community decided to no longer support leadership that did not care about the fans and the program but only looked to keep their wallets fattened, similar to Dan Guerrero who has given himself bonuses and raises at a time when the school's top athletic programs are sinking and many on campus have frozen their salaries. UCLA is at a dangerous cross road where the alumni, students, donors and fans are close to deciding to no longer support the school overall because of the school's lack of commitment in football. If the school continues to lack the commitment to support its football program, many of us will decide to no longer open our check books and provide support to the school. Thus, to regain the good will back with the UCLA family, new initiatives must be instituted to fix the follies that have been recycled on campus for the past two decades.

This is a key moment for UCLA as a whole. I implore you to investigate the reasons why UCLA does not accept booster money to fund head coaches salaries. I implore you to investigate why UCLA continually hires former alumni who are not even recognized as coaching candidates at division 2 schools. I implore you to investigate why people such as Pete Blackmon and Bob Field are allowed to dictate the future of the football program when they have a history of failures that should have forced them to resign years ago. I implore you to investigate why UCLA has not followed Berkeley's model of more functional majors for athletics that allows our athletes to choose from more majors which will allow them a better chance to succeed on campus. I implore you to investigate why Berkeley is investing over $400 million into its football facilities while UCLA watches the rest of the conference pass us by. We must demand the same type of excellence for our football program as we do for the rest of campus. We must demand the same type of capital expenditure improvements for football facilities as we do for the rest of our beautiful campus.
 
I am looking forward to you taking new initiatives to cut loose the bureaucratic red tape that has hamstrung the UCLA football program. UCLA needs a new commitment in football that invests money in all of our football coaches and facilities by using booster money and new Pac-12 media revenue to finally allow us to compete with the rest of country as we do in all of our other programs. Football is the major revenue driver of all athletic departments, even at basketball crazy schools such as Kentucky, and that highlights the school's lack of commitment to football when the UCLA head football coach's salary is nearly 40% less than our basketball coach. Our football coach, considering the cost of living in Los Angeles, should be afforded a salary over $3 million, which will attract the type of coaching talent that would resurrect UCLA football.

UCLA alumni, fans, and students need our Chancellor to hold those accountable, such as Dan Guerrero, who is on the verge of firing his second football hire, when they fail continuously with everything associated with the football program. UCLA needs leaders who will think outside the box, like those found at Berkeley and Oregon, who are investing heavily into their football programs and proving to their fanbase that they care about football. UCLA needs new majors, similar to those found at Berkeley, to compete with them and the rest of the Pac-12. I look forward to you instituting these policies which will show the UCLA community that UCLA no longer will tolerate mediocrity at any program at our school. These types of initiatives will rejuvenate the fan base and lure a coveted head coach who will propel us back to competing for national championships and reinvigorate Bruin spirit across Los Angeles and the entire nation. These initiatives and investments will lead to donations from fans and alumni who love UCLA but cannot support the school when it no longer supports its football program.