From the Desk of Andrew Jones, B.A. '03
President and Founder, Bruin Alumni Association

    Like me, you care deeply about what happens at UCLA.  And thanks to your support in the past few years, we’ve changed our world for the better – in medicine, in science, in athletics, and a hundred other ways.

    You stood by UCLA while we weathered some major scandals – healthy football players using handicapped placards, the Medical Center selling body parts for money, and worse. 

    But UCLA is currently threatened by a different kind of problem…

    …and it’s a big one. 

    Very simply, we’re facing an exploding crisis of political radicalism on campus.  It’s endangering the very core of UCLA – the undergraduate experience.  One aspect of this radicalization, outlined here, is an unholy alliance between anti-war professors, radical Muslim students, and a pliant administration.  Working together, they have made UCLA a major organizing center for opposition to the War on Terror. 

    This booklet is the first step in our campaign to save UCLA for the next generation of students.  Read it, and then if you can, send the link to others.  More people need to hear this important news. 

    If you’re disturbed by these developments on campus, you’ll also want to learn about UCLA’s outrageous ‘diversity’ politics, and how the university’s admissions office has been practicing backdoor affirmative action in defiance of Proposition 209.  We've also produced over 30 in-depth profiles of UCLA's most radical professors and launched this information at UCLAProfs.com.

    Before graduating from UCLA in 2003 with a political science degree, I was a three-year Daily Bruin columnist, and a student leader.  My prominence as a campus activist and journalist made me subject, on a daily basis, to political harassment, violence, intimidation, and biased teaching.  But I wasn’t the only one.  In fact, my experience was entirely typical for any student who didn’t embrace political extremism.

    The indicators of a troubling decline in the quality of UCLA’s undergraduate education and campus culture are only too clear:
    -    Professors who use lecture time to attack President Bush, the Republican Party, multi-national corporations, and even our fighting men and women;

    -    Undergraduate majors, academic programs and centers of study that by their very founding principles are irreparably anti-American and anti-capitalist;

    -    Students who use undergraduate student government fees to conduct radical political activities and divide the campus along racial lines…

    -    And the administration, led by Chancellor Albert Carnesale, that smiles on this whole mess, telling the alumni and the public that UCLA’s “excellence” has never been higher.

    Chancellor Carnesale and I want the same things for UCLA.  But with all due respect to the Chancellor, ignoring these problems won’t make them go away.

    As fellow UCLA supporters, I think we can agree – regardless of personal politics – that it’s time for reform when a Chicano Studies professor cancels lecture and orders his students to attend a campus anti-war rally.  And it’s clear that something needs to change when the Southern California ACLU’s executive director is hired to teach propaganda in the guise of a Political Science course – with the blessing of the department chairman.

    In early 2005, after several years of monitoring UCLA’s continued slide into political partisanship and indoctrination, I decided to fight back.  I founded the non-profit Bruin Alumni Association as the collective voice for UCLA alumni, Los Angeles residents, and all tax-paying Californians. 

    The BAA has a three-part plan to turn our campus around:

    Step 1:
Fully document the overwhelming policitization of the undergraduate experience – by professors, radical student groups and leaders, partisan academic centers and majors, and the administrative offices which tolerate these abuses.  It’s not going to be enough to talk in anecdotes.  Only methodical, comprehensive documentation can fully pinpoint the problems and their solutions.

    Step 2:
    Publicize the problems, and our proposals for solving them.  While it’s tempting to keep UCLA’s problems ‘in-house,’ we’ve tried that, and it doesn’t work.  Instead, we will take our case public – to alumni like you, to Los Angeles residents, and to all Californians, whose tax dollars are directly supporting UCLA.

    After enlisting the support of concerned alumni and members of the public, we will…

    Step 3:
    Undertake a reform campaign.  Several issues – politicized undergraduate education, campus anti-Semitism, and a corrupt undergraduate student government – are already being documented and attacked.  However, the majority of the campaign will be based on issues pinpointed and clarified during the initial research phase.  In addressing these issues, we expect cooperation, not condescension, from UCLA’s decision makers.  If the issues are not addressed on the campus level, we will take our case to the University of California Board of Regents and the State Legislature.

    The Bruin Alumni Association’s plan is reasonable, and desperately needed.  But it faces an entrenched set of status quo interests.  As an intelligent and generous supporter of UCLA, you’ve already made at least one financial commitment to UCLA’s future.  Now that you know what’s really happening on campus, we’re asking for another investment. 

    Can we count on you for a donation?  Any amount you could give would make a huge difference in pursuing our common goals, and would be deeply appreciated.

    Thanks again for your consideration, and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have.

Sincerely,


 
Andrew Jones, B.A. '03
President, Bruin Alumni Association

    P.S. All donations are fully tax-deductible and, per IRS regulations, are kept strictly confidential.  Please give today!