Director's Message: Hanay Geiogamah

Summer, 2007. The UCLA campus is a bit less crowded, a tad less hectic, quieter, and it’s so much easier to find a parking space, except in Parking Structure One.

And in this passage of relative calm, we arrive at the beginning of an important
transition for UCLA. A new chancellor, Gene Block, took office on August 1st, and every person on campus is asking the same question: What changes will he seek to make? Here are my recommendations.

Most important, Chancellor Block must make a commitment to diversity
early in his tenure. He must signal to the faculty, to the students, to the academic
personnel and staff, to the alumni, and to the communities of Los Angeles, of
California, and of America that UCLA will be, under his leadership, an across-the-board model of full inclusion and representation. And he can get the ball rolling quickly on the issue of faculty diversity by endorsing the Faculty Diversity Initiative, which the directors of UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers developed four years ago and have promoted across many sectors of the university.

Improving enrollment numbers of students of all colors and identities is also a critical issue on which the new chancellor can provide support and leadership.
We in the UCLA American Indian community can do our part by working harder to improve and expand our academic and research programs and to support and strengthen the American Indian Studies Center and its various components.

Being good neighbors and cooperating respectfully with the faculty, students, and staffs of the other ethnic studies centers and departments
will also help this effort.

Our university is one of the best in America, and the potential is here for UCLA to
serve as a model and leader in higher education in the 21st century. We at the UCLA American Indian Studies Center welcome Chancellor Block and pledge our support and cooperation to him in the good work that lies ahead. Aho.