You know, I really like to keep up on what other information studies programs are doing. I frequently check what the UM’s program is accomplishing. The School of Information (SI) program at UM is very solid, and I almost went there instead of here at UCLA. But that discussion is for another day.
I read that the W.K. Kellog Foundation awarded SI $2 million to help establish an endowed professorship. If you think $2m is alot of money, you haven’t heard anything yet. Over the past ten years, this foundation has given more than $13.5 million to the SI program. Beleive me when I say that SI has money. I quickly felt that when I went to visit them last March.
They offered me a scholarship paying for my full tuition (including out-of-state) my first year and a waiver on in-state tuition my second. If I had been awarded the Spectrum Scholarship from ALA, they offered to double match it (the award is $5,000; SI would have given me $10,000 for a total of $15,000).
You know what I don’t understand? Why is it that our program here at UCLA is so short on cash. I mean, here we are in Los Angeles which has an economy worth almost $600 billion and yet the powers that be don’t go out and fundraise. There is probably more money here in Los Angeles than there is in the entire Midwest, certainly more than in the state of Michigan.
People, Technology, and Information 