Re “What’s in store for UCSD? With campus leaders largely mum, faculty and students are on edge” (March 31): Your story about UC San Diego “leadership” decrying reductions in federal funds for scientific research is amusing and absurd. During my almost three decades teaching and working at UCSD, I witnessed its STEM departments charging taxpayers a ridiculous amount for indirect costs. Those funds went to the chancellor’s office, part of a slush fund that paid for lavish dinners at the chancellor’s La Jolla mansion, unnecessary travel and other wastes. Their reduction is clearly warranted.
The scientists’ claim that they will no longer have the resources to recruit people of color as scientists is an absolute joke. As UCSD’s data shows, the campus leadership — both the chancellor’s office and the Academic Senate — have fought against diversity and equity at student, faculty and staff levels since the university was founded in 1964. The UCSD scientists certainly do not deserve the of San Diego’s Black, Chicano or Native American communities at this moment.
— Patrick Velasquez, Serra Mesa
