Fox News reported on Thursday that UCLA has shut down the controversial National Dream University featured in several articles by Breitbart News.
Following scrutiny from a California lawmaker, the University of California is shutting down a controversial college program for illegal immigrants, though the reasons for the closure are not satisfying critics of the so-called National Dream University…
NDU earlier this summer began actively recruiting those seeking a college degree and a career in activism focused on immigration issues. Its website, which has since been taken down, promoted “an educational opportunity to those who have demonstrated leadership and commitment to the immigrant and/or labor rights movements {with admission} open to everyone, regardless of their immigration status.”
Operated by the UCLA Labor Center and the National Labor College, NDU would have offered credit for online courses in immigrant rights and political advocacy. At about $2,500, tuition was thousands less than what legal residents pay to attend UCLA, one of California’s premier public universities…
In an email to Fox News, a university spokesman admitted UCLA was “unaware of the courses to be offered” by NDU. Fox News has repeatedly reached out to the UCLA professors who, on their own, established NDU, with no oversight from university administrators.
When asked for comment, Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, hung up on Fox News several times. He does, however, speak frequently in support of so-called DREAMers.
At one rally, he told an audience of cheering young activists “you will go onto become lawyers and teachers and doctors and members of the U.S. Senate to replace those old white men.”
Though University of California President Mark Yudof shut the program down on procedural grounds, he left the door open for a future attempt at establishing a similar effort. According to Fox News, Yudoff said that National Dream University “was negotiated without the consultation or approval of UCLA’s academic and administrative leadership. Therefore, the agreement has been declared void. As a result, UCLA has asked the Labor Center to immediately suspend all work on the National Dream University.”
Yudof did, however, give supporters of the National Dream University some hope that the program might be revisited. “UCLA’s actions do not preclude a future agreement between the Labor Center and National Labor College. . . Any such future agreement will require the completion of a formal proposal process with approval from the appropriate academic and administrative leadership.”
Breitbart News first reported the negotiations between the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education and the National Labor College were conducted with no consultation or approval by UCLA officials.
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