Mayor Delivers A Jab
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited a USC football practice and spoke to the Trojans last season, gave a speech on campus earlier this year and delivered the commencement speech last month.
But today he returned to his alma mater, UCLA, to give the commencement address and it sure sounds like he took a shot at the Trojans.
Here’s part of his remarks:
``Then I gave the graduation speech at USC.
``For the record, I addressed the graduates in West Adams on the subjects of rivalry and respect.
``And even though I stood before that sea of Trojans and swore my allegiance to the blue and gold, they were generous enough to confer another honorary doctorate.
``So . . . you can imagine my excitement when I got a call from UCLA…When they invited me to come here today, I thought I might as well get a jump on things and order the frame! So I asked the Chancellor's office to send over the dimensions of the degree I'd be receiving. They said, "Sorry, Mr. Mayor. We don't do honorary degrees."
"You've got to earn your diploma from UCLA!"
Oh no! Dude, we got SERVED!!!
What an idiot - as much as I'll respect the office of the mayor, please - it's an HONORARY degree. No one said all of a sudden, he was qualified with knowledge of any subject matter. It's like being a sheriff's deputy. You think rent-a-cop is going to be able to engage in hand-to-hand combat with assailants? I thought not. At UCLA, they don't care if you're famous alum - state taxes (from all the rich USC alum living on expensive real estate) only pay for enrolled students. So in other words Mr. Villaraigosa, please submit your application (w/ $75 fee) for review.
ungrateful p***k
Poor Tony Villa! He's quite a taker. Took a degree from us and took his wife's last name too! Like all politicians, he's speaks to his audience.
But its still just a UCLA diploma.
That what they say about the passing the bar exam - you've gotta earn that. They ain't giving those away either, mi hermano.
what a suprise. this is why i didn't go the commencement ceremony at SC and only attended my satellite ceremony. Villaragosa is a Bruin and had no business speaking at the USC Commencement, Mayor or not
"You've got to earn your diploma..." That's why the only degree he'll get from USC is honorary.
I mean we all know that UCLA saves their REAL diplomas as an award for attendance. Not actually academic performance or anything. So he figured when he showed up...
Still, you gotta love it. Only in this rivalry do we have grown, prosperous and highly regarded members of our community who might very well try to deface each others mascot and make nasty jokes in public about each others schools. I must admitt that I admire what he did!
Taking shots at USC by Bruins can barely be called a mistep. We already know that it would take exceptional circumstances for a Trojan to vote for a Bruin anyway. Fight On!!!
What a shame, anybody else that drives slow through Westwood get a degree.
So instead of just "my maid went to UCLA" we can all add "my mayor went to UCLA".
I'm not sure why USC invited him to talk. I think a national figure would have been more appropriate.
I just wish the folks from UCLA would recognize that USC tax payers have to pay for their education as well as paying for their own, and just show a little gratitude and respect once in a while. I never expect politicians (or the LA Times) to ever show USC tax payers any respect these days.
:-)
Fight On!
In looking at colleges and universities for my son to apply, I noticed that the average SAT score of incoming freshman at USC is higher than that of UCLA's. And the percentage of students accepted this past year was something like 27%. UCLA gave out more acceptances than that.
The old stigma that UCLA is a better and more discretionary academic institution than USC is a leftover from the Hubbard days back in the 70's. I have to admit if I were applying to USC right now with the grades that got me in back in 1976, I doubt I'd be accepted. Things have changed for the better. UCLA now has to look UP at us, and not just on the football field!
Oh, and happily, my son got accepted and is starting his freshman year at SC this fall. (So much for putting my debt-free days behind me...}
Fight On!
I "earned" a UCLA degree too. Its rolled up in my bathroom waiting my use.
Why does Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa refer to a UCLA degree as a diploma? In high school, and at UCLA apparently, they hand out diplomas. At USC -- some honorary, some not -- they hand out degrees.
Yeah, we could've gottne Scott Wolf!
Who do all of these USC people think they are kidding? every major rating service has UCLA as one of the top 25 academic institutions in this country, USC is not even in the top 50.
BK: Harvard class of "76"
Newburyport, Ma
His speech was piss poor, to be expected from a bruin.
His not-so-witty retort infront of ucla was piss poor, again, to be expected from a bruin.
His time in office has been, guess what?, piss poor _as_ expected from a bruin.
Fight On!
With the NFL trying to take over the Colisium and the rail train down Expo and the approval of the Gallen Center we have to kiss up to the politians like the Mayor and City Counsel. Thats just living in the real world.
Brian Kane:
Are you joking?
BK said: "UCLA as one of the top 25 academic institutions in this country, USC is not even in the top 50"
NOT TRUE: USC has been gaining and is now #30 vs #25 for UCLA.....expect that to reverse in the next few years, if current trends continue.
www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/natudoc/tier1/t1natudoc_brief.php
Fred, UCLA and UC schools have made SAT's optional in an attempt to be get around these "biased" tests. What it has really had the effect of is getting rid of the SAT as an indicator to be used by U.S. News and World Report and Business Week. Instead class ranking, GPA, academic reputation and research funding are what give UCLA its ranking. Since academic reputation and GPA are the same, and UCLA only slightly trails USC in research funding, according to figures the respective schools release, UCLA gets a slightly higher ranking and will continue to.
USC continues to have opportunity programs, (as opposed to the "compassionate liberals at UC), and it uses a rounded criteria to judge students for admissions (not just GPA and class ranking as UCLA and other UC schools).
USC continues to carry an extraordinarily wide set of majors, including those that are based upon hard to quantify talents, such as Music, Art and Design, etc, unlike say Cal Tech or the "new" rankings mad Stanford. (Stanford jettisoned majors and opportunity porgrams to increase their rankings.)
Incidently, USC was ranked higher than Cal Tech in Engineering, and higher in Public Policy and Public Adminstration than Cal and Marshal is consistently higher ranked than Yale's School of Business; so USC's continued commitment to well rounded admission criteria, diversity and breadth of majors has not affected the fact that we are still better than schools on a strictly academic basis.
FIGHT ON!!!!!!
Hey Brian
Stick your Harvard degree up your ass.
BK: Given your fine Harvard education, do you actually do research, or merely spout old stereotypes? USC has been in US News' top 50 for at least 15 years, is now #30, and continues to rise. And USC has better SAT scores than not just ucla, but Berkeley, Michigan, Texas, Virgina, UNC, and lots of other athletic schools that pat themselves on the back for being so academically strong.
My degree is from the USC Viterbi school of engineering, MSSAE, 2003. I choose USC over Columbia due to the US News rating for the top graduate schools of engineering. USC is rated #9, UCLA is only rated #15, and Columbia is rated #20. Harvard is rated a low #21.
Another selling point was I watched all of my classes at home using real time streaming video over the internet. I only went to LA for tests. Very high tech.
I'm also very proud that USC is rated so highly without the use of the endless state taxes we all pay in California. Considering the amount of money we pay, UCLA should be rated even higher.
Finally, USC has a better football team than the #1 - #8 rated engineering schools.
Fight On!
DA MAYOR LOVES THE PUBLICITY THAT U.S.C. BRINGS WITH THE GREAT FOOTBALL TEAMS..DA MAYOR IS LEADER OF ALL THE PEOPLE OF L.A. AND YET HE ACTS CHILDISH WHEN SPEAKING TO HIS PUBLIC EDUCATION STUDENTS... TROJANS SHD WITHHOLD ALL FUTURE MONEY FOR DA MAYOR AND WE CAN WITNESS HIS APOLOGY TO ALL USC STUDENTS....
They could not present it to him, because they misspelled UCLA on the diploma.....ACLU.
A SHERIFF'S DEPUTY IS NO RENT-A-COP TO THE MORON THAT SAID THAT !