WESTWOOD : 700 Protest UCLA Plan to Merge, Eliminate Programs

About 700 UCLA students and faculty members noisily protested a cost-cutting plan Friday that would merge or get rid of four graduate programs and end nursing studies for undergraduates.

The protesters, who staged a peaceful march across the Westwood campus, accused administrators of hiding the plan from students and charged that merging separate programs--in public health, social welfare and urban planning--into a proposed School of Public Policy would badly weaken them at a time when society needs them most.

Officials say the proposal, which was announced last week, would save $8 million a year, mainly in administrative costs. It also calls for closing the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, shifting architecture students into a newly expanded School of Arts and Architecture and ending undergraduate nursing studies.

UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor Andrea Rich said the selective restructuring was an effort to avoid across-the-board cuts as the school tries to save nearly $40 million in the next three years. She denied being secretive, saying administrators will seek student opinion over the next year.