Incorrect. With the money spent on this event, we could not have had a career center. The ceremony's purpose was not to merely show that the University cares about its postdocs without doing anything to improve our situation; rather, the purpose of the ceremony was to recognize the hard work and dedication that has been put into all postdocs' research projects. It was also to have a public demonstration to award those individuals - nominated by their own PI - who are involved with specific projects' inception, development, launch and success with a token of appreciation.

Indeed, one of the ceremony's purpose was to show that the University cares about its postdocs. Furthermore, while the reception recognized the remarkable achievements that postdocs have accumulated, it also acknowledged the postdoc program and ALL of its participants, from the top of the ivory tower all the way to the bottom of it, including PI's, Deans, and the whole army of departmental and Murphy Hall administrators that strives to do its best given the very limited resources at hand. In fact, it would be quite naive to assume that only the postdocs' situation needs improvement. Let's face it, this is not a private institution where money flows freely at the click of a button; rather, the people of California controls the money, and so this control trickles down all the way to us. At the same time, it would be very naive to assume that the postdocs' situation is being overlooked by the administration; again, just like in any public institution - whether in America or in Europe or in Asia - we all have to maximize within the money boundaries that are imposed by you and us as taxpayers.

Please recall that we are all UCLA and as such we have to work together and step out of that father-son or, more appropriately, teacher-student mentality that may have characterized our formative period, but must not characterize your current intra-organization relationships. Thus, solutions must be found from within after carefully evaluating all aspects of the issue - but it's redundant telling that to postdocs, I'm sure. Respectfully, it is not very clear to me how a boycott of an event that was already decided upon and funded long ago would have improved the postdocs' situation. Again, the money spent on the event could not have funded a career center, and so a boycott would have resulted in unnecessary waste and a missed chance to meet many postdocs and administrators who do not participate SoPS affairs and events; similarly, SoPS would have lost a chance to recruit more active members who, we both know, may be very useful.

As the chancellor put it in very layman's terms, this was simply an opportunity to come together and show appreciation to those involved in making the postdoc program the thriving movement that it is today, and not the total mess that he himself and most, if not all, of the current PIs had to go through many years back.

Thank you for your understanding.