February 1, 1956: Reply from Chancellor Allen to Dr. Hurd
According to this letter from Chancellor Allen to Dr. Hurd, the two of them along with Dean Jacoby met on January 30. This is a much smaller set of people than in prior meetings and may mean that Allen had already made up his mind about the Center being affiliated with the Graduate School of Business Admistration and, therefore, he no longer needed input from the larger campus.
UCLA would be the host institution and would appoint a Director who would be responsible to the Dean of the School. They would appoint an advisory committee from schools of business who are members of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. (AACSB)
GSB already has graduate courses in Operations Analysis and Linear Programming and it will develop an undergrad course: Introduction to Operations Analysis. It will develop new graduate courses in Integrated Business Systems and Electronic Computers in Business. The School is considering a major field in operations analysis and data processing.
Entering students have completed math studies through elementary calculus. They are required to take Business Statistics "which is more rigorous and comprehensive than the usual course." (I can add that the course emphasized statistical inference rather than descriptive statistics because I developed it and taught it.)
"We believe that at least twenty percent of our faculty or approximately 60 different members have ... interest or background in data processsing." The twenty percent seems reasonable but the 60 must be in error because that would imply a faculty of 300, much too large.
The campus experience with SWAC indicates that engineering and science use would be considerable.
IBM support for research assistants in the amount of $30,000 per year is desireable.
Space for the Center is included in a proposal that the Regents establish a new Graduate School of Management Center and proceed rapidly to erect a new building. It would be desireable for IBM to finance the construction of the computer center as part of this new building.
The University is thinking of financial support in the range of $50,000 to $150,000 annually.
"We concurred in the view that the educational mission of the Center will best be carried out by conducting of programming by graduate students and faculty members, even though this operation might be less efficient than it would be if conducted by a professional staff." I am pleased with this statement because it was a point made explicitly in the School's Report to the Faculty and Dean on September 23.
Things are moving along quickly now and it appears that UCLA may well be the host institution selected by IBM.
(The letter that summarizes the points of agreement that they reached)