User:CSLA--LMU/sandbox

The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles (CSLA) is a non-profit, non-partisan education and research institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

CSLA was founded in 1996 by Loyola Marymount University Professor of Political Science and Chicana/o Studies Dr. Fernando Guerra with a grant from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation. Guerra, who has been a faculty member at Loyola Marymount University since 1984, is currently the director of the Center.

CSLA conducts expert and public opinion polls, focusing on public policy and community interests in the city of Los Angeles. Its research covers a broad range of issues including health care, education, race relations, urban outcomes and voter interests. The Center offers employment and research experience opportunities to LMU undergraduate students.

Research Collection
The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles Research Collection covers various aspects of the Los Angeles region. The collection contains numerous materials and documents unique to Los Angeles, including:

Sacramento Seminar
The Sacramento Legislative Seminar is a longstanding program in the Loyola Marymount University’s Political Science Department. The program is offered, but not limited, to students enrolled in Dr. Fernando Guerra's Politics of California course held during the spring semester. The purpose of the Sacramento Seminar is to provide undergraduate students from institutions all over Southern California with hands-on exposure to California's political system. During the seminar, students participate in panel discussions which are held in the state Capitol building, where they engage in political discourse with prominent government officials, legislators, lobbyists, fellows, and scholars from across the nation. The panel discussions give students the opportunity to ask these distinguished guests questions pertaining to various topics. Throughout the seminar, students are encouraged to introduce themselves and meet with public officials and staff to seek personal career advice. By the conclusion of the seminar, students attain greater knowledge of California's government structure and its political processes taught by California legislators themselves. The Center plays a significant role in organizing and coordinating the Sacramento Seminar for both the students and professors who attend annually.

Undergraduate Research Symposium
The LMU Undergraduate Research Symposium invites undergraduate students formally to present displays of faculty-mentored research and other creative activity in all academic areas. CSLA undergraduate student researchers participate in the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium under the faculty-monitoring of Dr. Fernando Guerra (Director of CSLA) and Brianne Gilbert (Associate Director of CSLA). In the 2012 Undergraduate Research Symposium, CSLA undergraduate student researchers gave formal presentations and displayed research they conducted pertaining to Los Angeles redistricting and CSLA's Los Angeles Riots Anniversary Surveys.

Annual Lecture Series
For over a decade, the Center for the Study of Los Angeles has planned, coordinated and moderated the annual spring '''[http://www.lmu.edu/libraries_research/lcsla/events/ULS.htm? Urban Lecture Series]'''. Moderated by CSLA Director Dr. Fernando Guerra, the Urban Lecture Series engages top government officials and community leaders in debate. The forum is held at Loyola Marymount University on selected Tuesdays in the Ahmanson Auditorium (University Hall). Structured as an open dialogue among the panelists, guests on each panel debate issues and approaches regarding civic action pertaining to the city of Los Angeles. Since the Urban Lecture Series is apart of the inter-departemental educational curriculum and is open to the public, all are encouraged to attend are invited to participate in the question and answer session following each panel discussion. Recently, the Center began an annual '''[http://www.lmu.edu/libraries_research/lcsla/events/ULS.htm? Fall Lecture Series]''' with the same format. Both series are televised and broadcasted by the Los Angeles Cable Television Cable Access Corporation, LA 36.

Exit Polls
CSLA conducted exit polls for the 2005 mayoral election, 2008 presidential election , and 2010 gubernatorial election. Surveys were collected from 50 racially stratified homogenous polling locations. A total of 50 precincts were chosen, 10 for each ethnic category: White, Black, Latino, Asian, and mixed precincts. Survey collectors and data processors consisted of LMU undergraduate volunteers along with the CSLA staff. The data collected from these polls has been featured throughout various media outlets and has been analyzed in various scholarly studies.

Los Angeles Riots Anniversary Survey
In observance of the Los Angeles riots and disturbances of 1992, the Center for the study of Los Angeles (CSLA) at LMU sponsors cross-sectional phone surveys of Los Angeles residents to study their overall perceived attitudes and concerns towards the city of Los Angeles (per survey year), following the L.A. riots and disturbances of 1992. The CSLA Riots Anniversary Survey is conducted for every 5th anniversary marking the L.A. riots and disturbances of 1992, which provides longitudinal data for the following survey years: 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. The Riots Anniversary Survey analyzes this data pursuant to Los Angeles resident's perceptions of: (1) race/ethnic relations, (2) the Los Angeles Police Department, (3) local government/neighborhood relations, (4) the likelihood for future riots to occur, (5) the overall direction of Los Angeles, (6) and Los Angeles resident quality of life. Methods of regression data analysis are applied, respectively per survey year data, to identify empirical trends or deviations to Los Angeles residents attitudes and concerns towards the city of Los Angeles.

Leadership Initiative
The Center is engaged in a study of leadership and its relationship to urban outcomes in the city of Los Angeles. “The Leadership Initiative,” will have established the largest action oriented effort that identifies the top 1000 leaders in Los Angeles and integrates leadership, research, collective action and outcomes across Los Angeles’s infrastructure. The study focused on specific areas of leadership: education, health, politics, business, law, community, arts/culture, media/entertainment, land use/housing, religion, and environment