Controversy Over Art Center's Gehry Expansion

Hundreds of students and alumni of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., are petitioning trustees over a planned $50 million building by Frank Gehry, insisting the money should instead be used for scholarships and teaching, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The online petition warns that the "future of the school itself" is on the line and paints the school's president, Richard Koshalek, as an empire-builder who has ignored the school's academic development in favor of expanding the campus and promoting it to outsiders.

And like any proper protest, it has motivated supporters of the Gehry building to start a counterpetition, which asks donors to give specifically to the expansion fund.