This post is going around, and I agree it makes no sense on the face of it. I’m guessing that what’s actually going on is that this is a grant-funded research position, and they have someone lined up for it already, someone who will be paid for research and possibly do no actual teaching at all…
…but there’s some requirement that they have to post the job, and so they’re posting a job no one would actually apply for.
Alternately, maybe they’re lining up people to be on their adjunct list, and will pay them on a contract, rather than salary basis, if actually assigned classes. Lots of flexibility for UCLA, lots of uncertainty for adjuncts. That would be sucky, if so.
It doesn’t make UCLA look good, if either of those are true. Would be nice to know what the real story is. What a mess.