Year: 2012

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    What’s Happening on the State Budget and Prop 30 to Date?

    Byuclafaculty

    The state controller reports that tax revenue for July and August (first two months of the fiscal year) is about on target relative to the June budget estimates (although the amount collected on particular taxes from various targets deviates from the estimates, plus and minus).  Disbursements, however, are up relative to budget estimates by roughly $3 billion which shows up as more borrowing by the general fund from other state funds.  (Why that overage occurred is not explained.) However, the big uncertainty about the budget this year is whether the governor’s tax initiative passes in November.  So far, the media…

  • More Compare and Contrast

    Byuclafaculty

    Readers of this blog will know that public vs. private pay has been in controversy over the last few years.  There is a large literature on the subject which points out that differences between the public and private sector need to be adjusted for factors such as occupational composition and size of employer.  I would characterize the literature as indicating rough adjusted comparability; some studies say public pay is somewhat more; some say the reverse.  Benefit valuation – particularly pensions – is the trickiest part. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out quarterly unadjusted data on private sector pay…

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    Compare and Contrast

    Byuclafaculty

    The LA Business Journal regularly runs lists of top firms in LA County by various criteria and sectors. It also has a listing in this week’s issue of colleges and universities ranked by enrollment. UCLA is the largest campus in the County with over 40,000 students; USC is the second largest. With the talk around about privatization, it might be of interest to contrast UCLA (public) with USC (private), using the data from the Journal. The biggest contrast is that USC has more faculty, full time and part time, than UCLA, although fewer students. On the other hand, UCLA has…

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    More for the Regents to Consider Before They Rubber Stamp the UCLA Hotel

    Byuclafaculty

    Yesterday we posted a note suggesting that big projects largely dependent on future revenue streams can lead to big losses.  For those Regents who need a reminder from past history, the two excerpts below might be instructive: UCLA Buys Land in Westchester for 90 Faculty Homes July 20, 1989 | SPENCER S. HSU | Los Angeles Times UCLA has bought a controversial, 57-acre site on the Westchester Bluffs for $15.25 million to build subsidized faculty housing. The 90-home development will be UCLA’s fourth and largest housing project. Since 1986, in an effort to help its faculty members cope with the…

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    Maybe the Regents Need to Consult With This Former Regent

    Byuclafaculty

    Former speaker of the state assembly (and thus former Regent) and former mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle.  The column is never on a single issue but jumps around from topic to topic.  Today’s column has a paragraph related to a grand construction project at UC-Berkeley: Cal’s newly redone Memorial Stadium makes no sense to me. Why spend all those millions fixing up a stadium that is in one of the least-accessible spots in the Bay Area? Don’t get me wrong – the stadium is beautiful. But now, Cal is trying…

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    Traffic Advisory

    Byuclafaculty

    There are warnings of 405 closures this weekend in the UCLA area on the Westwood-Century City Patch (excerpts): As drivers are warned of I-405 closures starting Saturday in preparation for Carmageddon II, they are also learning the full Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project is running about four to six months behind schedule. At a community meeting Thursday night in the Skirball Cultural Center, project manager Michael Barbour said crews have encountered delays in getting the Mulholland Bridge ready for the full freeway closure Sept. 29 to Sept. 30. But in preparation for the second phase of the Mulholland Bridge demolition and reconstruction,…

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    Something for the Suggestion Box

    Byuclafaculty

    The Chancellor’s email sent yesterday discussed various options for UCLA funding in view of the limited outlook for state support. One of them was philanthropy: Enhanced philanthropyUCLA raised $402 million in private support this past year, and we have averaged $420 million per year for the past five years. This record of success routinely places UCLA among the top 10 universities in fundraising—public or private. In fact, we are the number one fundraiser in the country among public universities. Our success says much about the passion of our donors, the vision and quality of our faculty and academic leaders, and…

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    Veiled Reference?

    Byuclafaculty

    This blog has reported on the blocking of the Anderson School’s proposal for self-sufficiency funding of its regular MBA program.  We noted that UCLA released a statement – but no one can say where or who was responsible – indicating it would seek to move ahead despite a negative finding by the systemwide Academic Senate. Many readers of this blog will have received an email yesterday from Chancellor Block detailing a variety of budgetary strategies for UCLA including taking more out-of-state students who pay full freight, fundraising, etc.  Included in that message was the following statement which could be taken…

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    Food for Thought on Retirement at UC

    Byuclafaculty

    Inside Higher Ed today unveiled a survey of human resource executives in higher education.  The full survey can be downloaded from that source and the link is at the bottom of this post.  But start with the observation that much of higher ed operates with defined contribution pension plans such as TIAA-CREF.  Thus, there is no particular incentive for older faculty to retire built into the pension. As can be seen below, higher ed HR execs thus worry that older faculty are not retiring, making it difficult to recruit new faculty.  UC, with its defined benefit system, does have a…

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    Explanations Needed

    Byuclafaculty

    Yours truly has updated two posts that appeared yesterday on this blog and both need more explanation and information. First, there is the prosecution of a UCLA professor in connection with a lab fire.  An article at the UCLA newsroom said the judge was entering a plea of not guilty for the faculty member over the objections of his lawyer.  That seems odd since the position of not guilty has always been the stance.  But no explanation for the oddity is to be found in the article.  Perhaps a reader can add some enlightenment. Second, there is the rejection of the…