Year: 2012

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    Hotel/Conference Center Lesson from Our Berkeley Colleagues: What happens when university business plans don’t pan out?

    Byuclafaculty

    Inside Higher Ed today pointed me to the article below about the UC-Berkeley stadium that appeared in the Wall St. Journal: (excerpt) As state legislators shrink its appropriations, it’s hard enough for the University of California-Berkeley to maintain the nation’s highest academic ranking among public colleges.  But there now looms a financial threat from another, somewhat unlikely quarter: the university’s football program. Until now, the years-old effort to renovate the school’s football stadium, which sits on an earthquake fault line, never raised many alarms. Although its $321 million price tag would make it one of the most expensive renovations in college…

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    It doesn’t seem to add up

    Byuclafaculty

    UCLA has been saying that it is admitting more out-of-state and international students (who pay full freight) but not cutting back on in-state admissions.  The latest numbers from UCOP, however, tell a different story.  Here are the latest fall freshmen admissions numbers for UCLA: Fall of          2010       2011       2012——————————————–California       9890      10913       9263Out of State     1819       2313       3049International    1304       2315       3143——————————————–Total           13013  …

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    Women in Higher Ed in California

    Byuclafaculty

    The Orange County Register produced some charts about women in California from a recent report by Mt. Saint Mary’s College.  Included is the higher ed info above and below. The full article is at: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/girls-349532-california-women.html The report on which it is based is at: http://www.msmc.la.edu/PDFFiles/status-of-women/RSWG-2012-Final-high.pdf Note: Women comprise 54% of undergraduate enrollment at UCLA and 47%  of doctoral enrollment as of Fall 2011.  See: http://www.aim.ucla.edu/enrollment/enrollment_demographics_fall.asp

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    No laughing matter

    Byuclafaculty

    A kind of performance art project has arrived at UCLA (in front of Royce Hall) and other venues around LA which involves putting colorful pianos around for anyone who cares to play.A web page for the Royce location is athttp://streetpianos.com/la2012/pianos/royce-hall/ Additional info is athttp://www.streetpianos.com/about

  • Mistake

    Byuclafaculty

    From Insider Higher Ed 4-16-12 A professor’s use of a class website at the University of California at (sic) Los Angeles to promote a boycott of Israel has led to a protest and a subsequent finding by the university that his actions were inappropriate, and has raised questions about academic freedom and its interpretation.  The AMCHA Initiative, a California group that focuses on actions it views as anti-Israel, complained to the university in March after it found out about the links that were used last quarter on the official class website of David Shorter, an associate professor in the department…

  • Before laughing, maybe we should poll our students on this matter

    Byuclafaculty

    (Note: The film is currently playing in Westwood in a 3D version.) ‘Just found out Titanic really happened!’ The tweeters who thought world’s most famous shipwreck was just a film By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 21:03 EST, 14 April 2012 | UPDATED: 05:29 EST, 15 April 2012 As the world commemorates the centenary of the Titanic’s sinking, thousands of people have taken to the internet to discuss the historic anniversary.  But the event has evidently proven more educational for some than others.  A number of tweeters have used the micro-blogging site to confess that they were unaware that the Titanic was a real ship. The ill-informed…

  • Post Pepper

    Byuclafaculty

    In the aftermath of the official report on the pepper-spray incident at UC-Davis, the chancellor there issued a response promising a variety of reforms, etc.  Below is her statement:Chancellor: ‘We are moving swiftly’ 4.13.12 Dear UC Davis Community: The Reynoso task force report illuminated clearly and sharply the need for major reform of campus police operations and better coordination, collaboration and communication within the UC Davis administration and with the broader university community. We are moving swiftly to address these issues and any others that need attention. In fact, we began addressing several areas of need prior to the release…

  • How Big?

    Byuclafaculty

    We continue to report on the UCLA hotel/conference center project which the Regents found questionable in their March meeting and refused to endorse.  Earlier, we noted threehotel projects being planned for Santa Monica.  It is useful to look at a rendering of one of them which has 138 rooms and would be at 5th Street and Colorado.   It’s pretty massive and useful to look at.  Now consider that the 250-room proposed UCLA hotel would have over 80% more rooms and you get a sense of the scale of the UCLA project.  The Santa Monica project shown above is described as follows:…

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    Daily State Taxes

    Byuclafaculty

    “Pay your taxes with a smile unless, of course, they insist on cash.”* State tax aficionados (yes, there are some – particularly in the legislature and the governor’s Dept. of Finance) tend to watch the daily inflows of income tax in April which is the big tax month.  Right now, total income tax receipts for the current fiscal year are almost exactly where they were at this time last year.   Of course, people who owe taxes tend to mail in their returns at the deadline (which is April 17 this year because the 15th is Sunday and there is a…

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    Too Much Old Radio?

    Byuclafaculty

    The felony charge against a UCLA professor in connection with a fatal lab fire continues.  This blog, in an earlier post, noted another felony case charged against a UCLA political science professor by the Los Angeles District Attorney and questioned whether the criminalization of these matters is appropriate.  The earlier post is at: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/03/da-overreaching.html From today’s Daily Bruin: The formal reading of felony charges in relation to the 2009 death of a UCLA staff research assistant has been postponed for a third time.  UCLA chemistry Professor Patrick Harran, the UC Board of Regents and the Los Angeles County District Attorney were…