Under Construction
The new UCLA Faculty Association website and blog are still under construction. To see current information: uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com
The new UCLA Faculty Association website and blog are still under construction. To see current information: uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was famous for his known unknowns. One of the known unknowns apparently is what went on at last Wednesday’s afternoon Regents meeting which had an open session as you can see from the agenda for that day/time below: 1:00 pm Special Meeting: Committee on Finance (Regents only session) 2:30 pm Board (Regents only session) 3:00 pm Committee on Investments (open session, followed by closed) The open session was supposed to discuss criteria for the next Chief Investment Officer and Vice President for Investments. But when you look at the archives now posted for Wednesday,…
The request to circulate the item below was received by Prof. Meranze of the UCLA Faculty Assn. board from the UC-Berkeley Faculty Assn.: Berkeley Faculty Association Calls for Increased Support of Grad Student Employees: At the end of September, the current 3 year-contract of UAW 2865 representing UC Academic Student Employees (GSIs, readers and tutors) expired and ASEs are now working without a contract. UCOP Labor Relations and UAW 2865 have not yet reached an official “impasse.” But the Berkeley Faculty Association is concerned that UCOP’s last offer of a 2% rise doesn’t come close to eliminating the gap with…
UC Berkeley, the world’s top-ranked public university, is admitting student athletes with shockingly low grades and scores if they show promise as revenue-generating football or basketball players, say two Cal scholars whose new study helps explain why athletes on campus have the worst graduation rates in the country. While the highly competitive university routinely turns away applicants who earn straight A’s in high school, it has also been admitting student athletes on full scholarship even if their average high school grade was a B-minus. Its policy, in fact, permits a C average.Also disparate is the way Cal evaluates students’ scores on the…
The Frederick Wiseman documentary, “At Berkeley,” opens at the Royal Theater in West LA. Warning, it runs over four hours! Yours truly suspects the theater opening is a prelude for a public TV showing later. Running as a movie in a theater is probably to qualify for an Academy Award. (That’s a guess!) From the Kenneth Turan review in the LA Times: Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman makes his films his way, and the way he makes them is reflected in how we experience them. “At Berkeley” is Wiseman’s 38th doc in 43 years, and each of them, as titles like…
As noted in prior posts, yours truly is out of town and behind on listening to, and recording, the Regents meeting. I am now current through the morning of Nov. 13. That was the morning in which UC president Napolitano gave her speech on her goals for UC. Blog readers will recall that there was supposed to be a similar unveiling of goals in a speech awhile ago, but that turned out to be a booster/dud. This one was more significant, but more on that below. Again, we provide audio archives of Regents meetings because regental policy is to preserve…
From the Westwood-Century City Patch: Good news about traffic on Sunset Boulevard near the 405 Freeway! (Yes, you read that right — there’s good news about traffic on the Westside.) Starting tomorrow, LADOT will begin changing the signaling and striping at one of the more congested intersections in the area, allowing drivers exiting the 405 Freeway more time to make a right on red from southbound Church Lane to westbound Sunset. Currently, there is a “No Right Turn on Red” sign at the intersection, significantly contributing to the maddening traffic bottleneck we all endure. This small change is expected to…
The Daily Bruin is reporting that the union representing TAs may strike along with the larger AFSCME one-day strike on Wednesday, November 20. Excerpt below: University of California teaching assistants, tutors and other unionized academic student workers will go on strike on Wednesday in solidarity with another UC workers union. Many discussion sections for undergraduate coursework scheduled for Wednesday could be cancelled, said Cody Trojan, a recording secretary for UC Student-Workers Union Local 2865 and vice president of academic affairs for the Graduate Students Association. Unionized teaching assistants will not show up to class to teach their sections, Trojan added….
Aerial view of Bel Air looking towards (new) UCLA campus in 1929.
As blog readers will know, we post audio of Regents meetings because the current regental policy is only to post their meetings for a year. But the meetings live on here! Yours truly has various commitments this week that will slow the posting. But a link to yesterday’s meeting is below. The public comment session included speakers complaining about lack of affirmative action at UC (blocked by Prop 209), inadequate services for disabled students (including those with mental problems), and complaints about the appointment of Janet Napolitano. The last took up a good deal of time with demands that the…