Year: 2013

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    UCLA Monkey Trial Soon

    Byuclafaculty

    We have blogged about this case before – without really knowing what the full background is.  But apparently, it is coming to trial this Thursday: The dispute over a Wake Forest University Health Sciences primate colony in southern Forsyth County goes to its first hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday.  The hearing involves Wake Forest as plaintiffs and the board of regents for the University of California system as defendants. It will be held in the federal building in downtown Winston-Salem… The Wake Forest division filed a lawsuit in February to end a joint venture with the University of California at…

  • Taking it back

    Byuclafaculty

    Yours truly heard a segment yesterday on “All Things Considered” about a blog called “Retraction Watch” [http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/] which compiles a listing a retractions that appear in professional journals due to plagiarism, falsified data, and other misdeeds.  Most of the listings are of medical and scientific journals due to the background of the blog authors.  Unfortunately, the segment about Retraction Watch does not appear on the available downloads from All Things Considered although NPR [http://www.npr.org/] has had earlier programs which mentioned the blog. Perhaps the existence of Retraction Watch is well known to those in medical and scientific academia but yours…

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    Where’s the bus while the UCLA Grand Hotel is being built?

    Byuclafaculty

    From the Big Blue Bus The answer seems to be what bus and when?  The image below is from the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus whose website says: On Monday, July 8 Ackerman Terminal will close for renovations as part of the Luskin Conference and Guest Center construction through the summer of 2016. Due to this closure, all Big Blue Bus routes serving Ackerman Terminal, Routes 1, 2, 3, 8, 12 and Rapid 12, will begin using the new temporary transit center located on Charles E. Young Dr. between Westholme Ave. and Manning Ave. (in front of the P2 Parking…

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    Listen to the Regents: March 13, 2013 – afternoon session

    Byuclafaculty

    We continue our efforts at “permanently” archiving the audio of Regents meetings since the Regents’ office apparently will preserve it for only one year. Below is the afternoon session of March 13.  We posted the morning session yesterday.  Since there is no download option on the temporary archive provided by the Regents, we have to record the audio in real time, i.e., an hour of a Regents session takes one hour to record. Regents Afternoon Agenda – March 13, 2013 1:00 pm Committee on Compensation (closed session) 1:15 pm Committee on Compliance and Audit (closed session) 1:40 pm Committee on…

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    How do you spell tuition relief?

    Byuclafaculty

    Apparently, M-I-D-D-L-E  C-L-A-S-S  S-C-H-O-L-A-R-S-H-I-P: From the Contra Costa Times: With the governor’s signature this week, California college students from middle-income families will soon be in line for a tuition discount. The state-funded Middle Class Scholarship will buffer tens of thousands of students from UC’s and Cal State’s frequent and unpredictable fee hikes… When the program begins in 2014 it will bring some relief to California’s middle-class families who have watched helplessly in recent years as public tuition and fees have nearly doubled since 2007. It will offer sliding-scale discounts of up to 40 percent for families who earn $150,000 or…

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    We’re Waiting for the Complete Post for the July Regents Meeting

    Byuclafaculty

    The preliminary Regents agenda for the July 16-18 meeting has been posted.  As yet, the detailed attachments to the agenda are not available.  However, there will be approval of contribution increases to the pension for next year (2014-15) and an interim replacement for the university’s Chief Investment Officer who suddenly resigned without explanation.  In a closed session, the Regents will discuss the criminal case the LA district attorney is pursuing against UCLA Prof. Patrick Harran.  See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/04/justice.htmlfor our most recent post on that case.  The Christian Head case charging discrimination (and involving a viral YouTube video) at UCLA will also…

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    Listen to the Regents: March 13, 2013 – morning session

    Byuclafaculty

    Our efforts to archive Regents meetings (since the Regents’ policy is currently to preserve them only for one year) continues.  Below is the agenda for the morning meeting of March 13, 2013.  Included was approval of a UCLA medical building about which cost concerns had been raised at an earlier meeting.  Eventually, the Regents seem to approve any construction project – even if concerns are raised – particularly when they are assured that it won’t cost them anything. Agenda for Wednesday, March 13, 2013 – morning8:30 am Committee of the Whole (open session – includes public comment session)9:30 am Committee…

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    Good News for Everyone Except Florence

    Byuclafaculty

    Sorry about that, Florence From the LA Times: After previously proposing widespread and hefty tuition increases for graduate and professional degree programs, UC’s top administrators have retreated and will seek fee hikes affecting only a small group of graduate students, mainly in nursing, and at much reduced levels. Only about 800 students in eight programs will be affected by a proposal expected to be approved by the UC regents later this month, officials said. Under a previous and now abandoned plan, about 14,000 graduate and professional school students in more than 50 programs such as law, medicine, social work and…

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    MOOC Efficiency

    Byuclafaculty

    Apparently, efficiency in the 21st century is not all that different from efficiency in the 20th century.  From Inside Higher Ed today: Some students taking free classes from Coursera may never know the right answers. A University of Michigan professor teaching one of the company’s massive open online courses, or MOOCs, told students this week he could not provide them with correct answers to questions they get wrong because doing so would reduce efficiency… Full story at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/05/one-mooc-professor-wont-let-students-know-right-answers Yours truly is sure it’s just a temporary glitch that can be easily remedied with the right technology as demonstrated in the last…

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    Parking at Royce Hall?

    Byuclafaculty

    Not surprisingly for July 4th, the webcam aimed at Royce Hall this morning did not show much (any) activity.  See the image above from the webcam.  [You can visit the Royce webcam at http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/bruincam/default.htm.]  Certainly, there were no parked cars there.  When the Westwood campus was under construction, however, it was a different matter as you can see below: