Year: 2013

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    No Joke

    Byuclafaculty

    It’s not clear why the University of California Press chose April First to bring out a new biography of Jerry Brown, but it did. There is a review (really a comment) by Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters of the new book.  Some excerpts: Chuck McFadden, a retired wire service reporter who worked in Sacramento, wrote “Trailblazer” for the University of California Press and the relatively slender volume takes a terse, journalistic approach that is both a plus and a minus. Someone who is unfamiliar with Brown’s first governorship – that’s just about anyone under the age of 50 – has…

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    UCLA History: Pauley Construction

    Byuclafaculty

    The photo shows UCLA Chancellor Franklin Murphy, basketball coach John Wooden, and donor Edwin Pauley at the groundbreaking ceremony for Pauley Pavillion, probably around 1964.  (The official opening was in 1965.)  Pauley – whose wealth came from oil – was a prominent Democrat.  However, the fundraising drive for the structure (which Pauley matched) was headed by H.R. Haldeman of Watergate fame.  Pauley, a Regent, played a major role in the dismissal of UC President Clark Kerr due to student protests, primarily at UC-Berkeley. Speaking of firing, we haven’t featured sports on this blog.  But there is so much news surrounding…

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    A cautionary note on MOOC missionaries

    Byuclafaculty

    William Bowen, the former president of Princeton, is generally a proponent of online education as a potential cost saver.  But in Inside Higher Ed today, there is a profile of Bowen and his views and it includes the following cautionary note: Bowen… takes the hype about MOOCs with a grain of salt. “Missionaries don’t particularly want their methods tested – they are missionaries after all,” he warned. The missionaries include MOOC providers, the media, administrators and business-minded higher education policymakers, Bowen writes. “There is a real danger that the media frenzy associated with MOOCs will lead some colleges and universities…

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    You can’t take it to the bank exactly, but…

    Byuclafaculty

    The state auditor prepares a kind of balance sheet for the state as a whole and for individual components of the state such as UC. For the year ending last June 30, the accounts show that UC had assets of $58.0 billion (including buildings – construction costs minus depreciation) and liabilities of $34.6 billion for a net asset total of $23.4 billion. (pages 58-60)There is an ongoing issue of the degree to which the state is responsible for the UC pension.  The report indicates that $6.4 billion of the liabilities of UC are “net other postemployment benefits obligations” which probably…

  • Complicated Monkey Business Involving UCLA

    Byuclafaculty

    No, I don’t know the full story behind the matter described below:From the Winston-Salem Journal: The board of regents for the University of California system is accusing Wake Forest University Health Sciences of stalling through recent legal actions that seek the dismissal of a countersuit related to a primate colony in southern Forsyth County. The Wake Forest group and the University of California at Los Angeles are involved in a legal fight to end their joint venture in the research center in the Friedberg community. The primate center is based on a 200-acre farm and has about 80 employees, including 12 veterinarians, according…

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    Thanks, But No Thanks

    Byuclafaculty

    Inside Higher Ed today notes that it appears that the Academic Senates of the three tiers of California public higher ed are decidedly unenthusiastic about the proposed legislation to mandate online courses under certain conditions.  Previous posts on this blog have reported on the controversy.…Academic senate leaders from all three public higher ed systems – UC, Cal State and the California Community Colleges — now outright oppose the efforts, though their full senates have yet to take formal votes…In particular, faculty representatives are concerned California lawmakers are preparing to hand over untold thousands of students to for-profit companies that have not proven…

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    Emisions Remissions?

    Byuclafaculty

    UCLA co-generation plant California’s cash-strapped public universities would save millions of dollars under legislation by Orange County state Sen. Mimi Walters, but the bill’s prospects are uncertain because it would alter a landmark global warming law beloved by environmentalists. Walters’ proposal seeks to exempt University of California and California State University campuses from the new cap-and-trade program established under the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, otherwise known as Assembly Bill 32 or AB32, one of the nation’s most ambitious environmental laws… At least five UC campuses, including Irvine, UCLA and San Diego, qualify for the cap-and-trade program in 2013……

  • Just Wondering

    Byuclafaculty

    Inside Higher Ed today carries a story about the Office of Civil Right of the U.S. Dept. of Education requiring a South Carolina educational institution to make its websites accessible to those with vision impairments or blindness.  Do the current crop of MOOCs (online courses) comply with that requirement?  Has anyone thought that issue through?  The Inside Higher Ed article is athttp://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/03/26/colleges-agree-make-websites-accessible-those-visual-disabilities It links to a press release from the Dept. of Education athttp://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/civil-rights-agreement-reached-south-carolina-technical-college-system-accessibi