Year: 2013

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    Jerry Brown on Higher Ed Funding in the State of the State

    Byuclafaculty

    In case you missed it, Gov. Brown’s State of the State message yesterday contained only a brief paragraph on public higher education.  Most of his education remarks were directed at K-12.  Below is what he said about higher ed: “With respect to higher education, cost pressures are relentless and many students cannot get the classes they need. A half million fewer students this year enrolled in the community colleges than in 2008. Graduation in four years is the exception and transition from one segment to the other is difficult. The University of California, the Cal State system and the community…

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    Regents Again Approve a UCLA Building Despite Cost Concerns

    Byuclafaculty

    Blog readers will recall that at a prior Regents meeting, UCLA produced a very sketchy and high cost plan for a new medical building, a “teaching and learning center.”  The presentation was so sketchy and the costs were so worrisome for the Regents to ask for a revised plan.  At the Jan. 16 meeting of the Grounds and Building Committee, UCLA came back with a revised plan for a $104.7 million project – said to be significantly scaled back – with more details.As with the earlier hotel project, UCLA apparently had offline meetings with Regents after the prior meeting (such…

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    California Assembly Speaker John Pérez on the UC Budget, Tuition, Access, and Other Matters

    Byuclafaculty

    At the January 17, 2013 UC Regents meeting John Pérez spoke about the state budget and other issues. Pérez is an ex officio regent.  A summary follows and there is a link to an audio of his remarks at the bottom of this post: Summary: UC is unrealistic about increased funding from the state, backfilling of past budget cuts, or predictability for the university.  It is not addressing predictability for students.  UC was good at protecting the neediest students but not so good at protecting the middle class.  There are legislative concerns about graduate and professional school students, not just…

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    Gov. Jerry Brown on Executive Pay at the University of California & Many Other Topics

    Byuclafaculty

    At the University of California (UC) Regents meeting of Jan. 17, 2013, Regent Leslie Tang Schilling asked Gov. Brown not to protest about UC executive pay.  The state portion of executive pay can be capped, she seemed to agree, but the Regents should then be free to raise private donations for increments of pay above the state portion.  She argues that UC will need high-quality leadership and must be free to compete for talent.  She expresses skepticism about psychic income. Brown responds at length with a learned discourse ranging from his one-time vow of Jesuit poverty to the history of…

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    Demographic Shifts and Lulls

    Byuclafaculty

    The governor’s budget contains demographic projections for California.  A number of news stories have picked up on the fact that by mid-2013, the Latino and non-Latino-white populations will be equal, according to the projection.  It was pretty obvious from the 2010 Census that this development would occur soon.  However, another aspect of the projections – one more closely related to UC and budget issues – is the chart below: Apart from the fact – well known – that the population is aging, note there is little growth in the college-age population projected for the next few years.  Moreover, the K-12…

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    Let’s Hope Someone Read the Correction

    Byuclafaculty

    I stumbled upon the correction article below in the LA Times that appeared last fall.  Let’s hope someone reads correction articles.  It also contains some interesting info. Readers’ Rep: University of California a big political donor — but that’s misleading Deirdre Edgar, Oct. 26, 2012 An article in Thursday’s Business section about campaign contributions in the Massachusetts Senate race between Republican incumbent Scott Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren included a surprising name among the list of top donors. According to the chart, the No. 5 donor to Warren was the University of California, with a total of $38,400 in contributions….

  • Missing King

    Byuclafaculty

    On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, blog readers may enjoy a recollection below of yours truly who was at the March on Washington but missed the King “I Had a Dream” speech.  Mitchell’s Musings 9-17-12: March on Washington Daniel J.B. Mitchell Originally prepared for the weekly “Mitchell’s Musings” blog on the website of the Employment Policy Research Network – EPRN. Mitchell is senior academic editor of that website. The text below has been slightly reformatted to meet requirements of this blog.  The original is at http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topic/13/blog/mitchell%E2%80%99s-musings-9-17-12-march-washington{Click on the pdf link}.  Recently, I came across a recording of a 1963 radio…

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    Why the Resignation?

    Byuclafaculty

    They don’t seem to be looking in the same direction. President Yudof resigned shortly after last week’s Regents meeting.  Undoubtedly, the resignation was planned earlier so nothing that specifically happened at the meeting could have been the triggering event.  The official press release mentioned health, family, etc., obliquely. While the Regents meeting was not the trigger, I would guess that what happened at the meeting was no surprise and could have been anticipated by anyone who heard or attended prior meetings.  The governor wants to take a bigger role than have prior governors.  That’s fine by itself, but the question…

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    Choose Me!

    Byuclafaculty

    Lots of potential undergraduates want to get into UC and UCLA has the highest count.  About 1 out of 5 applicants are transfers for UC and UCLA.  Has tuition slowed down applications?  All we can say is that overall, applications are up but the annual percentage increase for all-UC and UCLA is lower than it was last year: 13% vs. 9% (for UCLA also 13% vs. 9%). The Latino proportion of applicants is showing a steady rise for UC and UCLA.  The official data are at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28952 http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table1.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table2.1.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table2.1.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table2.3.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table3.1.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table3.2.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table3.3.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table4.pdf http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2013/fall_2013_applications_table5.pdf http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-sets-new-undergraduate-applications-242778.aspx

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    It’s Your Legacy Choice Governor Brown: Chinese Emperor or Dad?

    Byuclafaculty

    Kowtowing to the Chinese emperor This past week, Governor Jerry Brown – as he promised – came to yet another Regents meeting with a message of online education and various not-well-defined demands for more efficiency in higher education.  With a few exceptions, what the governor got was kowtowing.  The Regents sung his praise as they did at prior meetings.  Shortly after the meeting, UC President Mark Yudof quit – although he, too, did what is perceived as the requisite degree of kowtowing in announcing he was leaving office. As is well known, Chinese emperors expected those who approached them to…