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The Views Expressed

Byuclafaculty
The story of the new UC prez continues to attract national attention:
Christian Science Monitorquotes Bob Powell who makes a bit more of a qualified statement than reported elsewhere:

Robert Powell, a chemical engineering professor at UC Davis who heads the system-wide academic senate, said Napolitano will … need to spend time getting to know the university by meeting with students and professors and touring campuses. “She needs to get out to the campuses – meet with faculty, meet with staff, look and see what these places are like and how students live here,” Powell said.

Full story at
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0713/Can-Janet-Napolitano-staunch-University-of-California-s-financial-struggles
 
Time thinks the new prez’s problem will be finding more money for UC: http://nation.time.com/2013/07/13/in-move-to-university-of-california-napolitano-trades-one-challenging-bureaucracy-for-another/ 

More locally, the Sacramento Bee complains about the selection process:

…(A) public vetting of its finalists has not been the UC tradition, but it should be. Outgoing UC President Mark Yudof’s nomination was announced on a Thursday in March 2008 and regents approved his appointment the following Thursday.  Public interaction would be helpful for the nominee, the university community and the public, part of the relationship-building needed to have a successful UC presidency. Unfortunately, secrecy and springing an appointment on the Friday before the regents’ Thursday meeting, with no hint in the agenda of the upcoming presidential decision, do nothing to help the nominee’s credibility…
Full editorial at www.sacbee.com/2013/07/13/5563738/uc-isnt-public-when-it-comes-to.html

However, as far as the timing goes, the Regents just happened to pick a meeting that Governor Brown would not attend due a trip to Ireland and Germany: 
www.sacbee.com/2013/07/13/5563868/jerry-brown-heading-to-ireland.html

Surely, his absence was just a coincidence!
There seems to be more unhappiness with the appointment on the right than on the left:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353329/big-siss-greatest-hits-andrew-stiles
 
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/071213-663607-political-hack-janet-napolitano-would-be-bad-for-university-of-california.htm
 
But particularly profound comments from yours truly (and a former student in his class) can be found at:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvfyP9mlJoI?feature=player_detailpage]

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Byhigbie

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Byhigbie

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Byhigbie

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Jerry Brown Looks for an Online Course that Requires No Human Interaction

Byuclafaculty

At the Regents meeting of January 22, 2014, Gov. Brown seems to be searching for an online course that requires no human interaction.  Such a course, he reasons, could have unlimited enrollment because it is completely self-contained.  He gets some pushback from UC Provost Dorr, who thinks courses should have such interaction.  You can hear this excerpt at the link below.  The entire meeting of the Committee on Educational Policy of the Regents was posted yesterday.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tYFLJvrE3g?feature=player_detailpage]