| |

Is the ball still in their court or has the train left the station?

Byuclafaculty
Hey! Let’s rebuild the old stadium!

Sorry to mix metaphors.  But Inside Higher Ed today has a long story on Berkeley athletics which have recently been in the news for low graduation rates and problems in funding a stadium upgrade.  A white paper from the Berkeley Center for the Study of Higher Education suggests that the program is running as an autonomous and relatively uncontrolled business operation. It is written by a former vice chancellor – who can now tell all -and a Berkeley grad student.

See http://cshe.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/shared/publications/docs/ROPS.CSHE_.12.13.Cummins%26Hextrum.CalAthletics.1.6.2014.pdf and http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/08/highlighting-berkeley-paper-explores-academic-damage-expanding-independent-athletics

The issue is whether control can be retaken or whether – another metaphor!! – the ship has sailed.  Would the Regents like to discuss this matter at their upcoming January 21-23 meeting?  The stadium at least does involve a grand capital project they approved (and which seems not to have worked out as planned; who would have thought?).  Anyway, it’s just a suggestion the Regents might want to consider.  But maybe they figure that the ball is no longer in their court and  the train has left the station.

Or maybe the ship has sailed:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqVrLdN7d68?feature=player_detailpage]

Similar Posts

| | | |

UCLA-FA files Unfair Labor Practices charge against UC

Byadmin

LOS ANGELES, CA (June 5, 2024) – On June 3rd, the UCLA Faculty Association (UCLAFA) filed unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the University of California (UC) to vindicate faculty rights to protest, organize, and exercise academic freedom. The ULP charges the UC for UCLA’s failure to uphold, and their choice to interfere with, faculty’s legally protected rights during and after the recent UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment. This is the fourth organization to file a ULP against the UC in the wake of its actions at UCLA in late April and early May, following charges by UAW, UC-AFT and AFSCME….

| | |

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]

| | | | | | |

Listen to Part of the Regents Afternoon Session of 1-22-2014

Byuclafaculty

As we have noted in numerous prior posts, the Regents refuse to archive their meetings beyond one year.  So we dutifully record the sessions in real time.  Below is a link to part of the afternoon session of Jan. 22.  This segment is mainly the Committee on Educational Policy.  Gov. Brown was in attendance.  We will separately (later) provide links just to certain Brown segments.  But for now, we provide a continuous recording. There was discussion of designating certain areas of UC-Merced as nature reserves, followed by discussion of a new telescope.  The discussion then turned to online ed and…

|

Chinese Dissent at UCLA

Byuclafaculty

UCLA has a variety of exchange arrangements with China as the image of the UCLA Confucius Institute on the left suggests.  While these arrangements can be mutually beneficial, the university can also find itself in a difficult position when and if things go wrong.  The NY Times carries a story dated Feb. 9 about a professor from Peking University who was a visiting professor at UCLA.  While here, he made some statements that ultimately led to his discharge at his home university and to quasi-exile in the U.S.: …Peking University allowed Professor Xia to leave China to become a visiting…

| |

Travel Focus Misses the Money Train

Byuclafaculty

You may have seen the article in yesterday’s Daily Bruin about UCLA tightening up its rules on travel reimbursements.  Why the tightening up? …Public records documenting the travel expenses of the university’s top brass, obtained and published by the Center for Investigative Reporting in August, drew national scrutiny last summer for the luxurious travel accommodations of UCLA’s leadership, sometimes in violation of University policy. The accommodations and pricy travel arrangements bloated the university’s travel budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars… Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/04/months-after-controversy-ucla-clarifies-travel-guidelines/ The problem with the original story is that it focuses on budget dust compared to…

|

Listen to the Regents Meeting of Jan. 23, 2014

Byuclafaculty

We continue indefinitely archiving the Regents meetings since – as numerous prior posts have complained – the Regents view an “archive” as lasting only one year.  Below is a link to the meeting (open sessions only) of Jan. 23, 2014.  We have previously posted the morning session of Jan. 22.  The afternoon session of that date – which runs well over 4 hours –  will eventually also be done.  But it takes over 4 hours to do it so yours truly will get to it when he can. At the Jan. 23 meeting, there were public comments involving (among other…