Author: admin

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    Just a Little Trip-Up in the Rush to Approve the UCLA Hotel

    Byadmin

    Readers of this blog will know that the proposed UCLA hotel-conference center has many pitfalls, legal, tax-wise, and financial. And now the Regents and the donors are the target of a lawsuit.  This problem, as we have noted oh so many times, might have been avoided by a) scaling down the project to something reasonable, and b) talking and negotiating with those folks and interests in the community that had concerns about the project. UCLA bulled ahead, however, getting the donors to sign a letter stating that no alternative was OK.  Ironically, that step opened the door to a legal…

  • The Way You Look (at Harvard Law)

    Byadmin

    According to Inside Higher Ed, Harvard Law School has decided to switch from phone interviews to video interviews so the interviewer can see the candidate. Article athttp://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/10/12/harvard-law-switches-video-interviews According to the official memo from Harvard Law School, “…we evaluate applicants from all angles…”http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2012/10/11_hls_expands_jd_admissions_interviews.html Puts a big emphasis on appearance, no?  [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Gg7RULwrI?feature=player_detailpage]

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    Legal victory for university consortium that includes UC

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed is reporting a legal victory concerning a Google/university partnership that involves indexing a vast number of books.  Excerpt:Much of the work of the HathiTrust (a consortium of universities) to make books in university collections more easily searchable and accessible to people with disabilities is protected by “fair use” and is not subject to a copyright suit brought by authors’ groups, a federal judge has ruled…I can’t give you the ins and outs of this case but UC is a member of the HathiTrust.  The full Inside Higher Ed article is at:http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/10/11/fair-use-applies-book-digitizing-work-judge-rules That article links to a legal blog which…

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    How High?

    Byadmin

    A prior post on this blog noted that CalPERS was considering raising its rates for long-term care insurance by 75%.  We noted that although UC was not under CalPERS, as state employees, UC employees have been allowed in the past to participate in the program. We also noted that such insurance is a very iffy proposition since it is hard to forecast costs many years ahead for long-term care and thus rates could go up (a lot). Turns out, that CalPERS is indeed planning to raise the rates.  But now the increase may be as high as 85%.  From the…

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    Garden News

    Byadmin

    Blog readers will recall the Japanese Garden  controversy and the litigation about the proposed sale of the Garden by UCLA.  Here is an update: JAPANESE GARDEN LISTED AMONG 12 SIGNIFICANT THREATENED AND AT-RISK LANDSCAPES NATIONWIDE Rafu Shimpo 10-8-12 WASHINGTON — The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) on Oct. 4 formally announced “Landslide,” its annual compendium of threatened and at-risk landscapes, which includes the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Los Angeles. This year’s theme, “Landscape and Patronage,” focuses on visionary patrons and/or organizations and the sites they helped create and support. The late Edward W. Carter is recognized as the garden’s patron. …

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    Johnny Dollar Reports

    Byadmin

    There used to be an old radio show, “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.”   The closest we now have in California is state controller John Chiang who provides monthly cash reports on the state’s budget. For the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2012-13), we are behind on revenue by about $200 million (which is really noise given the size of the budget).  We spent, however, over a billion dollars more than budgeted for the first quarter.  The extra spending seems to be occurring in the social welfare area.  It’s not K-12 or higher ed. Anyway, if the budget estimate…

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    Who Will Vote in November? Do Voters Dislike Voting on Ballot Propositions?

    Byadmin

    There are eleven state propositions on the November ballot as well as the national, state, and local candidates and local propositions. Among those state propositions is Prop 30, the governor’s tax plan endorsed by the Regents.  As a new PPIC publication notes, voters in California are not a random sample of the population.  See the table above.  And despite complaints about all those propositions on the ballot (there are eleven this time), they like direct democracy as the chart below indicates. The PPIC publication from which the table and chart are drawn is at: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/atissue/AI_1012MBAI.pdf

  • Campus Program on Ballot Propositions: Nov. 1

    Byadmin

    The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment present: Death and Taxes (and other hot topics): Debating the 2012 California Ballot Propositions  with Gray Davis, Luskin Distinguished Policy Fellow, and Cameron Smyth, Luskin Senior Fellow California voters face big decisions on the 2012 ballot initiatives. From tax policy to the death penalty to genetically modified food labeling, a lot is at stake on the ballot. Join us for an educational and informative forum to analyze the initiatives. TIME Thursday, November 1, from 12:15 – 1:45 pm (Note: An earlier version of this announcement said the start time…

  • Last Quarter’s Blog Available in PDF Format

    Byadmin

    Each quarter, we have made available the prior quarter’s blog of the Faculty Association at UCLA in PDF format.  If you read it that way, the video and audio components are omitted.  The July through September posts are available at the link below: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla Here, for your convenience, is April-June 2012: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla And here is January-March 2012: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla