A bill was vetoed yesterday that would have required CSU and “requested” UC to consider community service for tenure and other academic personnel decisions. The veto message is at:http://gov.ca.gov/docs/AB_2132_Veto_Message.pdf The message notes that such service is already part of the academic review process and that such matters are best left to campus-level decision making.
Collective bargaining in the public sector in California is regulated by a series of statutes. The major ones have the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) as their administrative agency. One of these laws covers UC and CSU and is known as HEERA, the Higher Education Employee-Employer Relations Act. Current law allows collective bargaining for student teaching assistants. However, research assistants are not covered. Yesterday, the deadline for signing or vetoing bills, Gov. Brown vetoed a bill that would have extended collective bargaining rights to RAs. You can read his veto explanation statement at:http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_259_Veto_Message.pdf For those interested, the full text of…
This blog is sponsored by the Faculty Association at UCLA, an independent association for members of the UCLA Academic Senate.A form for joining the Faculty Association can be found at:http://www.uclafaculty.org/Join.htmlBy the way, the Faculty Association is planning a campus event on November 7 dealing with funding UC. More info will be available on this blog as we get closer to the event.
With the presidential debate coming up on Oct. 3, and with your state voter pamphlet probably arriving around now, you may have an interest in a program offered by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs later this month (October 17). Below is an announcement and below that is a link for registering to attend: After the horse race is over and Election 2012 has been decided, the business of governing is going to get very difficult very quickly. With budget cuts looming and taxes set to rise, voters are struggling to understand competing visions for the future. Is a…
Above is the scene as the bridge over the 405 was being deconstructed this morning. You can get traffic flow information by going to the map at:http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/metrola.htm and then clicking on the link for road speeds on the lower left. Or go directly to:http://www.smartraveler.com/traffic.asp?market=Greater%2BLos%2BAngeles&zone=LosAngeles Note: The LA Times has a photo gallery showing various stages of construction through the Sepulveda pass beginning in 1929 at:http://framework.latimes.com/2011/07/13/the-405-a-repeating-history-of-construction/#/0
As readers of this blog will know, public pensions have been an issue in California and for UC. Recently, Gov. Brown signed a bill that modified public pensions in the state – with exclusions including an exclusion for UC which modified its own plan in 2010. Democrats in the legislature believe that there would be more public sympathy for government pensions if more private sector workers had defined benefit pensions. (Of course, most private workers are under Social Security which is defined benefit.) Private employers, however, have been moving away from defined benefit to defined contribution (“401k-type”) plans. So a…
From the LA Times: …UCLA researchers say that last year’s Carmageddon closure of the 405 Freeway rid Los Angeles of both traffic and another notorious problem: pollution.Air quality near the closed 10-mile portion of the freeway reached levels 83% better than typical weekends, according to research released Friday by a team at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. More striking, the researchers say, air quality also improved 75% in parts of West Los Angeles and Santa Monica, suggesting that whole swaths of residents stayed off the road in those areas. Overall, air quality across the region was 25% better…
Governor Brown signed twin bills that create a mechanism for producing and distributing free online textbooks for what are described as fifty lower-division core courses at UC and CSU in cooperation with the community colleges. Exactly how these texts are going to be produced (for no royalties, if I read the new laws correctly) remains to be seen. There do seem to be some mechanisms for payment for supplying such texts but, again, details are not clear. The twin bills are at:http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1051-1100/sb_1052_bill_20120905_enrolled.html andhttp://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/sen/sb_1051-1100/sb_1053_bill_20120905_enrolled.html
Gov. Brown used the occasion of signing a bill to have a statue of Ronald Reagan in the State Capitol implicitly to promote Prop 30 – Brown’s tax initiative. See below: LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST AB 2358, Hagman. State Capitol: Ronald Reagan statue. Existing law prescribes various duties for the Department of General Services in connection with development and maintenance of the park around the State Capitol Building. This bill would authorize the Ronald Reagan Centennial Capitol Foundation, in consultation with the Department of General Services, to plan a statue of Ronald Reagan in the State Capitol Building Annex. The bill…
The governor has signed legislation that does everything about tuition other than allocate money to stop it from rising. It is (sort of) voluntary for the Regents and UC. And it feels so good. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST AB 970, Fong. University of California and California State University: systemwide student fees. Existing law, known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth the missions and functions of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. The California State University, which is governed by the Trustees of the California State University (trustees), and the University of California, which is governed by…
