Author: admin

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    More Online Entrepreneurialism: MBA Admissions Essay

    Byadmin

    From the San Francisco Chronicle today: For years, applicants looking to read examples of admissions essays submitted to top business schools could buy books with such names as “101 Business School (MBA) Essays That Made a Difference” or “65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays.” The books promised readers an inside look at what admissions officers were looking for, along with elements of a successful business school essay. The latest player is a new essay service and website called Wordprom.com, founded by MBA graduates Gili and Ori Elkin, who are looking to turn that old-fashioned model on its head -and raising the hackles of…

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    Brown Vetoes Bill Requiring Consideration of Community Service for Tenure

    Byadmin

    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.

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    Governor Vetoes Collective Bargaining for RAs

    Byadmin

    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…

  • A word from our sponsor as the fall quarter begins…

    Byadmin

    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.

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    UCLA Luskin School Election Event in Downtown LA Oct. 17

    Byadmin

    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…

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    405 Weekend Closure Info

    Byadmin

    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

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    Brown Signs Bill Offering Private Pensions (Kind of/Maybe)

    Byadmin

    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…

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    If you are worried about the return of Carmageddon…

    Byadmin

    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…

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    The Thrifty Fifty Online Textbooks

    Byadmin

    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

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    Prop 30 and the Statue Statute

    Byadmin

    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…