Author: admin

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    How Big is a 250-Room Hotel? Ask a Duck

    Byadmin

    Above is the “Radisson at USC” which has 240 rooms.  It is right across from the USC campus on Figueroa.  It isn’t shy about calling itself a “hotel,” even though it has ten fewer rooms than the proposed facility at UCLA which the administration insists is not really a hotel but rather a “residential conference center” and sometimes just a “conference center.”  And yes, the Radisson at USC has conference rooms including a 7,000 square foot ballroom. Do we really need to pretend about what UCLA’s proposed facility is? There is a saying about such pretense… UPDATE: There will be…

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    The Governor’s May Revise Budget (including audio)

    Byadmin

    Governor Jerry Brown presented his May Revise budget for 2012-13 at a news conference earlier today.  It was followed by a question-and-answer session with state Finance Director Ana Matosantos.  In general terms, the May Revise followed the format of the original January proposal in that it included the assumption that voters would approve a tax initiative in November and that, if they didn’t, there would be trigger cuts.  Since January, as readers of this blog will know, revenues came in below forecast levels and a revised tax initiative was negotiated.  In addition, the state has been prevented from making certain…

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    Fork in the Road on Public Pensions in California?

    Byadmin

    Diligent readers of this blog will know the following 7 points about public pension proposals in California (and their relation to UC’s pension plan): 1) The Regents adopted pension changes – essentially a two-tier defined-benefit approach – for the UC retirement system. 2) The governor is pushing a 12-point “hybrid” system (mix of defined benefit and defined contribution) for all public pensions in California that – unless UC is exempted – could override the Regents’ action. 3) Although it is the official position of UC that it wants an exemption, the governor has not agreed to one. 4) The legislature…

  • The Farmer (Not in the) Gill

    Byadmin

    From today’s San Francisco Chronicle: Occupy the Farm protesters agreed Saturday to end their three-week encampment on UC Berkeley property in Albany, but rebuffed an invitation from the university to discuss how the area can be used for both urban farming and for research.  Instead, the several dozen protesters set up ladders to scale the fence UC had erected around the area along San Pablo Avenue known as the Gill Tract and said they will continue to tend the vegetables and fruit trees they’ve planted on 2 of the 5 disputed acres. As a result, the UC regents said they won’t drop…

  • Giving Credit Where it is Due?

    Byadmin

    As readers of this blog will know, UC-Berkeley and UC-San Francisco have been calling for more autonomy from the overall UC system, including the right to set tuition at the campus level.  (UCLA has been strangely silent about the proposal, pro or con. Can there really be no opinion on this matter in Murphy Hall?)  Yours truly somehow missed the item below from May 3: Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service applauded a new University of California, Berkeley proposal to give each UC campus more autonomy, particularly when it comes to setting tuition rates. Because its seats are so coveted, Berkeley…

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    The Hole Story Has Yet to Be Told

    Byadmin

    Governor Brown says there is a big “hole” in the state budget that he will tell us about on Monday in the May Revise.  As readers of this blog will know, yours truly does not like the loose way in which the state budget is described.  Words such as hole, gap, deficit, etc., are used interchangeably and without clear definition.  Try looking up “hole” in an accounting textbook.  Stocks and flows are mixed together.  Time periods vary.  Nonetheless, here is what Brown said in a video just released:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPc85z9uhJQ&w=320&h=195] Whatever “hole” means, it won’t be pleasant.  Nonetheless, yours truly will attempt…

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    Berkeley Problems Continue

    Byadmin

    On campus Protesters who stormed UC Berkeley’s main administration building late Friday afternoon have been removed from the offices by campus police. Ten people, including two UC Berkeley students, were cited for trespassing and released at about 7:30 p.m., said UC police Capt. Margo Bennett. A group of about 25 protesters called By Any Means Necessary marched into Sproul Hall at 3:30 p.m. after a rally outside. The group, which is arguing for a greater representation of minority students in the university’s undergraduate population, included several Bay Area high school students who say they were denied admission to the school……

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    Winston Churchill on the Japanese Garden (and the Hotel)

    Byadmin

    No, not really.  But there is this from Churchill: “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” ATTRIBUTION:   WINSTON CHURCHILL, remarks at a White House luncheon, June 26, 1954. His exact words are not known, because the meetings and the luncheon that day were closed to reporters, but above is the commonly cited version. His words are quoted as “It is ‘better to jaw-jaw than to war-war,’” in the sub-heading on p. 1 of the New York Times, June 27, 1954, and as “To jaw-jaw always is better than to war-war” on p. 3. The Washington Post in its June…

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    Fratfolder

    Byadmin

    That was then and this is now. ========================================== The previous post on this blog pointed to an interesting article in Inside Higher Ed about UC.  The same edition also has an article about a website, fratfolder.com, which is reported to contain uploads of past exams from various universities, not just UC.  I checked and indeed UCLA is among those universities as are other UC campuses.  However, before you panic, the collection for UCLA was not comprehensive.  Some of what has been uploaded is not exams but rather lecture notes and handouts.  And in one case a UC-Santa Barbara instructor was listed…