Author: admin

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    We Missed the Boat on Pensions With the Governor: Time to Talk to the Legislature

    Byadmin

    We missed the boat when it came to getting the governor to exempt UC from his statewide pension plan.  His plan, which now goes to the legislature, includes UC explicitly (p. 13), involves a hybrid plan (defined benefit plus defined contribution) for new hires, and has a 75% cap on retirement benefits. A summary of the plan: The changes would kick in Jan. 1, 2013. Labor agreements that contradict the governor’s plan would prevail until the pacts expire. The statutory language includes these proposals:• Ends additional retirement service credit purchases, or “airtime.”• Forfeits all or part of pensions for elected…

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    No Bee Link Here

    Byadmin

    The Sacramento Bee has updated its database of all state salaries by name, including UC employees.  No, I won’t give you the link although you can readily search it out.   Yours truly writes a weekly blog for a group called the Employment Policy Research Association.  As it happens, this week’s blog for that group tells you why I won’t supply the link to the Bee‘s database.  (The fact that the blog entry and the database appeared in the same week was a coincidence.) ===================== http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topic/402/blog/mitchell%E2%80%99s-musings-1-30-12-matters-degree Mitchell’s Musings 1-30-12: Matters of Degree Daniel J.B. Mitchell Let’s start with the admission…

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    Regents Will Consider UC-Riverside Student Plan for Alternative to Tuition in March

    Byadmin

    Back in 1967, the Regents were curious about the goings on in the Los Alamos Nuclear Lab aas the photo on the left shows.  According to a report in today’s Inside Higher Ed, the Regents’ curiosity this March will focus on a plan (reported in an earlier blog post) by UC-Riverside students for an alternative to tuition. Essentially, the students’ plan would involve payment after graduation as a share of income rather than the current system of upfront payment, either in cash or through a loan.  The proposal is not a new idea.  And it raises issues of logistics, i.e.,…

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    Japanese Garden Meeting Follow Up

    Byadmin

    Yesterday’s blog featured the audio from a local meeting concerning the proposed sale of the UCLA Japanese Garden. As a follow up, you can read some documents that were distributed at the meeting below.  Also, reference was made at the meeting to the legal action that was taken by UCLA (technically by the Regents) to allow the sale.  Some legal documents from that action can also be found below.  Note that there is reference in the documents to there being no opposition from the state Attorney General.  Obviously, there has been opposition from other quarters including the Carter family.  Whether…

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    UC Needs to Get Off the State Pension Train Before It Goes Too Far

    Byadmin

    As we have noted many times, the Regents modified the UC pension plan back in December 2010 to deal with its funding issues.  Since that time, the risk has been that UC would be swept into some statewide pension reform really aimed mainly at CalPERS and CalSTRS.  UC needs to get off that train before it is too late. The excerpt below from a recent news report indicates that the train is rolling and so far we are on board. UCOP and the Regents need to be involved in legislative discussions. …At a hearing of the Legislature’s Conference Committee on…

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    Worries About the Obama Tuition Plan Seem Confined to Private Universities

    Byadmin

    Earlier posts on this blog  noted the remarks of President Obama indicating that the federal government would somehow penalize universities whose tuitions were rising.  But yours truly also opined that it was very unlikely that public universities, such as UC, would be penalized since their tuitions were lower than the privates and they tended to enroll a greater percentage of lower income students. A short piece today in Inside Higher Ed seems to reinforce that view.  It seems that it is presidents of private universities that are upset. See http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/01/white-house-adviser-takes-questions-obamas-plan In short, it’s one less thing to worry about.  So be…

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    Audio of Meeting on Sale of UCLA Japanese Garden: 1-31-12

    Byadmin

    A hearing or meeting was held today at the Community Magnet School in Bel Air on the proposed sale of the Japanese Garden.  Representatives of the Carter family (the original donor) were there.  Hannah Carter’s son Jim was the spokesperson and strongly condemned the sale.  Also presented were histories and photographs of the garden. UCLA was represented by Bradley Erickson, Executive Director, Campus Service Enterprises. Almost all of the individuals in the audience were from the neighborhood and almost all were opposed to the sale. UPDATE: The Daily Bruin has a summary of the meeting at:http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2012/02/local_residents_faculty_alumni_oppose_sale_of_the_hannah_carter_japanese_ga Audio of the meeting…

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    State Out of Cash?

    Byadmin

    You may see some headlines about the state running out of cash.  The state controller today sent a letter to the legislature supporting passage of a bill allowing for more internal borrowing.  What does this development mean? As we have noted in past blog posts, in the current fiscal year and the past two years, in common English parlance the general fund of the state has been in rough balance, i.e., inflow = outflow.  But prior to that there were big deficits that ultimately left the state with a negative reserve in its general fund. When the general fund has…

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    Listen to Radio Program on Japanese Garden

    Byadmin

    At the link below, you can listen to Which Way LA? on KCRW which featured a program this evening on the UCLA Japanese Garden.  Guests are Martha Groves of the LA Times, R. Michael Rich – research astronomer, and EVC Scott Waugh.  The program does not have anyone from the Carter family or background on the source of the original gift. It runs about 10 minutes at the beginning of the link below. UCLA’s position is that it would like to see the garden preserved but wants to sell it.  No guarantee is made, however, that the sale would be to…