Author: admin

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    All Clear Siren on Pension

    Byadmin

    From the Sacramento Bee State Worker blog today: Former Republican Assemblyman Roger Niello said he will not pursue a signature-gathering campaign for his pension reform proposal because of the diminishing likelihood of a special election on taxes later this year. “Our urgency is gone,” he said. “The reason for filing this measure was to have something in line for a November election alongside the measure on taxes, but that appears unlikely to happen now.” … Full article at: http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2011/05/niellos-pension-reform-initiat.html#ixzz1NNCGZ65A Possible translation: I don’t have $1 million+ needed to get the signatures.

  • Audio: Regents Committee on Compliance & Audit, May 5, 2011

    Byadmin

    The UCLA Faculty Assn. has been requesting recordings of Regents meetings. Again, it must be noted that although the Regents meetings are live-streamed, the recordings are not archived on the Regents website or elsewhere. Why that isn’t done is unclear. However, below you will find a link to the audio of the May 5th meeting of the Regents Committee on Compliance and Audit. Compliance and Audit encompasses both compliance with financial reporting as well as other matters. Various federal and state regulations and UC regulations require training on such matters as sexual harassment. Because of some racial incidents, an initiative…

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    Pension Initiative OK’d for Circulation

    Byadmin

    The pension initiative that was filed by legislative Republicans negotiating with Gov. Brown on the state budget now has a title and summary language and so it can be circulated for the needed signatures. It includes UC and would override the Regents’ pension changes enacted last December. Like all initiatives, however, unless someone wants to spend $1-$2 million for commercial firms to get those signatures, it won’t go beyond this stage. The added summary language is below. The actual text of the initiative is below that:May 23, 2011Initiative 11-0007 (Amdt. #1-NS.) The Attorney General of California has prepared the following…

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    UCLA History: Extension in 1930

    Byadmin

    About a block away from the scene on the left in downtown LA, UC ran an extension service. Extension operated at that location before the general campus moved from Vermont Avenue to Westwood and afterwards. The scene in the picture is 7th Street and Hill in the 1930s. Extension was at 815 South Hill, a block away. (Sorry, I can’t find a picture closer than this one.) It is not clear if the Extension program reported to UCLA or connected directly to Berkeley. (Any historians out there who know?) The catalog below indicates that people take extension courses aimed “at…

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    Yudof Ruminates on Privatization

    Byadmin

    On his Facebook page and on YouTube, President Yudof ruminates on privatization in general, e.g., roads, postal services, and of higher ed in particular. The YouTube version is below. The Facebook written version (which skips a few ad libs) is at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150181306213379 He attributes the trend toward de facto privatization of higher ed in part to demographics and the aging of the baby boom: …Now, part of this can be explained by demographics. In the early 1960s, 57% of American families had children under the age of eighteen. Today, that number hovers around 46%. Along these same lines, American senior…

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    UCLA History: Arpanet (and its consequences)

    Byadmin

    UCLA has long taken credit for pioneering work on the Internet (originally the Arpanet). The 1970 photo above purportedly shows unidentified UCLA folks using a SIGMA-7 computer on the Arpanet. Absent such work, presumably there would be no UCLA Faculty Association blog or, indeed, any blogging at all. Given that achievement and its impact on the blog world – and since there is little UC-related news today (Sunday) – I will take the time to salute another blog – LAObserved http://www.laobserved.com/ – for the best juxtaposition of two consecutive blog entries of the past week. You can see the two…

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    LAO wrecks hybrid (pension plan study)

    Byadmin

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office has opposed a plan in the governor’s budget proposal to give CalPERS funding to study a “hybrid” pension plan for all state public pensions, not just CalPERS. CalPERS is on record as opposing such a plan, so giving it funding to do a study may have been a way for the governor to sink the idea. Under a hybrid plan, there is essentially a cutback defined benefit pension and a defined contribution element. The LAO position is at http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/budgetlist/PublicSearch.aspx?PolicyAreaNum=42&Department_Number=-1&KeyCol=430&Yr=2011

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    Circulating Cap

    Byadmin

    The initiative filed to place a formula cap on state spending can now be circulated with the summary and title below. As prior posts have noted, this initiative seems to have been filed as part of negotiations between Republican legislators and the governor regarding the state budget. It essentially rejuvenates the old Gann Limit concept that voters approved in the wake of Prop 13 but later gutted. Whether someone has the needed $1-$2 million to hire signature gathering firms is unknown. The governor said in his May revise oral presentation that he supports a cap. He did not specify the…

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    Jerry Brown as the Terminator (of CPEC): LAO Objects

    Byadmin

    The California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) is among the boards and commissions the governor proposed in the May revise for termination. CPEC is supposed to coordinate among the public and private elements of higher ed. However, the Legislative Analyst’s Office prefers other options, or at least suggests such alternatives be considered. LAO’s position below: Options Related to Governor’s Proposal for CPEC Background We believe there are several critical coordination functions necessary to protect the state’s investment in higher education. Examples include data collection and analysis, planning and oversight, and review of new program and campus proposals. Some of these activities…