Author: admin

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    Severance Pay from Oil?

    Byadmin

    A new ballot initiative is going into circulation which imposes an oil severance tax for education, including higher ed. It apparently has some level of endorsement from community colleges. However, there is no money at this point for signature gathering. Hiring signature-gathering firms for an initiative costs $1-$2 million. The backers say they will use students, Facebook, etc. So far, no one has gotten anything on the ballot in recent memory without hiring signature-gathering firms. Of course, getting something on the ballot is only a first step. You then need lots more money for TV ads, particularly if you take…

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    Be a Good Sport (at Berkeley)

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed today points to the story below: Men’s gymnastics program to continue at UC Berkeley Herb Benenson, Intercollegiate Athletics, May 2, 2011 As a result of fundraising efforts that have raised in excess of $2.5 million, the men’s gymnastics program at the University of California, Berkeley, will be preserved as an Intercollegiate Athletics sport, campus officials announced today (Monday, May 2). The total, though short of the $4 million necessary to fund the team’s current direct and indirect costs, will support the program for at least 7-10 years in combination with steps to reduce annual operating expenses. Specifically,…

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    Time to Kick the Can Down the Road?

    Byadmin

    When he was governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger use to speak pejoratively about “kicking the can down the road” when considering state budget remedies. In fact, when he came into office in 2003-04, he basically borrowed his way out of the budget crisis of that time that he inherited. Such borrowing effectively kicks the can down the road. Right now, no one in Sacramento seems to have a Plan B after Governor Brown’s plan to put tax extensions on the ballot seems to have failed for lack of a 2/3 vote. The governor is being pushed, as an earlier post noted, to…

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    Hot Potato?

    Byadmin

    The Assn. of American Universities (AAU) is a organization with major research universities as its members including UCLA. Its current president, Robert Berdahl, is a past chancellor of UC-Berkeley. UC-Berkeley is a member. Davis, Irvine, San Diego, and Santa Barbara are also members. On March 31, the AAU issued the press release below with other organizations concerning the federal deficit. (This is not a timely piece of information; yours truly just stumbled on it, a month late.) Also a signatory to the document is the Assn. of Public and Land-Grant Universities which includes the UC campuses above plus Santa Cruz…

  • Font of Wisdom

    Byadmin

    Use PowerPoint in class? Research suggests using hard-to-read fonts will increase student learning. (Of course, your teacher ratings will suffer when students complain.) See below: …New research finds that people retain significantly more material – whether science, history or language – when they study it in a font that is not only unfamiliar but also hard to read… In a recent study published in the journal Cognition, psychologists at Princeton and Indiana University had 28 men and women read about three species of aliens, each of which had seven characteristics, like “has blue eyes,” and “eats flower petals and pollen.”…

  • U of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) Closes Early in Aftermath of Tornado

    Byadmin

    From the U of Alabama website:Classes and Normal Operations Suspended; Update on Final Exams and Commencement UPDATED Thursday, April 28, 4:45 p.m. – Normal operations are suspended as recovery efforts continue. The University will not conduct final exams next week as scheduled. Students will have the option of accepting their existing grades as of April 27, 2011, or they can take a final exam at a later date. For those students who request to take a final exam, faculty will have the option of scheduling the final exam on site when normal operations resume or via distance education means. Commencement…

  • The Regents Reign from Spain (on May 5 – Cinco de Mayo)

    Byadmin

    The Regents seem to have an outpost in Spain, at least according to the agenda for the May 5 meeting of the Committee on Compliance and Audit. That seems to be the most exciting element in the meeting, although apparently there is also to be an outpost in Tennessee. See below: NOTICE OF MEETING:The Regents of the University of California, COMMITTEE ON COMPLIANCE AND AUDITDate: May 5, 2011Time: 11:20 a.m.Locations: 1111 Franklin Street, Room 11326, Oakland;1130 K Street, Suite 340, Sacramento;Henley Board Room, 3104 Mosher Alumni House, Santa Barbara Campus;6840 Carothers Parkway, Franklin, Tennessee; Calle San Magin 1, Palma de…