Author: admin

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    Body Parts and Hotels

    Byadmin

    Some of you who read the LA Times may have been reminded of the body parts scandal at UCLA that unfolded about 6 years ago by a column that appeared yesterday by Sandy Banks. You may not have connected it, however, with the current controversy about the hotel/conference center proposed to replace the existing Faculty Center. Below is an excerpt from the column by Banks, followed by some observations and a question. — Lost UCLA cadavers’ final chapter: With no hope of winning lawsuits over loved ones’ remains, relatives fight for the last word. Sandy Banks, March 19, 2011, LA…

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    UC-San Diego Tightening GPA Standards for Transfers from Community Colleges

    Byadmin

    UCSD policy limits community college students: Raising GPA requirement to 3.5 will exclude many students from program (excerpt): Pat Flynn, March 18, 2011, San Diego Union-Tribune With transfer applications soaring and budget cuts looming, the University of California San Diego is raising the threshold on a guaranteed admission program for the state’s community college students. For years, community college students who took specific courses and obtained a 3.0 grade-point average could count on admission under the program called Transfer Admissions Guarantee, or TAG. But faced with growing demand and limited capacity, UCSD officials in recent weeks have notified community college…

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    Sorry Tale Ends: UCLA student who posted anti-Asian rant on YouTube leaving university

    Byadmin

    From the LA Daily News, 3/18/11 (excerpt): A UCLA student whose anti-Asian rant on YouTube made national headlines announced today that she plans to leave the university. In an apology letter sent to the Daily Bruin, the campus newspaper, Alexandra Wallace wrote that the video has led to “the harassment of my family, the publishing of my personal information, death threats and being ostracized from an entire community.” … Wallace sent the letter on the same day the university announced it would not be taking any disciplinary action against her. In her letter to the Daily Bruin, Wallace said she…

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    UCLA Developments Related to Japan Crisis

    Byadmin

    UCLA students to leave Japan as Bruins join relief effort (excerpt) Mar 17, 2011, Alison Hewitt, UCLA Today As the threat of radiation exposure grows in Japan following the catastrophic March 11 earthquake and tsunami that severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant, UC decided to suspend its study-abroad programs in the country and is in the process of evacuating students, including nine UCLA students from Tokyo. Meanwhile, several UCLA professors and some campus groups are joining relief efforts, including a pediatrician who is part of a medical team trying to reach the devastated areas, a geographic information systems (GIS) expert…

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    Audio of Regents Meeting of 3-17-11

    Byadmin

    At the Regents meeting of 3-17-11, the session started with open comments. (A student from a class co-taught by yours truly in winter quarter was a speaker.) There was then a presentation by the UC-Davis chancellor, Linda Katehi, about developments on that campus, including budget concerns. The Finance Committee approved options for borrowing for the pension fund from STIP and possible pension bonds. Oddly, but consistent with earlier presentations, the primary motivation is described as a kind of interest arbitrage. In fact, the original motivation for these options was the $2 for $1 issue; roughly each $1 of contributions by…

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    UC ax doesn’t fall on Merced

    Byadmin

    UC ax doesn’t fall on Merced: Regents hear about other campuses’ struggles to slash expenses further (excerpt): Yesenia Amaro, Merced Sun-Star, 3/17/11 University of California officials are preparing plans to meet the proposed “draconian” cuts the university system is facing. But UC Merced seems to have eluded the budget ax. Those plans were discussed during the UC Board of Regents’ regularly scheduled meeting at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus Wednesday. UC President Mark Yudof last month assigned the 10 UC campuses target reductions or other actions to help meet the $500 million reduction proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown….

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    Santa Monica Bus Service to UCLA May Change

    Byadmin

    UCLA Transportation posted the following info: Santa Monica Big Blue Bus recently released its proposed service changes scheduled to be implemented in the coming year. Among these proposed changes are several that would have significant impacts on some UCLA riders: Lines 3 & 14: Under the proposed plan, Line 3 would no longer serve the UCLA campus directly. Instead, Line 14 would follow Line 3’s current route from UCLA as far west as Bundy Dr. (in Brentwood), where it would turn south and follow Bundy/Centinela until the line terminated at Culver Blvd. in Mar Vista. Current Line 3 riders east…

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    More Background on Anti-Asian Video Posted by UCLA Student

    Byadmin

    The Sacramento Bee reports that the video described in an earlier post was to be part of a larger enterprise: The UCLA student whose anti-Asian video rant garnered millions of views online and intense backlash throughout the world is from Fair Oaks and appears to have had aspirations of creating similar videos as part of a blog. Shortly after the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan on Friday, Alexandra Wallace, 20, posted a three-minute video on YouTube in which she mocked Asian languages and expressed her annoyance with Asian students talking loudly in the library on their cell phones, including those…

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    48% of Voters Think Public Pensions Are About Right or Not Generous Enough

    Byadmin

    Just a straw in the wind from the latest California Field Poll. Note that the headline on the poll press release (see URL below) is “MORE CALIFORNIA VOTERS NOW VIEW PUBLIC PENSION BENEFITS AS TOO GENEROUS.” What the headline refers to is the change since October 2009 in the response to the “Too Generous” option. Yours truly is more impressed with the fact – reflected in the headline on this blog post – that after the Bell City scandal and all of the agitation about public pensions – voter opinion still tilts toward “About Right” and “Not Generous Enough.” It…

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    Please Don’t Mention Their Pension

    Byadmin

    Pension reform is lucrative for former Capitol insiders (excerpts) Capitol Weekly, 3/17/11, Malcolm Maclachlan The consulting company hired by Republican lawmakers known as the “GOP 5” to do research on reforming public employee pensions signed a similar but much larger contract with a conservative pension reform group last month. The company, Capitol Matrix Consulting, is headed by Mike Genest, who served as finance director for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Matrix’s other two principals, Brad Williams and Pete Schaafsma, also are well-known in the Capitol as top-level financial analysts. All three men, incidentally, have state pensions worth more than $100,000 a…