Author: admin

UC budget crisis | UC Merced

There’s No Stopping Expansion at UC-Merced: Budget Crisis or Not
Byadmin January 17, 2011

UC Merced marks site for $89m science building Yesenia Amaro / Merced Sun-Star / 1-16-11 University officials, students, and local and state elected officials convened at the school’s library on Friday for a dedication ceremony for the new $88.8 million Science and Engineering Building 2. The 102,000-square-foot, three-story building will be located across from the Science and Engineering Building. The new building is expected to open its doors in 2014. Chancellor Steve Kang said the new building “will allow UC Merced to continue to provide exceptional academic and research opportunities.” … UC Merced was allocated more than $100 million from…

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miscellaneous | UCLA

UCLA History: Vigil at UCLA After Assassination of Martin Luther King
Byadmin January 17, 2011

A vigil for Martin Luther King on the UCLA campus in 1968 after his assassination. Source: UCLA History Project

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Regents | UC

UC is on a Bridge to Nowhere: Other Public Universities are Taking Action
Byadmin January 17, 2011

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article today on various public universities that are working on establishing some type of new agreement with the powers-that-be in their states in the wake of budget cuts. Sadly, UC seems stuck in its reactive mode, a bridge to nowhere. The legislature/governor cuts the UC budget. The Regents & Yudof responsively raise tuition and/or cut enrollment. They are then criticized for their actions by the legislature/governor. This is a a bridge to nowhere, politically and budget-wise. We cannot get off the bridge by issuing glossy brochures and statements to the effect that UC is…

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uc funding

Silicon Valley CEOs Advocate Stable Funding for California Higher Ed
Byadmin January 16, 2011

Governor Brown asked a group of Silicon Valley CEOs for suggestions as to how to stimulate employment growth in California. Among their suggestions:Develop a reliable and equitable financing and fee structure for state institutions of higher education and strengthen the buying power of the Cal Grant program for both public and private universities to encourage graduate and undergraduate student development. You can find the complete document at http://svlg.org/docs/whitepaper_govbrown.docx Note that the opening statement in the document that California did not create jobs during the past decade is misleading. Below is a graph of California nonfarm payroll employment I pulled from…

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State Budget

State Budget Actions Summary
Byadmin January 16, 2011

The Sacramento Bee has a nice summary of proposed budget cuts and revenue enhancements in the Brown budget plan at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/05/3301715/state-budget-costs.html There are photos with captions for each action. The info is in the captions. Note: The first photo puts the “deficit” at around $26 billion. Unfortunately, the word is misused in state budget-speak. It is a mix of past negative reserve in the general fund, current problems, and a workload problem for next year if no policy changes. Maybe the cartoon is a better summary. It comes from calbuzz.com. And if you need further instruction:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEYheg3AEWY&fs=1&hl=en_US]

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pension | pensions | private universities | privatization | State Budget | State Contribution | tuition | Yudof

Yudof on Budget, Privatization, Pensions
Byadmin January 16, 2011

There is an interview in the LA Times today (1-15-11) of President Yudof by Patt Morrison. Below are excerpts. …Morrison: You’ve used the Ed Koch line, “How’m I doing?” After 2 ½ years, how’re you doing? Yudof: I think we’re doing well, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna-ish. We have a $20-billion shortfall, long run, in the pension plan. I think it’s going to take 20 years to dig our way out, but we have a plan. We put the new [student] eligibility standard into effect; it’s going to be a less mechanical admission [process], looking at the whole…

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tuition | UC budget crisis | UC enrollment

UC Undergrad Applications Over 6%, Especially Out-of-State and International
Byadmin January 15, 2011

UC sees another big jump in undergrad applications Terence Chea, AP, Orange County Register, 1-14-11 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Despite big tuition hikes, the University of California again received a record number of undergraduate applications for the fall, driven in part by sharp increases from out-of-state and international students, school officials said Friday. They said the number of applications rose 6.1 percent to more than 142,000, with a 5.7 percent increase in freshman applicants and a 7.3 percent increase in transfer applicants. “The University of California experienced record demand,” said Sue Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions. “With the increase in…

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miscellaneous | UC-Davis

The Mother of All Faculty Boo-Boos
Byadmin January 14, 2011

The internet is buzzing today about an email sent on behalf of a professor in the veterinary medicine dept. at UC-Davis concerning how to grade a student who was absent due to giving birth. It was sent to all students in the class. Here is a sample:——-Davis officials confirmed the authenticity of an e-mail that was first quoted on the blog “On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess” by a female scientist at a major research university who blogs, as “Isis,” about issues in academic science, particularly for women.The e-mail was sent by the presidents of the third-year class to…

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State Budget | UC Berkeley | UC budget crisis

Headline: UC Berkeley slashes jobs
Byadmin January 14, 2011

UC Berkeley slashes jobs (excerpt) San Francisco Chronicle, 1-13-11, Matier & Ross The hammer is falling at UC Berkeley, with word that the university is laying off 150 managers and support staff. The news, which was delivered in a campus bulletin late Thursday, comes just days after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed slashing $500 million from the UC system next year. The job cuts are on top of 600 positions that Cal has already eliminated since last year. Campus officials say they got a jump on the problem last summer when they hired an outside consultant — at a cost of…

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LAO | pension | pensions | State Budget | State Contribution | uc retirement

Legislative Analyst Acknowledges UC Pension Issue for State
Byadmin January 13, 2011

In his press conference on Jan. 12 on the state budget, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor explicitly raised the issue of state funding for the UC pension. Those who follow that issue know that at one point, the Leg Analyst took the position that the state had no responsibility for the UC pension. After a meeting with UCLA Faculty Association reps, that position changed. The legislature dropped language asserting that it had no liability for the UC pension. Of course, so far, no actual funding has appeared. The relevant part of the press conference is on the video below:

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