UCLA History: Ice Skating Rink in 1938
The ice skating rink in Westwood being readied for operation in 1938. An earlier UCLA history post shows the rink in operation. Photo from LA Public Library.
Author: admin
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UCLA History: Campus Transition
New Years Day is a time to think about transitions. In the photo above, we see UCLA’s move under way from the Vermont Avenue campus to Westwood. The photo was taken in 1929.
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Lame Duck Nominates Crane: Crane Nomination May Not Fly
In a very lame-duck action, Governor Schwarzenegger has nominated David Crane, generally billed as his economic advisor, to the UC Board of Regents. As you can see above, he is an odd mix of Democrat and Republican. Below is an excerpt from one news account: Capitol Alert, Dec. 30, 2010 Schwarzenegger appoints key economic aide as UC regent (excerpt) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named one of his top economic advisers Thursday to the governing board of the University of California, which has been rocked in recent years by California’s budget crisis. David Crane, 57, was named to fill the UC regents…
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pension | pensions | politics | tuition | UC Regents
Clash of the Titans II: Jerry Brown says high-paid execs at UC demanding high pensions are “out of touch”
UC execs’ demand for more benefits angers many (excerpts) Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 30, 2010 Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, state lawmakers and others minced few words Wednesday in condemning high-paid executives at the University of California who are threatening to sue UC unless it spends millions of dollars to increase their pensions. “These executives seem very out of touch at a time when the state is contemplating billions of dollars in reductions that will affect people who are far less advantaged,” Brown said. Their demand comes as UC faces $21.6 billion in unfunded pension obligations and is reducing benefits…
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faculty pay | pension | pensions | UC pay | UC Regents | Yudof
Clash of the Titans: Coming to a Regents Meeting Soon
Background: Readers of this blog will know that at the Dec. 13 Regents meeting, where changes in the retirement plan were adopted, one item was dropped from the agenda a few days before the meeting. You can hear the Regents meeting on this blog. But there is only one vague reference to the dropping. The item involved a 1999 Regents decision to seek IRS approval to exceed a ceiling on pension benefits. The approval was received but the pension plan was never modified to implement the approval. The PEB task force recommended such implementation as part of its other retirement…
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The Coming Budget Brownout
Wikipedia defines a “brownout” as follows A brownout… is a drop in voltage in an electrical power supply. The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by lighting when the voltage sags. Wikipedia then goes on to describe the impact of a brownout on various devices. Here are some of those impacts: * The heat output of any resistance device, such as an electric space heater will vary with the true power consumption, which is proportional to the square of the applied voltage. Therefore a significant loss of heat output will occur with a relatively small reduction in voltage. Similarly,…
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Op Ed by Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC-Irvine Law School on UC Funding
Invest in higher education: Over the years, the state’s contribution to the University of California has not kept pace with its needs. The risk is letting a great system become a mediocre one. (Excerpts) Erwin Chemerinsky, Dec. 27, 2010, Los Angeles Times The proposals for the University of California now being considered in Sacramento — limiting tuition and fees, freezing executive and faculty salaries and increasing legislative control over the UCs — are well intentioned. But they are a recipe for ruining a great public university system. A public university has only three choices: It can be subsidized by the…
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Captain Video saves the Faculty Assn. blog videos and audios from cloud destruction
An earlier post noted that past audios/videos of Regents meetings, UCOF, PEB, and certain radio or TV interviews or debates were in danger of disappearing from this blog due to the discontinuation of video-Yahoo. I have now transitioned these files to Facebook and embedded them on the blog in place of the video-Yahoo versions. In particular, the early materials that were part of the discontinued savingUCLA website are available on this blog at: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2010/06/selected-non-youtube-audios-and-videos.html It is useful to preserve these materials, particularly where policy commitments are made by Regents, administrators, or others, in the event that policy changes are subsequently…
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UCLA History: Eric Monkkonen of the History and Public Policy Depts. was an expert on murder
You may have seen the LA Times article last Sunday on the murder rate in Los Angeles and its surprising decline. Had he survived, there would have undoubtedly been long quotes and observations in the article from former History and Public Policy Professor Eric Monkkonen, UCLA’s expert on murder – and the history thereof. Of course, as you go back in time, data on murder rates were not routinely collected. Prof. Monkkonen, among other techniques, hired undergrads to go through old newspapers, pulling out references to murders in various cities. The LA Times article looks at various explanations by experts…
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Regent Blum Says Consequences of More State/UC Budget Cuts Will Lead More to Internal Cuts Than Tuition
UC regents brace for more bad news on budget (excerpt) Dec. 27, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle, Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross The University of California regents are bracing for more bad financial news from Sacramento, but board veteran Richard Blum doubts he and his colleagues could stomach another round of tuition hikes. “I think the emphasis is much more on making cuts,” said Blum, who chaired the board until recently. “I think the last thing we want to do is touch student fees, but that depends on what they do to us.” Blum said most of the newly approved 8…