Author: admin

State Budget | UC

The Incredible Shrinking University
Byadmin December 8, 2010

Andy Sabl pointed me to a lengthy article on the fate of UC entitled “Mission Shrinking.” An excerpt with a link to the full article is below. You can get the tone from the brief excerpt. Mission Shrinking, Diana Jean Schemo, Dec. 7, 2010 In the galaxy of public higher education, the University of California system once shined as a kind of North Star. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Golden State’s premier institutions, the University of California at Los Angeles and at Berkeley, boasted some of the strongest research and teaching faculties in the world. A UC education was…

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Uncategorized

Chancellor’s Committee Issues Report on UCPD Use of Force at Campus Protests
Byadmin December 8, 2010

In the wake of the November 2009 Regents meeting protests, over 100 senate faculty at UCLA signed a letter to Chancellor Block expressing grave concern over UC Police use of force against students and calling for a thorough review. In response, the Chancellor convened a special task force, which has now released its report: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/document/Regents_Nov_2009_Meeting_Post_Event_Report.pdf I have not had time to review the text, and I urge those of you who signed on to read it over and add your response in the comment section for this post. –Tobias Higbie

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miscellaneous

Comparing Public vs. Private Pay
Byadmin December 8, 2010

The two charts you see on this post come from a press release issued today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The charts break out the pay (wages and benefits) of state and local employees vs. private employees as of Sept. 2010. (The bars labeled “civilian” refer to the two groups combined. Federal workers are not included.) The data do not allow California to be broken out. The figures underlying the charts are for the total U.S. In a sense, the charts explain the seeming public anger at public employees who earn in total compensation about $40 per hour…

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politics | State Budget

UCLA Forecasts Snail-Pace Growth Which Sets Context for Brown’s State Budget Conference
Byadmin December 8, 2010

From the press release for yesterday’s UCLA Anderson Forecast: California’s forecast, authored by Senior Economist Jerry Nickelsburg and titled “Laying the Groundwork for California’s Economic Recovery,” continues themes that began in September – almost imperceptibly slow growth until the end of next year. “with only the first indication of changes in consumer and business expectations revealing themselves in the contemporaneous data, and in the absence of an external driver to induce faster growth, this is the most likely scenario for this phase of the recovery,” Nickelsburg writes. Stated bluntly, California must re-employ 1.3 million workers just to get back to…

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health care | pension | pensions | UC Regents | uc retirement

The New Pension & Retiree Health Care Plan to be Considered by the Regents Now on the Web
Byadmin December 8, 2010

The post-employment benefits plan (pension and retiree health care) proposed by President Yudof is now on the Regents’ website for consideration at the December 13 special meeting of the Regents. It is what was previously presented at the November meeting. As previous posts have noted, there will be a two-tier pension plan. It is unclear whether incumbent employees will have the option to switch to the new lower tier. An IRS approval would be needed for that option to be offered. The proposal is at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/dec10/j1.pdf I am not expecting a great deal of controversy among the Regents on this…

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UC Regents | UCOF

The Future Lies Ahead: Final UCOF Report
Byadmin December 7, 2010

Press release from UCOP issued yesterday at:http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/24629 UC Commission on the Future (UCOF) final report released Date: 2010-12-06 The final report of the University of California Commission on the Future, convened last year to map out strategies to preserve excellence and access through the state fiscal crisis and beyond, was unveiled today (Monday, Dec. 6). The 20 recommendations endorsed by the commission address five broad categories: teaching and curriculum, undergraduate enrollment and access, research and graduate education, fiscal discipline and administrative reform, and public education and advocacy. The commission also cited contingency actions that, if the fiscal situation worsens, might…

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miscellaneous | UC Berkeley

Interesting Profile of a UC-Berkeley Professor Said to be a YouTube Sensation
Byadmin December 7, 2010

The San Francisco Chronicle published the story below on Sunday. But the Chronicle keeps certain stories for subscribers only for a couple of days. So here are some excerpts. By way of background, UC-Berkeley puts lectures on YouTube for some classes. The story refers to such a class. One YouTube lecture is embedded below the story excerpts. Marian Diamond – Anatomy Professor a YouTube Hit Debra Levi Holtz, Sunday, December 5, 2010 Each fall, Marian Diamond walks into UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium holding a round hatbox, a gift from the staff of Lawrence Hall of Science, where she used to…

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State Budget

Special Budget Session Called by Governor Has No Cuts for UC
Byadmin December 7, 2010

In a sense, this is a non-story. Governor Schwarzenegger – as a lame duck with a month in office to go – has called a special session of the legislature to deal with the state budget. No one expects the legislature to do anything until Governor-Elect Brown takes office. Nonetheless, the current governor has proposed various budget solutions for the current year and next year which he totals at about $10 billion. There are some miscellaneous things such as putting advertising on freeway traffic signs. Much of what gets cut in the proposals is in the social service area, broadly…

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pension | pensions | State Contribution | UC Regents

How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? A Message from Dwight Read
Byadmin December 6, 2010

How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? Dwight Read, Chair, UCLA Faculty Association Now it is 2% of salary, next year, 3.5%, then 5%. But what will it be in 2017? …24%? In a special meeting scheduled for Dec. 13, the Regents will decide whether to introduce a New Pension Tier at UC for all new hires as of July 1, 2013. At the November Regents’ meetings, President Yudof presented a proposal for the New Tier that set the annual cost of the plan at 15.1% of retirement covered compensation with contribution rates at 8.1% for employers and…

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UC Berkeley

Not Entirely Pretty Portrait of Fraternity Life at Berkeley in Late 19th/Early 20th Century
Byadmin December 6, 2010

Zeta Psi’s history at UC Berkeley unearthed (excerpt) Debra Levi Holtz, San Francisco Chronicle December 6, 2010 Like present-day members, the boys in University of California’s oldest fraternity played poker, drank beer and pulled campus pranks during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the brothers of the prestigious Zeta Psi fraternity also dressed impeccably, had live-in servants and preferred hanging out with each other to dating women… The early alumni of the 140-year-old Iota chapter of Zeta Psi at UC Berkeley went on to become politicians, professors and bankers. The roster includes former California Gov. James Budd and…

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Author: admin

The Incredible Shrinking University

Chancellor’s Committee Issues Report on UCPD Use of Force at Campus Protests

Comparing Public vs. Private Pay

UCLA Forecasts Snail-Pace Growth Which Sets Context for Brown’s State Budget Conference

The New Pension & Retiree Health Care Plan to be Considered by the Regents Now on the Web

The Future Lies Ahead: Final UCOF Report

Interesting Profile of a UC-Berkeley Professor Said to be a YouTube Sensation

Special Budget Session Called by Governor Has No Cuts for UC

How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? A Message from Dwight Read

Not Entirely Pretty Portrait of Fraternity Life at Berkeley in Late 19th/Early 20th Century

UC Faculty Associations

Higher Ed Policy

Labor and Advocacy

UC Faculty Associations

Higher Ed Policy

Labor and Advocacy

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