Author: admin

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    Yawning Gap Between Student and Instructor

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed today features a YouTube video (below) from a Cornell instructor who becomes upset when someone yawns. Apparently, the lectures are routinely videoed by the Hotel School and the YouTube extract comes from the official recording. Although in this case the recording was official, it is well to note that cellphones can produce videos and that there are very small audio and video recorders that students may have in class. (The yawn is not heard on the video. There is a clicking sound which may be some artifact of the recording.) Can we say this episode is a…

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    Day 1 at the Regents: Capital Projects

    Byadmin

    Today (Nov. 16) was the quiet day at the Regents. No issues of tuition, pensions, etc. A bunch of capital projects were approved. There was a bit of questioning about whether the state would pay for such projects, or even float general obligations bonds to pay for them. Of course, the answer was “no.” An argument was made that UC needed to have shovel-ready projects in case someone did step up to pay for them. But that seems unlikely with the new and likely paralyzed Congress and the condition of the state budget. Nonetheless, there was little dissent. You can…

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    Regents to Approve Next Year’s Budget on Nov. 18

    Byadmin

    The Regents will be approving a budget for 2011-12 at their meeting of Nov. 18, 8:50 AM session. The total UC proposed budget for the coming year will be $22.6 billion. Of that total, $3.5 billion is requested from the state, up from $2.9 billion in the current year. Of the $600 million increase being requested from the state, $172 million is for pension funding. I will leave it to the reader to estimate the probability that the state will cough up what is being requested. You can find the budget document at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/f9attach2.pdf The figures to which I refer…

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    Regents Session on Tuition, Nov. 18

    Byadmin

    The Regents take up increasing tuition (still termed “fees” until they change the name) on Nov. 18 at the 8:50 AM session. You can find the background material at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/f10.pdf As you might expect, the proposal is more complicated than the single 8% figure reported in the news media. However, the chart above (from page 9) is clear enough so that you can see we are no longer among the cheapest public institutions. The proposal for increases in professional school fees is at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/f11.pdf It is more complex than the undergrad/grad proposal, with considerable variation among the different schools.

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    Regents Session on Retiree Health, Nov. 17

    Byadmin

    The Regents will take up retiree health on Wednesday, Nov. 17, in a session beginning 10:15 AM. You can find the background materials at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/f4.pdf The chart above, which does not appear very clearly as reproduced in this blog, is on page 5. It shows the retiree health program’s unfunded liability. In fact, the program is not prefunded so virtually all funding is pay-as-you-go. But the background report treats it in the same way that the pension plan is treated. The chart shows the unfunded liability – with no change in the participant contribution policy – rising from around $15…

  • Who Knows What the Shadow Writes (and Chats)?

    Byadmin

    The Chronicle of Higher Ed is oddly promoting a guy who ghost-writes student term papers. He is termed The Shadow in the account. Excerpt: …Ed Dante is a pseudonym for a writer who lives on the East Coast. Through a literary agent, he approached The Chronicle wanting to tell the story of how he makes a living writing papers for a custom-essay company and to describe the extent of student cheating he has observed. In the course of editing his article, The Chronicle reviewed correspondence Dante had with clients and some of the papers he had been paid to write….

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    Yudof’s Pension/Retiree Health Plans Getting Outside Criticism

    Byadmin

    As previous posts have noted, UC has proceeded on its proposed modification of the pension and retiree health plans with an inward looking focus. The external world may not be so receptive. Even before the formal presentation to the Regents later this week, there is public criticism. See below: UC changes barely touch retirement cost problem (excerpt) Daniel Borenstein, MediaNews columnist, Contra Costa Times Posted: 11/13/2010 09:00:00 PM PSTUpdated: 11/15/2010 08:34:45 AM PST GENEROUS retirement programs that have been irresponsibly managed for decades are pushing the University of California off a financial cliff. President Mark Yudof will ask regents this…

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    Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheap, Cheap? Privates in Tuition Competition with UC

    Byadmin

    Excerpt from today’s Sacramento Bee: Despite steadily rising tuition, California’s public universities still can look like a bargain when compared with nonprofit private colleges. With room and board factored in, a year at UC costs about $28,000, while a year at Stanford costs around $50,000. But dig a little deeper and the difference isn’t as great as it appears at first glance. That’s because on average students at nonprofit private schools are paying less than half the so-called “sticker price.” And many students whose families earn too much to qualify for grants at public schools can receive substantial scholarships at…

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    Free Speech at Irvine (and Elsewhere)

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed today features an article about a legal case the right of public university faculty to criticize administrators. The case at hand arises from a complaint by a UC-Irvine professor who claims he was denied a merit increase after he made such criticisms. A lower court cited another local-origin case – this one arising from the LA County district attorney’s office (Garcetti v. Ceballos ultimately decided at the U.S. Supreme Court). In that case, an employee claimed retaliation for similar criticisms. The UC-Irvine case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit which – while not ruling on the validity…

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    Inching Toward Michigan

    Byadmin

    The main event of the upcoming Regents meeting is discussion (not decision) on the Yudof recommendation of Option C on the pension plan. But there is also scheduled a discussion of enrollment of out-of-state students at UC. You can find the announcement at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/e1.pdf It is scheduled on the morning of Nov. 17, after an open public comment session. (Those open comment sessions have tended to be a bit raucous of late.) If you click on the link above to the out-of-state student session, you won’t find any back-up material. The announcement just says Provost Pitts will review past enrollment…