Author: admin

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    UC must put emphasis on education, not brand

    Byadmin

    UC must put emphasis on education, not brand Timothy Hampton, Garrison Sposito Tuesday, July 13, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle The UC Board of Regents will discuss this week a proposal by the University of California president’s office for an ambitious plan to market UC online. The proposal entertains the vision of an eventual online bachelor’s degree that could tap new students throughout the world, from “Sheboygan to Shanghai.” In fact, the track record for online higher education is very uneven. It requires enormous up-front investments and continual investments for upgrades. Given these high stakes and the financial pressures on UC…

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    UC-Berkeley Reports/Concerns About Costs of Athletic Program

    Byadmin

    Various reports on the issue are listed below. Chancellor’s response to reports:http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/07/12_athleticsreport.shtml Report of Chancellor’s Advisory Committee:http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/07/IA-Council-Report.pdf Report of Academic Senate Task Force:http://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/pdf/Task_Force_on_Intercollegiate_Athletics_Interim_Report.pdf A news account of the Berkeley controversy is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/07/13/MNED1ED854.DTL Note: At an Academic Senate forum on the budget last year, VC Olsen indicated that UCLA does not spend general fund monies on its athletic program. Prof. Don Morrison of Anderson, who has been much involved with the UCLA athletics program over the years, tells me the UCLA senate committee that oversees the athletics program was consulted by the Berkeley senate committee in preparing its report.

  • Controversy at UC-Berkeley over expansion of online course offerings

    Byadmin

    From www.twitter.com/CalPolicy: Reported controversy at UC-Berkeley over expansion of online course offerings http://bit.ly/c4FNdB And if you think the idea of some version of distance learning is new:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Q-Mw6qH9k These “Sunrise Semester” programs offered courses for credit in New York City beginning in the 1950s.

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    Important: Effect of DC vs. DB Pensions at Universities on Retirement

    Byadmin

    The article below indicates the problems universities have with defined contribution pension plans (such as TIAA-CREF) which provide no incentives to retire. UC’s defined benefit pension provides a strong incentive to retire for long-service employees.=======================Stanford University confronts the graying of academia By Lisa M. Krieger San Jose Mercury-Newslkrieger@mercurynews.com Posted: 07/10/2010 08:00:00 PM PDTUpdated: 07/10/2010 11:29:02 PM PDThttp://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_15480908?source=rss&nclick_check=1 Note: The original article includes a graphic. Click on the url above. Many workers yearn for retirement — the goodbye parties, the golf course, maybe even a gold watch. But Stanford University has the opposite problem: Nobody wants to leave. Hoping to create…

  • State Books Balanced for 2009-10 (Well Sort of)

    Byadmin

    The latest and last cash report for the fiscal year 2009-10 that ended June 30 has been released by the state controller. You can find it at: http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy0910_june.pdf To cut to the chase, revenues were around $87 billion and disbursements were around $87 billion. (I have excluded inflows of non-revenues which are mainly grabs from various funds and reserves outside the general fund.) So a rough balance was achieved. Now, it is true that the revenues included the outcomes of tax increases that are scheduled to expire in the future. And it is true that gimmicks such as moving the…

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    UC Merced med school? Now?

    Byadmin

    Support for UC Merced med school grows: Valley groups want program despite tough times. Posted at 12:52 AM on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010By Barbara Anderson / The Fresno Bee A proposed medical school at the UC Merced has overwhelming support in the San Joaquin Valley, with a growing coalition pushing to get money to build the school in tough economic times, a report released today shows. “The Valley has embraced this project, this initiative,” said Bryn Forhan, a Fresno businesswoman and chairwoman of the Valley Coalition for UC Merced Medical School. At community meetings held last year in nine counties…

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    Almost 2/3 Favor Abolishing 2/3 on State Budget

    Byadmin

    A proposition (Prop 25) on the November 2010 ballot will allow voters to choose whether to abolish the 2/3 vote requirement to pass a state budget in both houses of the legislature. Almost 2/3 of voters support a simple majority vote on the budget according to the latest Field Poll. You can examine the results (including data on voter attitudes towards other items on the ballot) at: http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2342.pdf If you really want to look at the details, go to:http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2010/07/08/16/0709rls.source.prod_affiliate.4.pdf Voters from both parties support abolishing the 2/3 rule on budgets, although support is stronger among Democrats. The 2/3 requirement on…

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    Database on Higher Ed Including UCLA

    Byadmin

    The database described below should get an award for being user-unfriendly. However, it does include UCLA and I did succeed (somewhat) in obtaining some data from it. I invite anyone with more patience to see what might be uncovered. Follow the directions as best you can. The database is at: http://www.tcs-online.org/Reports/Report.aspx An excerpt from a description from Inside Higher Ed:Follow the Money July 9, 2010 In a sea of often bewildering data about college spending practices, a small island of clarity is emerging. In conjunction with its third annual “Trends in College Spending” report, released today, the Delta Project on…

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    Competition with the Private Universities & Endowments

    Byadmin

    A recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that private universities react asymmetrically to shocks to their endowments. In particular, they overreact to negative shocks by cutting their operating budgets. That may suggest that, in the aftermath of their recent big financial losses, the privates were not as aggressive in raiding UC as they could have been but also that this effect is likely to wear off. That is, the endowment-loss effect may have shielded UC for a time, but we cannot count on it continuing. Below is a summary of the paper: Why I Lost…

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    Governor’s Pension Symposium of July 8

    Byadmin

    Governor Schwarzenegger ran a public pension symposium on July 8. It was essentially a panel of academics, legislators and former legislators (including former assembly speaker Willie Brown), local officials, past CalPERS members, and academics. You can see a video of the roughly 1-hour symposium by going to the governor’s website: www.gov.ca.gov and clicking on “multimedia.” The symposium concentrated on CalPERS and, to a lesser extent, CalSTRS. UCRS was mentioned in passing at roughly minute 39, but was not explicitly discussed. In particular, the important $2-for-$1 issue that separates UCRS from other public pensions in California was not discussed. (Approximately $2…