Author: admin

  • Cooperation?

    Byadmin

    As previous posts noted, for now the Congressional impasse and government shutdown is having only limited effects on higher ed so far.  The effects will increase as time passes without a resolution. Right now, the prospects of such a resolution are difficult to see.  From the website of the San Francisco Chronicle: Indiana GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman said he wanted respect in the budget standoff. Instead, he got ridicule from President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats. Stutzman is being mocked for saying Republicans should get something from the budget standoff — but he doesn’t know what that is. The tea…

  • Cartoon wisdom that continues to dog us online

    Byadmin

    The cartoon above appeared twenty years ago.  According to Inside Higher Ed today, it still has much merit: …Ocorrafoo Cobange, a biologist at the Wassee Institute of Medicine in Asmara, recently had an article about the medical properties of a chemical extracted from a lichen accepted for publication — by more than half of the 304 open-access journals he submitted it to. Of course, Cobange is not real, and neither is the Wassee Institute. They are both inventions of John Bohannon, the Harvard University biologist and writer who documented the study in this week’s edition of Science. “Acceptance was the…

  • |

    Will common sense prevail?

    Byadmin

    The LA County DA continues to pursue a case against a UCLA faculty member that sure seems like a matter for civil, not criminal, litigation.  Will common sense prevail in the DA’s office?  So far, no sign of it happening. From the Daily Bruin: At a pretrial hearing Thursday, a Los Angeles County judge ordered UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran to return to court next month regarding a lawsuit that involves the death of a UCLA lab assistant in a 2008 laboratory fire.Harran is expected back in court on Nov. 20, said Daniel Prince, a lawyer representing Harran. His trial…

  • | |

    Don’t twist their arms

    Byadmin

    Our previous post noted that donors do not inherently insist on capital projects.  In fact, UCLA just got $20 million, it was announced yesterday, for environmental teaching and research: http://centurycity.patch.com/groups/schools/p/hyatt-hotel-heirs-donate-20m-to-ucla   Some dutiful blog readers will recall that over a year ago we posted an interview with Mark Yudof in which he insisted that UC puts donor money into buildings only when the donors absolutely insist on it – which is not at all the history of the UCLA Grand Hotel.  You can find the audio of the interview at: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/07/ucla-hotel-did-not-happen-that-way.html The fact is that donors have interests beyond bricks…

  • | |

    Aint that a shame?

    Byadmin

    It was another slow day at the worksite of the UCLA Grand Hotel yesterday.  The photo above was taken around 10:30 am.  Apparently, there was more action in the courtroom.  According to a media release put out by UCLA, a court decision removed the donors from one of the two lawsuits against the Grand Hotel.  (One lawsuit says the environmental review wasn’t done properly; the other says the hotel will have to pay taxes.)  You can find the media release at: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/donors-ucla-foundation-removed-248713.aspx The Daily Bruin version, based on the release, is at:http://dailybruin.com/2013/10/02/luskins-ucla-foundation-dismissed-as-defendants-in-case/ According to the media release, it was “shameful”…

  • |

    On Demand

    Byadmin

    We noted yesterday in a posting on former UC president Mark Yudof’s ruminations upon leaving office that his successor, Janet Napolitano, was possibly going to experience a vote of no-confidence from a student group at UCLA on her second day in office.  As it turned out, that didn’t quite happen.  Instead, various “demands” were enacted.  From the Daily Bruin: The undergraduate student government unanimously passed a resolution calling for University of California President Janet Napolitano to comply with a list of demands compiled by students from multiple UC campuses. The resolution passed after members of the Undergraduate Students Association Council…

  • Not the Only Way

    Byadmin

    Not the only blog & not the only way The simple way to read this blog is to do what you are doing now and click on it.  If you do it daily, you won’t miss anything.  (Or, if you do miss, you can always go back in time in it.)  But at the end of each quarter, we have been offering an alternative mode of reading.  If you click on the link below, you can read it like a book for the period July through September 2013.  However, you will find differences in the format and – most important…

  • |

    Garden Therapy

    Byadmin

    Blog readers will know that UCLA tried to sell the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and has been blocked so far by litigation since the original agreement specified the university would maintain the garden “in perpetuity.” This blog has urged UCLA to sit down with the family and others who have an interest and work out a deal that would conserve the garden even if it is sold.  Basically, the reason the sale has been blocked to this point is that the university’s attempt to sell it failed the sniff test.  If you haven’t followed the issue, type in “Japanese garden”…

  • | |

    Underappreciated?

    Byadmin

    In an interview with the Daily Californian, former UC president Mark Yudof seems to feel underappreciated: For the first time in five years, Mark Yudof will wake up Monday a free man. No longer will the outgoing UC president have to deal with angry accusations of screwing over students or unfairly bargaining with unions or ignoring the cries of protesters… The son of an electrician, Yudof completed his undergraduate education in just three years at the University of Pennsylvania and worked part time to pay for school, something he said has helped him better relate to the average worker.  Many…

  • | | |

    Orchestration of Public Pension Issue? Issue for UC?

    Byadmin

    In a prior post, we noted that there appeared to be a campaign underway by various groups to put a public pension initiative on the California ballot.  We noted that there have been such efforts in the past, but the money needed to mount an effective campaign wasn’t forthcoming.  Now, there may be such money.  The problem for UC is that we tend to be swept into such initiatives despite the fact that the Regents adopted their own pension plan changes back in 2010. This time around, there seems to be some coordination and orchestration of the campaign, e.g.: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/30/5782679/capitol-alert-cal-tax-estimates.html…