Author: admin

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    ObamaJam Tomorrow

    Byadmin

    Reports have it that the President will be on the Westside tomorrow, Friday, June 7 in the morning and afternoon.  Traffic may be affected.  Yours truly received an email from the City of Santa Monica concerning this potential disruption: In an effort to assist the public in avoiding traffic congestion during the visit of the President,on June 7, 2013, the following areas of the City should be avoided when possible to prevent travel delays for community members: Friday June 7, 2013.  The area around Centinela Avenue and West Olympic Boulevard from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and between the hours…

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    Cheap, Cheap

    Byadmin

    Poll results from today’s LA Times: …Among the registered voters who participated in the survey, 59% said they agreed with the idea that increasing the number of online classes at California’s public universities will make education more affordable and accessible. However, 34% expressed fears that expanding online classes will reduce access to professors, diminish the value of college degrees and not save money… The poll found substantial opposition to another possible campus change: increasing the share of students from other states and nations. Even though non-Californians pay much higher tuition, 57% of the poll respondents said that adding out-of-state students…

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    Bumps in Road for Academic Mothers Found at UC

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed today summarizes findings in a new book based on UC and other data arguing that female academics with children face both career and marital bumps in the road. …Written by long-term collaborators Mary Anne Mason, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; Nicholas Wolfinger, associate professor of sociology at the University of Utah; and Marc Goulden, director of data initiatives at Berkeley, the work also looks at the effects of successful careers in academe on professors’ personal lives… Concerns about time demands in relation to caretaking, and worries that advisers, future employers and peers…

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    Bus Lane on Wilshire Could Affect Commutes

    Byadmin

    A new bus-only lane is opening on Wilshire during rush hours including the segment near UCLA.  There may be an effect on commute times to UCLA. Info at http://www.metro.net/news/simple_pr/new-bus-lanes-open-wilshire-boulevard/ UPDATE: Did it happen in Westwood?  The LA Times version seems to say, “no.”  Sadly, yours truly is out of town and can’t confirm one way or another.  But here is the Times version: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bus-only-lanes-20130605,0,2062657.story

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    HathiTrust

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed today carries a story* indicating that the American Library Assn. is supporting various universities (including UC) and their position in the HathiTrust case.  “HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.”  [See http://www.hathitrust.org/ ] This is a case involving charges of copyright infringement by an organization called the Authors Guild.  We have posted entries about this case before.  The purpose of the HathiTrust is said to be “preserving and providing access to digitized book and journal content from the partner library collections. This…

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    Rush, Rush: The Grand Hotel Can’t Wait!!

    Byadmin

    UCLA seems to be in a big rush to create “facts on the ground” by demolishing parking structure #6, the site of the planned Grand Hotel.  The powers-that-be certainly apparently don’t want to wait for the various lawsuits to play out. From the Daily Bruin today: …Demolition of Parking Structure 6 will begin in early July. Construction crews will remove the structure in preparation for building the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference and Guest Center, which will be built in Parking Structure 6’s current location… Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2013/06/03/luskin-center-construction-to-demolish-parking-structure-6-relocate-drivers/ Some folks just have to hurry:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbhvZ2y1V80?feature=player_detailpage]

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    The Three State Budgets

    Byadmin

    Last Friday, there was a legislative hearing on the current three versions of the state budget for 2013-14.  There is the governor’s “May Revise” proposal and two separate proposals by the state assembly and the state senate.  The two legislative versions rely on a revenue forecast by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) which projects higher tax receipts than the governor’s Dept. of Finance (DOF).  However, the two legislative proposals use the extra revenue differently. From the UC perspective, there is no significant direct effect on the operating budget regardless of which budget is enacted.  However, the assembly version provides for…

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    Less of a There in Oakland?

    Byadmin

    You may have missed the op ed by Prof. David Myers, chair of the UCLA History Dept. in yesterday’s LA Times.  In it, he took note of the imminent departure of UC president Yudof to call for a substantial scaling back of UC’s headquarters operation in Oakland and more campus-level autonomy.  He also called for local boards of oversight for the resulting more-autonomous campuses.  Excerpt: As the University of California regents get down to the hard work of recruiting a new president before Mark G. Yudof retires in August, they might consider an even bolder move: a dramatic downsizing of…

  • Surprise!

    Byadmin

    As a follow-up to yesterday’s story about the announcement of deals with MOOC suppliers by various state university systems across the nation, Inside Higher Ed reports today that for many faculty, at those systems it was a surprise: Some faculty leaders were surprised this week when state systems and flagship universities in nine states announced a series of new business partnerships with Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based ed tech company. The universities plan to work with Coursera  a provider of massive open online courses, to try out a variety of new teaching methods and business models, including MOOCs and things that…