Author: uclafaculty

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UC-San Diego Community College Transfer Guarantee to End

The UC San Diego program that guarantees transfer admission to community college students who meet certain requirements will come to an end in 2014, campus officials have decided.  They said explosive growth in the number applications under the program, coupled with sharp cuts in state funding for the University of California, have threatened to swamp the campus. Administrators and students at area community colleges said the decision will disproportionately harm disadvantaged students…UC San Diego’s Transfer Admissions Guarantee, or TAG, program began in the early 1980s. Students from the six regional districts who took specific required courses and earned a 3.0…

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Building Blocks: No Lessons Learned?

As part of his upcoming 5-year review, Chancellor Block has written a self-statement. In a 9-page document (not counting the cover letter) about his vision for the campus and accomplishments, the hotel/conference center is mentioned on four of them.  (First full paragraph of pages 4 and 5; last paragraph of pages 7 and 9.)  As readers of this blog will know, the Regents had major doubts about the feasibility of this project and the priority it represents. The self-statement is dated April 12, i.e., two weeks after the embarrassment for UCLA at the March Regents meeting concerning the hotel.  You…

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UC History: April 30, July 2, whatever, whenever

“Today” in the tweet on the right was actually yesterday. The Morrill Act of 1862 was also known as the Land Grant College Act. It was a major boost to higher education in America. The grant was originally set up to establish institutions in each state that would educate people in agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts, and other professions that were practical at the time. The land-grant act was introduced by a congressman from Vermont named Justin Smith Morrill. He envisioned the financing of agricultural and mechanical education. He wanted to assure that education would be available to those in…

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Can’t we all get along?

From today’s Inside Higher Ed (excerpt): UCLA wants to revamp general education requirement Kaustuv Basu, April 30, 2012 Critics of a proposal by the University of California Los Angeles to add a compulsory course on community and conflict to its general education requirements for the College of Letters and Science say that the idea say is akin to peddling old wine in a new bottle, and not much different from a diversity requirement that was voted down by faculty in 2004. Next month, faculty members are expected to vote on the measure, variations of which have been decades in the…

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Wider Lessons to Be Learned (Even at UCLA!) from UC-Davis’s Pepper Spray Report

Yours truly does a “Mitchell’s Musings” weekly blog for the Employment Policy Research Network (http://www.employmentpolicy.org/) of which he is senior academic editor.  Normally, this blog and that one don’t cover similar topics.  But in this case they do so I cross-post below. Could there be some lessons for UCLA that emerge from the UC-Davis pepper-spray incident?  Could there even be some linkage to UCLA’s proposed hotel/conference center? Might be!  Fair and balanced; you decide! ===== Mitchell’s Musings 4-30-12: The Real Pepper-Flavored Lessons of Hindsight Daniel J.B. Mitchell By now, the world has become aware of the University of California-Davis’ “pepper-spray cop,”…

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No Way (for UC), San Jose

As previous blog posts have noted, Governor Brown has proposed a statewide pension plan that would override the Regents’ changes to the UC pension and would require a “hybrid” plan with defined benefit and defined contribution components, a 75% cap, etc.  UC’s official position is that it shouldn’t be included.  However, the governor has not acquiesced. The legislature’s majority Democrats have been reluctant to consider the governor’s plan and have been considering alternatives.  Brown has warned public sector unions that local governments will be putting plans on the ballot and adopting pension plans that are more stringent than his proposal…

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Tuition Hunger Strike at CSU

[Excerpt] Students at six Cal State University campuses have vowed to fast until university leaders agree to freeze tuition, roll back administrative and executive salaries and meet other demands. Members of Students for Quality Education said Friday that the hunger strike will begin Wednesday and involve 13 students at the Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge, Sacramento and San Bernardino campuses… Cal State officials said Friday that no decisions have been made on whether to intervene in the hunger strike. The students don’t appear to have a clear understanding of the issues, said spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp. For example, campus presidents…