Author: uclafaculty

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Building Boom Raises Questions, Especially for Proposed UCLA Hotel/Conference Center

Byuclafaculty

Every time a construction crane is sighted on the UCLA campus, questions are raised such as those appearing in an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.  (See the italicized text below.)  All the more reason why – if there is a sound financial plan for the proposed UCLA hotel/ conference center – it needs to be released now. California has slashed public university budgets, yet construction is booming at campuses statewide.  The University of California system has $8.9 billion in building projects under way at its 10 campuses and five medical centers, including about $2 billion at UCSF, which is…

Governor Agrees to New Tax Initiative to Limit Competition Between Initiatives

Byuclafaculty

The governor apparently has negotiated a deal with groups pushing for an alternative to his tax initiative slated for this coming November.  A new initiative has been filed and signatures must now be gathered within a limited time frame since we are already in mid-March.  The chart above – which was apparently drawn up hastily for release – indicates that the sales tax increase proposed by the governor has been cut from a half cent to a quarter cent for four years.  The offset is more of an increase in the upper brackets of the state income tax with the…

Arguments on Pepper Spray Incident at UC-Davis to Be Heard in Court on Friday

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee carries a report on the upcoming (Friday) court hearing on whether the report on the UC-Davis pepper spray incident can be made public as written or whether redaction of elements regarding the individual police officers must be made.  UC takes the position that the full report is a public document. The story is athttp://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/14/4335491/pepper-spray-report-puts-spotlight.html

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Still Searching for the Hotel Business Plan – Now Overdue at the Regents If It Hasn’t Been Sent

Byuclafaculty

We’re still searching for the business plan for the proposed UCLA Hotel/Conference Center.  If it hasn’t been sent to the Regents by now, it should not be on the agenda.  And if it has been sent to the Regents, it exists.  So what happened to the longstanding public documents requests for the plan made by the UCLA Faculty Association and others? We noted yesterday that the story is on the front page of the LA Business Journal this week.  Now CurbedLA has picked up the tale:http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/westwood_hoteliers_fighting_uclas_campus_hotel_plans.php Like we said, we’re searching:

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On Our Level

Byuclafaculty

CalPERS’ governing board voted to cut its earnings forecast to 7.5%, the same level assumed in UCRP. There were earlier reports, as readers of this blog will know, that CalPERS would cut below us to 7.25%. If CalPERS had dropped below UCRP, the Regents might well have reduced their forecast. As noted in earlier posts, changing the earnings forecast does not change the future actual earnings.  The future will be what it will be. But lowering the forecast increases the estimated unfunded liability and could thus trigger higher contributions or some other adjustment. We will see at the upcoming Regents…

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As the Sun Rose This Morning, There Was Still No Business Plan for the Hotel/Conference Center Posted on the Regents’ Website

Byuclafaculty

We are now at the two-week deadline for getting items on the Regents’ agenda for the March 27-28 meeting but there is still no business plan for the proposed UCLA Hotel/Conference Center. Plan: Where are you?

Such Harsh Punishment!

Byuclafaculty

The University of California, Berkeley, has demoted and reduced the salary of a veteran administrator accused of improperly giving pay raises to an employee with whom she was having a sexual relationship. Diane Leite, 47, a former assistant vice chancellor in the Research Enterprise Services department, pushed through five raises in two years for Jonathan Caniezo…  Caniezo, a 30-year-old purchasing manager, saw his pay rise from less than $70,000 in 2007 to more than $110,000 in 2010, according to university records obtained by the newspaper.  Caniezo’s direct supervisor had opposed the raises, arguing that he had not earned them, according to a report by school investigators…  After…

State Budget News Through February Not So Good

Byuclafaculty

The latest state controller’s report through February on cash flows into and out of the general fund indicates that we are down about $6.5 billion in revenue from last year.  Most of that drop is due to the fact that the governor did not get the tax extensions he proposed when the budget was finally enacted.  But about $800 million is below the projections he made in the budget documents that accompanied his January proposal for next year’s budget.  Spending came in somewhat under his January projections. The controller’s latest report is at:http://www.controller.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy1112_feb.pdf Maybe it’s just February:

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Hard to Keep the Hotel Secret from the Regents When It’s on the Front Page

Byuclafaculty

The business plan for the hotel/conference center is still being withheld.  And it is not yet on the Regents website for the upcoming March meeting.  But with the story on the front page, surely the Regents now know that something is coming.  Excerpts from story are below: Westwood Innkeepers See No Room for UCLA Hotel By Jacquelyn Ryan, 3-12-12, LA Business Journal (excerpts) A proposed UCLA hotel and conference center – newly scaled down and moved to satisfy upset faculty and neighbors – is finally heading to the UC Regents this month for review.  But even if the $152 million…

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Time Challenged in Murphy Hall?

Byuclafaculty

Time is a complicated thing to understand.  For example, today in the LA Times today you will read that:Daylight saving time began at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, meaning the clocks “spring forward” one hour. The change will mean that there will be more hours of daylight…  (italics added) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/daylight-savings-time-today-.html And just as the LA Times seems to be chronologically (and astronomically) challenged, so, too, does whoever is hanging on to the top secret business plan for the hotel/conference center.   To get the plan before the Regents meeting in late March, it will have to be released this coming week. The…