Author: uclafaculty

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UC (and UCLA) Campus Climate Survey

Byuclafaculty

After a series of racial incidents on various campuses (including UCLA), UCOP and the Regents hired a consultant, Susan Rankin of Penn State, to do a “campus climate survey.”  She has done such survey work at other universities in different parts of the U.S. in recent years. This is an expensive endeavor.  I have been told informally that the cost is something like half a million dollars.  The survey instrument draft proposal is quite lengthy and there have been concerns about participation rates for faculty, staff, and students.  Participation will be voluntary and anonymous.  Each campus will have a survey….

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Tuition Comparison Shopping

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today pointed to an article from the San Jose Mercury-News noting that for certain families, it’s cheaper to go to Harvard than to CSU or UC.  The issue is complicated.  Not all private universities offer the reductions in sticker price tuition that Harvard does (and not everyone gets into private universities that do). An interesting question is what happens at lower incomes than the $130,000 family income cited in the article.  Public universities and privates (if they have the resources) can lower tuition to zero.  Publics may have more problems in giving the full ride (tuition, housing,…

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Yet another item to keep an eye on when the business plan for the UCLA hotel/conference center is released: Occupancy Rate

Byuclafaculty

The state capitol today may be occupied by the 99%.  But it is unlikely that the occupancy rate for the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center will be that high.  Keep your eye on that variable when the business plan for the project is released. As we noted yesterday and the day before, we still have not seen the business plan for the hotel/conference center, although the UCLA Faculty Association requested it long ago and although the next Regents meeting is coming up towards the end of March.  If the plan is not released soon, it won’t be eligible for consideration by…

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Another item to keep an eye on when the business plan for the UCLA hotel/conference center is released: Non-commercial use

Byuclafaculty

A post on this blog yesterday noted that with the upcoming Regents meeting in late March, UCLA will soon have to release its business plan for the proposed hotel/conference center if it wants to get it on the agenda. So far, no plan has been released despite an official public records request for a copy from the UCLA Faculty Association. The preliminary description of the proposal indicated that the hotel/conference center would take only non-commercial business.  An example could be a campus-sponsored research conference and participants in such events.  The non-commercial limitation allows for tax-exempt financing but limits the potential…

Governor says he won’t back UC-Riverside medical school

Byuclafaculty

The saga of efforts to create another UC med school continues.  Does every campus have to have one? ==============…While acknowledging he hasn’t looked at the school’s merits, (Governor) Brown said he is less inclined to fund it when the University of California regents haven’t committed any of the system’s state funding to the school.  The medical school has been in the works for years and originally was set to open this year. But so far, UCR officials have not been able to secure ongoing state funding. UCR leaders are pushing ahead with private fundraising — the goal is $10 million a…

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One Element to Keep Your Eye on When the Business Plan for the UCLA Hotel/Conference Center is Revealed: Parking

Byuclafaculty

The next Regents meeting is scheduled for March 27-29.  If UCLA wants to get its hotel/conference center proposal on the agenda – which is typically published online by the Regents about two weeks before each meeting – it will soon have to unveil its business plan.  The UCLA Faculty Association has been requesting that plan for months, so far without results. There are many elements of the new plan to consider.  One difference between the original plan, which would have been constructed on the Faculty Center site, is replacement parking.  The original site would have displaced some ground-level parking next…

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More Bad 405 Traffic News for UCLA Night Owls

Byuclafaculty

…The northbound 405 will be closed from Getty Center Drive to Ventura Boulevard Saturday night as crews continue to work on rebuilding the Mulholland bridge over the freeway. Some freeway ramps in the area could begin closing as early as 7 p.m. and some lanes could be blocked beginning at 10 p.m. All northbound lanes will be closed at midnight, but the closures should be lifted by 5 a.m.   The southbound lanes between the Ventura (101) Freeway and Getty Center Drive will be closed Monday and Tuesday nights. Southbound closures are also planned on the nights of March 12 and…

Reasonably Popular

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today pointed me to the poll results from Pew showing the relative popularity of various institutions including colleges and universities. The Inside Higher Ed story is athttp://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/03/02/60-americans-have-positive-views-colleges The Pew results are athttp://www.people-press.org/2012/03/01/colleges-viewed-positively-but-conservatives-express-doubts/?src=prc-newsletter So we’re popular but maybe not very, very popular:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t5IvROMwLY&w=320&h=195]

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UCLA History: Angela Davis

Byuclafaculty

A report in today’s LA Times on the Occupy protests at several CSU and UC campuses (including one at UCLA) reported the following: …Turnout was small at UCLA. Occupy protesters set up eight or so tents on Wilson Plaza, which the demonstrators said they renamed after Angela Davis, the politically radical professor who taught at UCLA. The group said they intended to keep the tents up through the night, and campus authorities said they were undecided if that would be allowed… Full story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-student-protests-20120302,0,3924235.story Why Angela Davis?   A newscast from October 1969 deals with the Angela Davis controversy at UCLA…

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DA Overreaching?

Byuclafaculty

In 2008, a fire resulted from a chemical reaction and a student lab assistant was killed.  Some time later, a UCLA chemistry professor was indicted, along with the Regents, by the Los Angeles District Attorney.  UCLA asserts that there was no willful crime committed and is providing for the defense of the professor. In that case, there was substantial outside publicity and investigations by workplace safety authorities.  The matter was widely reported in the Los Angeles Times and other sources. You may have seen yesterday’s Daily Bruin which carried a front page headline about the indictment by the DA of…