Author: uclafaculty

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Trigger May Limit Appeal of Governor’s Tax Initiative

Byuclafaculty

There could be as many as three tax initiatives on the November ballot.  The Field Poll just released posed all three to registered voters and reported the results.  One of the three is sponsored by Governor Brown.  Another is sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers – CFT.  (CFT is the smaller of the two teacher unions in California.)  A third is sponsored by Molly Munger, a wealthy individual.  The sponsors of all three have the financial resources to get pay signature-gathering firms to get their initiatives on the ballot. Brown is convinced from focus groups and polling that his…

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Seeds of a New Solution for the Japanese Garden?

Byuclafaculty

In case you missed it, on Feb. 21, the Daily Bruin ran an offer to UCLA from a coalition of groups to maintain the Japanese Garden that UCLA controversially proposes to sell.  Excerpts: On Feb. 9, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block wrote a piece in the Daily Bruin stating that the sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is in the university’s best interests.  The organizations and the family of Hannah Carter who have formed the Coalition to Save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden respectfully submit that other options are possible, and, indeed, preferable. …On Jan. 31, the coalition convened a public informational…

Let No Campus Be Left Behind (in Having a Med School)

Byuclafaculty

To loud applause at the Riverside Convention Center, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday that she is lobbying Gov. Jerry Brown to find $15 million a year to help open and run the medical school at UC Riverside. Feinstein, D-Calif., sent a letter Tuesday to the governor urging him to include the money in his annual budget so UCR can open the school in 2013… “I am going to need your help to call on our great governor and say, ‘Jerry, you’ve got to find $15 million,’” she said. “It can be found.”  Gov. Brown was traveling to Washington, D.C.,…

Pepper Suit at UC-Davis

Byuclafaculty

The San Francisco Chronicle today is carrying a story indicating that students are suing UC-Davis over the pepper spray incident.  Oddly, I could find nothing in the student newspaper at Davis on the lawsuit or in the Sacramento Bee. In any event, from the Chronicle: UC Davis students who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during a sit-down Occupy protest sued the officers and university administrators in federal court Wednesday, claiming excessive force and suppression of free speech…  The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento by 17 students and two graduates who took part in the demonstration, which was organized…

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Too Many in the UC Lifeboat?

Byuclafaculty

Mike Lofchie pointed me to this article which questions the one-system view of UC and, in particular, UC-Merced, in a period of budget stringency. February 12, 2012, Chronicle of Higher Education Fault Lines Form Among Campuses as Finances Strain U. of California (excerpt): By Eric Kelderman President Mark G. Yudof of the University of California often says that the system he oversees is one university with 10 campuses.  But some higher-education experts say the economic strains and budget cuts of the past three years are fraying the ties that hold the system together. Several campus leaders have proposed measures to…

Bargains at UC-Berkeley

Byuclafaculty

Devra Breslow pointed me to this NY Times article on how UC-Berkeley sold a million dollar artwork for $150: (excerpt) Everybody misplaces something sometime. But it is not easy for the University of California, Berkeley, to explain how it lost a 22-foot-long carved panel by a celebrated African-American sculptor, or how, three years ago, it mistakenly sold this work, valued at more than a million dollars, for $150 plus tax.  The university’s embarrassing loss eventually enabled the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, a large museum and research center in San Marino, Calif., to acquire its first major work…

Governor’s Pension Freeze for UC Deserves a Frosty Response

Byuclafaculty

Excerpt from calpensions.com 2-21-12 Under the new budget proposed by Gov. Brown, the annual state payment to CalPERS drops from $3.5 billion this year to $3.1 billion in the new fiscal year.  The payment falls, at a time most pension costs are rising, because a $404 million payment to CalPERS for California State University pensions is shifted from the state budget to CSU.  The change is part of a proposal that could freeze state support for CSU and UC pensions. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said CSU would be faced with a potential burden “out of proportion” to its limited…