Author: uclafaculty

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Anti-Pension Group Admits it Has No Money for its Ballot Initiatives

Byuclafaculty

A group pushing ballot initiatives that would have swept UC into a statewide pension formula turns out to have no money for signature gathering. Excerpt: A conservative group announced Wednesday that it was suspending its campaign to put public employee pension reform on the November ballot.  Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform, said his group could not raise enough money to mount a petition-signature drive. A successful drive typically requires at least $2 million…  “California Pension Reform is suspending its effort to qualify an initiative for the 2012 ballot after determining that the attorney general’s false and misleading title and…

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LAO Report on Higher Ed Contains Significant Pension Recommendations

Byuclafaculty

The state’s Legislative Analyst has released a lengthy report on funding higher education which covers UC, CSU, and the community colleges (as well as CalGrants).  The report is essentially a response to the governor’s January budget proposal with regard to higher ed. Generally, the report tends to disagree with the governor’s approach which the Legislative Analyst views as giving too much autonomy to UC and the other segments with regard to enrollment and other matters.  On the other hand, it documents the trend towards reduced state funding and thus seems to continue the pay-less/say-more approach which is odd on its…

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More History Lessons (from Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read)

Byuclafaculty

As Chair of the Faculty Association at UCLA, I would like to emphasize again the point that was made in the Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 Blog on this site, “Plenty of Nothing.” The Governor wrote in his proposed budget: “The University of California (UC) will receive an increase of $90 million from the General Fund for base operating costs, which can be used to address costs related to retirement program contributions.”  The main purpose of the public employee retirement law (PERL), passed in 1931, was to separate pension funding from all other kinds of funding. Early on, the state recognized that…

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UC Tuition: His Way or the Conway?

Byuclafaculty

The photo shows Assembly Speaker John Pérez talking to GOP minority leader Connie Conway.  Given the excerpt below from today’s online San Francisco Chronicle, let’s hope he is being super-persuasive. ==============Excerpt: California students from middle-income families would receive massive breaks on tuition and fees at the state’s colleges and universities under legislation Assembly Speaker John Pérez plans to introduce today at the Capitol.  Under the plan, undergraduate students from families with household income of less than $150,000 would have their tuition and fees cut by two-thirds, bringing the cost below what it was nearly a decade ago.  It would amount…

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Regents’ Court Petition to Allow Sale of UCLA Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog know, we have been posting documents related to UCLA’s proposed sale of the Japanese Garden.  The university’s ownership of the garden followed from a donation by Regent Edward Carter in the 1960s.  Carter’s wealth arose from his department stores.  You can see his signature on the stock certificate from Broadway-Hale and later one from Carter-Hawley-Hale. The donation by Carter was modified by an agreement in the early 1980s.  However, because the sequence of agreements required that the university maintain the garden in perpetuity, once UCLA determined to sell the garden, it had to go to…

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The 2009 “Toolbox” Report and the Japanese Garden (& Other Issues)

Byuclafaculty

Given the ongoing budget crisis, UCLA formed a task force to look at various revenue-generating options.  The report of the task force is dated April 24, 2009.  Among the possibilities considered was the sale of various properties including the Japanese Garden.  The report indicates that consultations with the state Attorney General were underway well before the 2010 court decision that permitted the sale, even though it was inconsistent with the existing terms of the donation.The report explores other areas such as faculty pay, fund raising, “branding,” and tuition.  You can read the full report at the link below (scroll towards…