Author: uclafaculty

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Still Awaiting the Business Plan for the Hotel/Conference Center

Byuclafaculty

It’s been over a week since Faculty Association Executive Director Susan Gallick offered to come over and get the business plan for the proposed hotel/conference center. As readers of this blog will recall, the Faculty Association has submitted a Public Records Act request for the plan and so far received no plan or any related documents.See her offer at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/12/public-documents-request-on-hotel-we.htmlUnderneath any enterprise, there has to be a sound business plan. So can we peel back the pretty (but “conceptual”) drawings of the hotel and have the plan revealed? Perhaps this video will help set the mood:

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Audio of Conclusion of the Regents Meeting of Nov. 28, 2011

Byuclafaculty

We earlier posted the bulk of the Regents meeting of Nov. 28 up to the point where demonstrations temporarily shut down the proceedings. The Nov. 28 meeting was the result of a postponement of the meeting originally scheduled for two weeks earlier. That meeting was cancelled due to concern over possible violent demonstrations. We now have the audio for the brief portion of the meeting that resumed (about 17 minutes). Various capital projects were approved. There was a further disturbance at one point. Minutes of committees were approved. A change in compensation reporting practices was approved. Various executive compensation adjustments…

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Audio of the Nov. 7 Regents Committee on Compliance & Audit

Byuclafaculty

The UC Regents Committee on Compliance and Audit met on November 7, 2011 in advance of the full Regents meeting that was originally scheduled for the following week. The full Regents meeting was postponed due to concern about possible violent demonstrations. This blog has been making available audios of the Regents meetings. A link to the audio can be found at the bottom of this blog entry. During the public comment section of the Committee meeting, the first speaker made a satirical speech for privatizing UC on behalf of the 1%, as opposed to the 99%, as per the Occupy…

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Another Hint of Discussions with the State Behind Closed Doors on Multiyear Tuition Increase Deal

Byuclafaculty

The text below in italics is from UC President Yudof’s Facebook page. As noted in a prior post on this blog, there are hints of a multiyear-tuition-increase/steady-budget-support-from-the-state being discussed behind closed doors with Brown administration officials. See the bold print below. We are extremely disappointed that UC is faced with yet another significant State budget reduction: the $100 million “trigger cut” just announced. This additional cut will exacerbate the fiscal challenges the University faces in the current year and place additional stress on the quality of education provided to UC students. While the $650 million cut to UC enacted by…

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UC-Berkeley Announces New Tuition/Financial Aid Plan

Byuclafaculty

Below is the press release and a related video. Note that the aid is said to be financed by non-state sources including recycling revenue from out-of-state students. UC Berkeley launches groundbreaking middle-class financial aid plan By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley | December 14, 2011 University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced today (Wednesday, Dec. 14) a new financial aid program to help middle-class families pay for the growing cost of an undergraduate degree. For families whose gross income ranges from $80,000 to $140,000 annually, the new plan caps the contribution parents make toward the total annual cost of a…

Oil Tax for Higher Ed via Initiative?

Byuclafaculty

From KQED Capital Notes 12/14/11 (excerpt): One thing that’s safe to say about John Burton, the veteran legislator who now chairs the California Democratic Party: he doesn’t ask for permission before he acts. And so on Tuesday, while Governor Jerry Brown was telling reporters that he hopes to clear the field of other tax initiatives aiming for the November ballot, Burton was filing a tax initiative of his own — an oil severance tax to help fund higher education… Burton’s proposal is pretty straightforward, and would assess a 12.5% tax per barrel of oil, with exceptions made for low-producing oil…

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Buried Lede: UC Reviving Multiyear Tuition Increase Plan with State?

Byuclafaculty

Last September, UC President Yudof proposed to the Regents a multiyear tuition increase plan. The Regents argued among themselves and nothing was adopted. Today’s San Francisco Chronicle, in a report on how higher ed is dealing with the trigger cuts (see earlier blog posts), has a buried lede*: UC will offset the $100 million cut with money it over-contributed for health care, a pool of excess cash that happens to be just above $100 million, UC spokesman Steve Montiel said. “It’s a temporary solution,” Montiel said, adding that UC is in talks with the state Department of Finance to try…

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Free Textbooks from State Online Source?

Byuclafaculty

Darrell Steinberg wants digital library of free textbooks (Excerpt 12/13/11) Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced today that he will push for legislation to create an online open source library to reduce the cost of course materials for college students across the state. The Sacramento Democrat framed the proposed project as an effort to lower costs for students struggling to cope with higher fees and tuition rates at California’s public colleges and universities… Steinberg said the average student spends $1,300 a year on textbooks, a figure his staff said is based on projections the University of California, California State…

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Early Budget Leak

Byuclafaculty

It’s standard practice for bits and pieces concerning the governor’s upcoming (January) budget proposal to start leaking out in December. Today, on “Which Way LA?” – the evening program of KCRW – H.D. Palmer, a spokesperson for Governor Brown, indicated that there would be a budget presented which assumed the governor’s proposed tax initiative would pass. That initiative won’t be on the ballot until November (on the assumption that the governor can get the money to get the needed signatures), well into the 2012-13 fiscal year. If voters reject the initiative, there will be another budget trigger that would automatically…