Author: uclafaculty

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Student Aid Alliance

Byuclafaculty

From Inside Higher Ed today (excerpt below) comes a note about the Student Aid Alliance, a higher education group of which both UC and CSU are members. Alliance Pushes to Save Pell From ‘Super Committee’ October 25, 2011 The Student Aid Alliance, a group of 74 higher education associations, advocacy groups and other organizations, announced a lobbying campaign Monday to fight possible cuts to federal financial aid as the Congressional committee on deficit reduction enters the final month before its Nov. 24 deadline… There are various links in the article including a petition that you may find of interest. Full…

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UC Admissions in Newspeak?

Byuclafaculty

UC’s new admissions rules confuse applicants: The SAT subject exams are no longer required. If students take them anyway, good scores can help but poor scores won’t hurt, administrators say. (except) Larry Gordon, LA Times, 10/24/11 …(T)he new rules have caused widespread confusion and anxiety among students about whether to take the supplemental tests known as SAT subject exams. {Note from yours truly: These tests are the subject exams, not the regular SAT which remains required.} To boost their chances of UC admission, thousands of high school seniors are taking the subject exams even though the university has dropped them…

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Just a Little Patience

Byuclafaculty

If you are like me, you will have received the postcard above last week (despite the Sept. 27 date), inviting you to look at UCLA’s crime data. But if you took up the invitation on the card to visit the website, you got the message above: Under Maintenance: The site you are trying to reach is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. The website will be accessible shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience. So we patiently await: Update: The website is back up. You can go directly to the crime data at http://www.ucpd.ucla.edu/2011/2010%20Clery%20Statistics.pdf

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Monday Afternoon Traffic Alert

Byuclafaculty

An LAObserved report yesterday suggested that getting home from UCLA this coming Monday (Oct. 24) may be complicated by an “Obamajam.” (Excerpt) President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive at LAX on board Air Force One between 4:30 and 5 p.m. on Monday, the White House just announced. This means that however he moves to the Hancock Park area for Democratic campaign fundraisers … his travel will fall during the peak time for cross-town traffic. Yeah, we’re talking Obamajam again… Full article at http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2011/10/obama_arrival_monday_will.php It’s hard to imagine that the President arriving around rush hour at LAX will not affect…

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How Big?

Byuclafaculty

How big would a 282 room hotel be? That is the size of the old proposal for a hotel/conference center that was originally slated to replace the Faculty Center. To give you an idea of its size, a new hotel has just opened in Santa Monica with only 164 rooms. 164/282 = 58%. The picture above shows that the Santa Monica hotel is quite large despite the much smaller number of rooms. As prior posts have noted, none of the private hotels in the Westwood area are as big as 282 rooms. While awaiting the revised proposal for the hotel/conference…

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Rising Employee Pension Contributions

Byuclafaculty

A note from the Daily Bruin of 10/20/11: Faculty and staff could be paying more toward retirement within two years in a proposal to be discussed by the UC Board of Regents in November. Under the proposal, employee contributions to the University of California Retirement Plan would rise to 6.5 percent of covered salary starting July 1, 2013. The UC, meanwhile, would pay 12 percent. Right now, faculty and staff contribute 3.5 percent and the UC pays 7 percent. This is the second time in about a year that the regents will vote to raise employee and UC contributions. Last…

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There Goes the Baby: Fewer UC Undergrads in Late 2030s?

Byuclafaculty

Given the chart above from today’s Sacramento Bee, will there be fewer UC undergrads in the late 2020s and beyond? The original chart is at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/20/3990370_a3990291/california-birthrate-lowest-since.html Accompanying article is at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/20/3990370/california-birthrate-lowest-since.html It’s an interesting question:

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Bad News for UCLA Night Owls Next Week (Unless You Stay All Night)

Byuclafaculty

Wilshire Boulevard Closure Postponed Until Monday As Part Of 405 Construction Work The contractor is anticipated to begin erecting bridge false-work at the Wilshire under-crossing on Monday, Oct. 24 through Thursday, Oct. 28, 2011 from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. The 405 construction contractor has postponed the full closure of Wilshire Boulevard until Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. This activity will require the full closure of Wilshire Blvd., from Veteran to Federal. False-work is a temporary structure used to support structures in order to hold the component in place until construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself. Sepulveda Blvd. will be…

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So far, money from we-know-not-where has not appeared in state budget

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog will know, UC’s budget is still threatened by a possible pulling of a budget “trigger” if forecast revenues do not arrive as anticipated. What the legislature did when it enacted this fiscal year’s budget was to assume incremental revenue – but not raise taxes (or prevent the end of temporary taxes) to generate that additional revenue. Having made the assumption, it could then pass the budget by simple majority vote, i.e., without the 2/3 vote that a tax increase or extension would have required which would have entailed Republican votes. All budgets are based on…