Author: uclafaculty

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Look for UC Exec Pay Headlines Soon

Byuclafaculty

The Regents are meeting this week. (We expect to have the audio of the prior meeting up soon on this site. Eventually, we will have the audio for this one, too.) Anyway, look for headlines about senior executive pay at UC in the next day or so. One of the items on the Regents’ agenda today: The last comprehensive study conducted on compensation for chancellors was completed in 2008. Given changes in market hiring practices, due to the mounting economic pressures on universities nationwide to watch expenses while still recruiting and retaining leadership, an updated comprehensive study of chancellors’ pay…

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Digital Lawsuit Includes UC

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed reports that UC is among various universities being sued for digitizing “orphan books” (books whose copyrights appear to have expired). It provides a link to the plaintiff’s press release: Authors Guild, Australian Society of Authors, Quebec Writers Union Sue Five U.S. Universities: Suit seeks impoundment of unauthorized scans of 7 million books September 12, 2011. This afternoon, we filed suit against HathiTrust, the University of Michigan and four other universities over their storage and use of millions of copyright-protected books. The press release follows: AUTHORS AND AUTHORS’ GROUPS FROM AUSTRALIA, QUEBEC, THE U.K., AND U.S. SUE HATHITRUST,…

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Up, Up, and Away

Byuclafaculty

Under plan, UC tuition could rise by 16% a year Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle September 13, 2011 The University of California would raise student tuition by at least 8 percent – or as much as 16 percent – every year through 2016 under a plan that UC leaders will propose to the regents Thursday in San Francisco. Basic tuition could top $22,000 in just four years, not including other mandatory fees, books, room and board, if the regents adopt the idea at their November meeting as part of a multiyear budget plan. Undergraduate tuition is currently $12,192. UC officials…

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Getting China Money for Online Ed at UC?

Byuclafaculty

UC investing millions in new cyber studies program Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, September 12, 2011 The University of California will unveil its first top-tier cyber courses in January – 26 online offerings, from global climate change to game theory. At the same time, it’s eyeing China and even American soldiers as potential sources of cash to pay for them… Economically, the online venture is equally experimental. Its most vigorous proponent, UC Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley, expected to raise $6 million for the pilot program, but attracted just $748,000 in private funds. Rather than abandon the effort, UC…

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Email Speech

Byuclafaculty

There is an interesting article today in Inside Higher Ed concerning a controversy at the U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign regarding proposed limits on the use of university email and limits on use of non-university email accounts for university business. In the background of these issues are requests for emails at public universities by conservative groups, using state-level equivalents of the federal Freedom of Information Act. (California has such a law.) You can find the article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/09/12/controversy_over_e_mail_policy_proposed_at_u_of_illinois It contains links to an AAUP letter protesting the proposed policies.

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Late Night Carmageddon?

Byuclafaculty

For those who keep late nights at UCLA: 405 And 10 Freeway Interchange To Close At Night For Next Three Weeks The contractor began pouring the new roadway for the westbound 10 to northbound 405 connector on Thursday night. Some day time work will take place behind k-rail and will not require the connector to be closed. What to Expect: • Westbound 10 traffic will be detoured to northbound Bundy to eastbound Pico to northbound Cotner and to the northbound 405 on-ramp at Cotner • This work is anticipated to last three weeks and will require nightly closures of the…

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UCLA History: The Old Normal

Byuclafaculty

There has been much talk about the “New Normal” as a description of the current depressed economy. As earlier posts have noted, UCLA evolved out of the state normal school that once stood where the LA main library is located. This blog recently posted a lithograph of the school. This is an actual photograph from the late 1800s. The school was moved to Vermont Avenue where it became UCLA’s first campus. The location became the home of LA Community College after UCLA moved to Westwood in the late 1920s.

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Some Time – But Not Too Much – Can Go By on Pensions

Byuclafaculty

As has been stressed ad nauseum on this blog, UC could be swept into some statewide pension changes which would override the Regents’ action of December 2010. The legislature seems to be giving UC a bit of time to have some influence. See below: Lawmakers essentially threw in the towel Thursday on comprehensive public pension reform – at least for now. With this year’s legislative session scheduled to end at midnight today, the Assembly voted 51-21 to approve a last-minute bill declaring its commitment to pension reform but conceding that more time is needed. …The measure reads: “This bill would…