Author: uclafaculty

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Better Learning Through Chemistry?

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly is not sure this is exactly what those pushing for more online education at UC envisioned. The Daily Bruin today carries a story about Chemistry 14D. Students receive credits for putting together videos that communicate principles of the course. Full story at http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/06/extra_credit_music_videos_make_chemistry_14d_more_basic An example is below. Click on cc (closed captions) to see the words.

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State Budget: Running the Clock

Byuclafaculty

If you are wondering what is happening to the state budget, it appears that the closest analogy is the point in the film High Noon in which the train carrying the Bad Guy arrives at noon. After he arrives, there will be a confrontation/shoot-out with the Good Guy. In the case of the state budget, however, it is midnight – not noon – that is critical: midnight on June 30. At that point, the fiscal year 2010-11 ends and there is no budget to replace it. Also, the taxes that the governor wants to extend expire so that any ballot…

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UCLA History: Moving Bonds

Byuclafaculty

From the UCLA History Project comes this tale of an LA City bond measure approved by voters in 1925 that enabled UCLA to move from its Vermont Avenue campus to Westwood. New media, record voter turnout and engaged young voters – these were the stories that riveted citizens on May 5, 1925. The biggest issue for Bruins was Proposition 2, a city bond measure that would raise about 70% of the funds needed to purchase a 200-acre parcel for the Southern Branch of the University of California. Students and young alumni joined together to conduct a colorful and noisy campaign….

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UCLA Extension and Steve Poizner (Remember Him?) Offer Online Ed

Byuclafaculty

For those whose memory is a bit shaky, Poizner was the state insurance commissioner who lost to Meg Whitman in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2010. UCLA Extension to offer online courses aimed at boomers (excerpt) Walter Hamilton, LA Times, June 23, 2011 UCLA Extension… is teaming with Encore Career Institute Inc. in Los Gatos, Calif., to teach baby boomers how to reinvent themselves in today’s rapidly evolving job market… The Silicon Valley start-up will offer online coursework based on UCLA Extension classes. It will also give career assessment and job-placement assistance designed for baby boomers, who range in age…

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UC-San Diego First-Generation Students Get Help From Retired Professors

Byuclafaculty

Is this example from UC-San Diego a suggestion of something UCLA should consider doing? At UC-San Diego, First-Generation Students Get Help From Retired Professors: Experienced scholars guide the uninitiated in an unusual mentoring program Molly Redden, Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/19/11 (Excerpt) When Lila Gitesatani arrived on the University of California’s San Diego campus as a freshman, she had a multitude of questions: How should she choose a major, go about selecting courses, or even explore activities on campus? But Ms. Gitesatani was limited in where she could turn for advice. As a first-generation college student, she says, her parents…

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Anyone know what Regent Crane said? Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Byuclafaculty

Anyone know what Regent Crane said about pensions at this fair and balanced seminar at the Hoover Institution? (Scroll down) Hint: It might be good to find out. From the Hoover Institution website: http://www.hoover.org/news/83027 June 20, 2011 State and Municipal Fiscal Default Workshop On June 15–16, 2011, scholars and practitioners gathered for the State and Municipal Fiscal Default Workshop at the Hoover Institution. Experts from the fields of public policy, economics, finance, law, and state and local politics consulted about the nature of the problem, the current legal structures, and the possibility of legislative or other reform to avert the…

New Technology for Viewing This Blog’s Archives

Byuclafaculty

Technology marches on! Here is a new way to access this blog’s archives. You can view it in segments as a pdf. Of course, the videos and audios disappear with almost no trace in that format. And there is some odd formatting, particularly in tables. However, you also have the original format option running along the right side of the blog if you want everything to be as it was intended. For the pdf versions, see below: June-September 2010: Open publication – Free publishing – More blog October-December 2010 Open publication – Free publishing – More blog January-March 2011 Open…

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UC-Riverside Wants $$$s for New Med School

Byuclafaculty

Olds urges UCR lobbying group to help gain accreditation (excerpt) LORA HINES, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 6/22/11 The dean of UC Riverside’s proposed medical school on Wednesday appeared before university supporters and urged them to contact Sacramento lawmakers to secure ongoing state funding needed to accredit the school. Dr. G. Richard Olds asked members of the Citizens University Committee, a UCR lobbying group, for assistance in securing state money. Earlier this month, university officials were informed by an accreditation panel that the medical school would not be accredited because the state had not committed to ongoing funding. The medical school needs a…

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No One Actually Reads or Listens: More on the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

At the moment, Controller John Chiang is being praised for blocking legislators from being paid because they did not produce a “balanced” budget by the June 15th constitutional deadline. But actually what he said is that the legislature made some mistakes in drafting up their budget so that the assumed “revenues” do not add up to assumed “expenditures.” (The fact that the governor vetoed the budget was not relevant to his decision.) The controller has been heralded on Fox News on the right (see http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1013691636001/california-withholds-legislatures-pay/) and just about everywhere else along the political spectrum. If you actually watch the Fox…