Author: uclafaculty

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Former Chancellor Young Reviews Funding Options for UC in the Face of the State Budget Crisis

Byuclafaculty

In a chapter for the current edition of California Policy Options, former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young reviews funding options for UC. He discusses status quo funding, privatization, and “modified self-sufficiency” in this chapter and suggests the last as the most viable of the three. California Policy Options 2011 will eventually be available in full on the web. However, you can access the Young chapter at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzVLYPK7QI_4MzhmMjMyMmUtN2Y0Zi00Njc4LWEyMWQtOWE0MWVkMjdlNjY0&hl=en&authkey=CMLHxK4O A related item is an op ed by yours truly in today’s Daily Bruin: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzVLYPK7QI_4Y2E4OTFjZmQtM2QzNy00NjA2LWI4MDAtZWNkYTRhODdiMWI2&hl=en&authkey=CLeVhc8JAnd finally, if you really want to know more than you should about the way state budget sausage is made,…

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UCLA History: Drink Me or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Byuclafaculty

Just a little experiment by a UCLA professor in the 1950s with giving a nice lady LSD at our neighboring VA Hospital: The footage is discussed in the UK Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348080/Grandma-acid-Researcher-finds-rare-footage-1950s-housewife-LSD-experiment.html Here is a bio of Prof. Cohen, shown in the video: Sidney Cohen conducted early LSD research in the 1950s and was a noted U.S. public expert on drug abuse from the 1960s to the 1980s. Cohen was a Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and served in the Nixon Administration as the first Director, Division of Narcotic Abuse and Drug Addiction at the National Institute of Mental…

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There’s No Stopping Expansion at UC-Merced: Budget Crisis or Not

Byuclafaculty

UC Merced marks site for $89m science building Yesenia Amaro / Merced Sun-Star / 1-16-11 University officials, students, and local and state elected officials convened at the school’s library on Friday for a dedication ceremony for the new $88.8 million Science and Engineering Building 2. The 102,000-square-foot, three-story building will be located across from the Science and Engineering Building. The new building is expected to open its doors in 2014. Chancellor Steve Kang said the new building “will allow UC Merced to continue to provide exceptional academic and research opportunities.” … UC Merced was allocated more than $100 million from…

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UC is on a Bridge to Nowhere: Other Public Universities are Taking Action

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article today on various public universities that are working on establishing some type of new agreement with the powers-that-be in their states in the wake of budget cuts. Sadly, UC seems stuck in its reactive mode, a bridge to nowhere. The legislature/governor cuts the UC budget. The Regents & Yudof responsively raise tuition and/or cut enrollment. They are then criticized for their actions by the legislature/governor. This is a a bridge to nowhere, politically and budget-wise. We cannot get off the bridge by issuing glossy brochures and statements to the effect that UC is…

Silicon Valley CEOs Advocate Stable Funding for California Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown asked a group of Silicon Valley CEOs for suggestions as to how to stimulate employment growth in California. Among their suggestions:Develop a reliable and equitable financing and fee structure for state institutions of higher education and strengthen the buying power of the Cal Grant program for both public and private universities to encourage graduate and undergraduate student development. You can find the complete document at http://svlg.org/docs/whitepaper_govbrown.docx Note that the opening statement in the document that California did not create jobs during the past decade is misleading. Below is a graph of California nonfarm payroll employment I pulled from…

State Budget Actions Summary

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee has a nice summary of proposed budget cuts and revenue enhancements in the Brown budget plan at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/05/3301715/state-budget-costs.html There are photos with captions for each action. The info is in the captions. Note: The first photo puts the “deficit” at around $26 billion. Unfortunately, the word is misused in state budget-speak. It is a mix of past negative reserve in the general fund, current problems, and a workload problem for next year if no policy changes. Maybe the cartoon is a better summary. It comes from calbuzz.com. And if you need further instruction:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEYheg3AEWY&fs=1&hl=en_US]

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Yudof on Budget, Privatization, Pensions

Byuclafaculty

There is an interview in the LA Times today (1-15-11) of President Yudof by Patt Morrison. Below are excerpts. …Morrison: You’ve used the Ed Koch line, “How’m I doing?” After 2 ½ years, how’re you doing? Yudof: I think we’re doing well, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna-ish. We have a $20-billion shortfall, long run, in the pension plan. I think it’s going to take 20 years to dig our way out, but we have a plan. We put the new [student] eligibility standard into effect; it’s going to be a less mechanical admission [process], looking at the whole…

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UC Undergrad Applications Over 6%, Especially Out-of-State and International

Byuclafaculty

UC sees another big jump in undergrad applications Terence Chea, AP, Orange County Register, 1-14-11 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Despite big tuition hikes, the University of California again received a record number of undergraduate applications for the fall, driven in part by sharp increases from out-of-state and international students, school officials said Friday. They said the number of applications rose 6.1 percent to more than 142,000, with a 5.7 percent increase in freshman applicants and a 7.3 percent increase in transfer applicants. “The University of California experienced record demand,” said Sue Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions. “With the increase in…

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The Mother of All Faculty Boo-Boos

Byuclafaculty

The internet is buzzing today about an email sent on behalf of a professor in the veterinary medicine dept. at UC-Davis concerning how to grade a student who was absent due to giving birth. It was sent to all students in the class. Here is a sample:——-Davis officials confirmed the authenticity of an e-mail that was first quoted on the blog “On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess” by a female scientist at a major research university who blogs, as “Isis,” about issues in academic science, particularly for women.The e-mail was sent by the presidents of the third-year class to…