Author: uclafaculty

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How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? A Message from Dwight Read

Byuclafaculty

How High Can the Employee Contribution Climb in UCRP? Dwight Read, Chair, UCLA Faculty Association Now it is 2% of salary, next year, 3.5%, then 5%. But what will it be in 2017? …24%? In a special meeting scheduled for Dec. 13, the Regents will decide whether to introduce a New Pension Tier at UC for all new hires as of July 1, 2013. At the November Regents’ meetings, President Yudof presented a proposal for the New Tier that set the annual cost of the plan at 15.1% of retirement covered compensation with contribution rates at 8.1% for employers and…

Not Entirely Pretty Portrait of Fraternity Life at Berkeley in Late 19th/Early 20th Century

Byuclafaculty

Zeta Psi’s history at UC Berkeley unearthed (excerpt) Debra Levi Holtz, San Francisco Chronicle December 6, 2010 Like present-day members, the boys in University of California’s oldest fraternity played poker, drank beer and pulled campus pranks during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the brothers of the prestigious Zeta Psi fraternity also dressed impeccably, had live-in servants and preferred hanging out with each other to dating women… The early alumni of the 140-year-old Iota chapter of Zeta Psi at UC Berkeley went on to become politicians, professors and bankers. The roster includes former California Gov. James Budd and…

Textbook Costs: Take the Money and Run?

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee carries an interesting article today about textbook costs and alternatives, including the “open-source” model. My sense is that textbook publishers nowadays see that technology will eventually overtake them and are operating in a take-the-money-and-run mode while they can. Internet, Cost Spur Textbook Revolt Dec. 6, 2010, Sacramento Bee, Laurel Rosenhall When Elizabeth Walz ran for student government last year, she built her campaign around an issue she knew would resonate with her peers at UC Davis: the cost of textbooks. For days, she stood in the quad polling students on their textbook-buying habits. “A lot of the…

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Yee of Little Faith (In UC & CSU Foundations)

Byuclafaculty

The latest from State Senator Leland Yee, the only state senator who puts Ph.D. at the top of his official webpage. From Capitol Alert, 12/3/10 Senator to revive his higher ed foundation “transparency” bill (excerpt) It ended up twice vetoed. But it was a bill that gained traction after students demanded to know how much Sarah Palin was paid to speak at a California State University campus fundraiser this year. Today Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, announced that when the state Senate reconvenes Monday he plans to re-introduce a bill that would force more disclosure of information from private foundations…

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Regents Agenda for December 13 Special Session is Now Posted

Byuclafaculty

The Regents have long scheduled a special session to deal with post-retirement benefits but it did not appear on their website until yesterday. You can find the posting at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/dec10.html No new materials are attached to the posting for December. So presumably, what will be discussed is what was distributed at the regular November meeting. You can find that material at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10.html Apparently, some discussion will occur on the report of the Committee on the Future (UCOF), at least during the beginning of the meeting. I don’t expect any fireworks from the Regents at this meeting, but in the photo…

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Optimistic CalSTRS Board Lowers Its Assumed Rate of Return But Not All the Way Down to Our 7.5%

Byuclafaculty

Since CalSTRS’ new assumption is still above ours, we can claim to be more conservative in our pension funding planning. See below: CalSTRS lowers forecast on future investment returns (excerpt) Dec. 3, 2010, Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee After agonizing for months, CalSTRS made a decision Thursday that seems subtle but has enormous financial implications. The teachers’ pension fund agreed to lower its long-term forecast of future annual investment returns by a quarter of a percentage point… On an 8-3 vote, the board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System agreed to cut the investment return forecast to 7.75 percent a…

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CalPERS & CalSTRS Profited from Fed’s TALF Program; UCRS Did Not Participate

Byuclafaculty

State pension funds reaped rewards from Fed loan program (excerpt) Dec. 3, 2010, Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee CalPERS was among the big winners in an obscure Federal Reserve loan program aimed at rescuing the nation’s troubled credit markets last year. The state’s other big pension fund, CalSTRS, also participated in the program, but to a much smaller degree, according to records released this week by the Federal Reserve. …(T)hey and other big investors took advantage of a $70 billion Federal Reserve loan program designed to pump money into the consumer and business lending markets. CalPERS, in fact, was among the…

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Bad Deal for State Involves a UC Regent

Byuclafaculty

The California’s Capitol blog reported yesterday on the involvement of a UC regent in a bad deal for the state. By way of background, the state has a major budget problem. No secret about that. It also has a major cash problem linked to its budgetary distress. One way that the state deals with these allied problems is to borrow. It can engage in short-term borrowing through revenue anticipation notes (borrowing within a fiscal year) and revenue anticipation warrants (which allow cross-year borrowing). However, under normal circumstances, longer-term borrowing is constrained by the state constitution. In essence, such borrowing requires…

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GOP Plan Targets Sabbaticals for Iowa Professors

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed spotlights the article below today: GOP plan targets sabbaticals for Iowa professors (excerpt) Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press, December 1, 2010 IOWA CITY, Iowa. Newly empowered Republican lawmakers in Iowa want to cancel paid research leaves for university professors in a budget-cutting move, even as the Board of Regents considers approving them for dozens of employees for next year. Incoming House Speaker Kraig Paulsen said taxpayers cannot afford faculty sabbaticals, a sentiment backed by the president of Iowa’s largest public employees’ union, in an unusual alliance. But professors said the savings Republicans are promising won’t materialize, and…