Author: uclafaculty

| |

Credit Card Deals and the University

Byuclafaculty

An article in today’s Insider Higher Ed notes that the Federal Reserve has made available info on deals between credit card issuers and universities. Above is a table from the Fed’s report showing some information on the UC-systemwide alumni group and UCLA and their deals with credit card firms. It isn’t as legible as I would like but you can get the report including the table above at http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress/creditcard/2010/downloads/CCAP_October_web.pdf An excerpt from the article in Insider Higher Ed: Credit Card Companies Pay Millions to Colleges (excerpt) Inside Higher Ed, October 26, 2010 Credit card companies made more than $83 million…

Putting a Price on Professors

Byuclafaculty

Putting a Price on Professors: A battle in Texas over whether academic value can be measured in dollars and cents (excerpt) Wall St. Journal, 10/22/10, Stephanie Simon and Stephanie Banchero A 265-page spreadsheet, released last month by the chancellor of the Texas A&M University system, amounted to a profit-and-loss statement for each faculty member, weighing annual salary against students taught, tuition generated, and research grants obtained. Ms. Johnson came out very much in the black; in the period analyzed—fiscal year 2009—she netted the public university $279,617. Some of her colleagues weren’t nearly so profitable. Newly hired assistant professor Charles Criscione,…

| | | | |

Final Report from Committee on the Future (Except It is a Draft)

Byuclafaculty

There is now a draft report on the UCOP website – entitled DRAFT final report (so it is final but still a draft?) – from the UC Committee on the Future. There are not a lot of surprises. Recommendations are included to speed up undergrad degrees, make transfers easier from community colleges, pursue online education, change the word fee to tuition, have cohort-based tuition schedules, achieve more efficiencies, do more fund raising, wring more money out of grants, have more out-of-state students who pay full freight, etc. Maybe the most controversial is differential tuition across the campuses. The draft report…

| | | |

The Master Plan at 50: Using Distance Education to Increase College Access and Efficiency

Byuclafaculty

The LAO has a new report out on distance learning in higher education and degree programs under the title above. Below is the Executive Summary of that report. Below that is a video presentation related to the report:Distance Education Provides Additional Tool for Advancing Master Plan’s Goals. Fifty years ago, California adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education, a framework document designed to promote universal access for students and cost–effective coordination among the state’s colleges and universities. At the time, postsecondary education generally required students to travel to a campus for in–person classes with an instructor. Today, many students have…

| |

Important message regarding the likely recommendations of President Yudof regarding the UC pension

Byuclafaculty

Important message regarding the likely recommendations of President Yudof regarding the UC pension. Please note the last sentence (in bold) in the email. Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:17:41 -0700From: Daniel SimmonsSubject: PEB Update Colleagues: There is a light at the end of the PEB tunnel. President Yudof informed me last week that he has reached his decision on the recommendations of the PEB task force recommendations. He will recommend to the Regents that they adopt a modified version of Option C with a consistent 2.5 percent age factor for all employees, an employer contribution of 8.1 percent of covered…

|

Islamic Studies at UCLA Going Out of Business?

Byuclafaculty

UCLA’s ongoing suspension of admissions to Islamic studies worries students: Admissions were frozen in 2007, pending a reorganization. But that hasn’t happened, and students fear that the program could simply be allowed to die. Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2010 For two years, admissions to UCLA’s small Islamic studies program have been frozen, pending a reorganization. Now, students say they fear that the program, among the oldest in the country focused on a scholarly study of Islam, could be shut down. On Friday, several dozen students rallied to support it, gathering outside a meeting of a faculty panel…

| |

UCLA History: Marion Davies Children’s Clinic

Byuclafaculty

Photo dated Nov. 18, 1959 above shows actress Marion Davies who donated funds for the Marion Davies Children’s Center. Caption reads: Marion Davies, for whom new Marion Davies Children’s Clinic at UCLA Medical Center is to be named, examines architect’s sketch of new facility with Congressman Joe Holt (R-22nd Dist.), left, and UCLA Vice Chancellor William G. Young. Clinic, to be under construction by spring, was made possible by Miss Davies’ gift of $1,900,000 to Medical Center. (From LA Public Library photo collection.) Davies – William Randolph Hearst’s mistress – was not the bimbo depicted in the film “Citizen Kane.”…

| | |

Prop 26 and Its Potential Effect on UC

Byuclafaculty

Proposition 26 on the November ballot would require a 2/3 vote in the legislature for state imposition of various “fees.” It applies a similar restriction to local fees. A 2/3 vote of the electorate would apply to such fees at the local level. At the moment, there is a distinction made between a “tax” (which is subject to a 2/3 vote) and a fee. During budget crises, governments in California have tended to raise fees, which escape the 2/3 requirement, since tax raising is more difficult. Essentially, Prop 26 tightens up the definition of fee, putting more of them under…

Real Men Don’t Get Grades (in Canada)

Byuclafaculty

Is affirmative action for men the answer to enrollment woes? In Canada’s medical schools, the predominance of women is seen as another sign of how young men are falling behind academically Carolyn Abraham and Kate Hammer, Globe and Mail, Oct. 21, 2010 For Harold Reiter the tipping point was the entering class of 2002. As the new chair of admissions at McMaster University’s medical school, he took one look at the proportion of women admitted – a whopping 76.9 per cent – and wondered what had happened to the men. The gender gap at the university’s Michael G. DeGroote School…