Author: uclafaculty

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Most Thorough Report on UC Pension Mentions $2-for$1 Problem

Byuclafaculty

Perhaps not surprisingly, since calpensions.com covers California public pensions exclusively, the most thorough report on the recent Regents meeting on the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force recommendations and other retirement issues appeared on that source today. It includes mention of the $2-for-$1 problem – the fact that roughly $2 out of $3 in contributions that would fund the pension comes from non-state sources. Below is an excerpt from the calpensions report. The full report – scroll down for URL – contains photos of the demonstration at the Regents. A recording of the Regents meeting on the pension and retirement issue is…

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University Spending on Athletics

Byuclafaculty

Today’s Inside Higher Ed alerted me to a database maintained by USA Today on revenues and expenses of university athletics programs around the country. For UCLA in 2008-09, operating revenue of $66,177,866 is reported. Sources for that revenue in dollars and percent are: Ticket sales $24,996,824 37.8% Student fees $2,498,877 3.8% Guarantees $1,454,128 2.2% Contributions $10,006,048 15.1% Direct institutional support $210,000 0.3% NCAA/conference distributions including all tournament revenues $5,253,849 7.9% Broadcast, television, radio, and internet rights $5,900,665 8.9% Program sales, concession, novelty sales, and parking $1,318,925 2.0% Royalties, licensing, advertisements and sponsorships $9,179,351 13.9% Sports camp revenues $2,960,664 4.5% Endowment…

No Beef With Santa Cruz

Byuclafaculty

UCSC students push for meatless Mondays (excerpts) By Shanna McCord, San Jose Mercury News 09/21/2010 SANTA CRUZ — UC Santa Cruz sophomore Virginia Hanrahan hasn’t had a bite of meat since she was 15. The 19-year-old from Orange County started shunning other animal food products, such as cheese, eggs, butter and honey last year in her desire to become a vegan. “I had never associated real animals with what I was eating. Like ribs, you’re actually eating someone’s ribs,” Hanrahan, an environmental studies major, said. “Once I started thinking about it, I was disgusted.” Hanrahan — who adopted the vegetarian/vegan…

November 2010 Ballot Sing-A-Long

Byuclafaculty

There will be quite a few propositions on the November ballot. Some may have an impact on UC; others address more distant issues. TV ads are already appearing. For example, Prop 25 (majority vote on state budgets) proponents have an ad running: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqmKOjorb54Back in 2006, the organization CalVoter created a song to remember the propositions on the ballot then. There is now an update to help you remember which is which and what is what. Click on the video below. The video first appeared at: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/09/video-sing-along-to-the-ballot.html But since these web news accounts tend to disappear, I have uploaded it. And…

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The Clock is Ticking on UC Pension Reform

Byuclafaculty

The clock is ticking. An interview with gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman reported today in the online Capitol Alert service of the Sacramento Bee serves as a reminder of the need for the Regents to put together a UC pension reform plan before January. In the interview, she pushes for new hires to be under a defined-contribution plan and hints that a ballot proposition to do that might be her approach. Any such proposition might well not exclude UC if UC has no plan by January. UC might then be swept into some larger statewide change. Of course, there is no…

A cautionary note about recent higher ed critiques

Byuclafaculty

A cautionary note about recent higher ed critiques and proposals for reform appears in the excerpt below from “Schoolwork,” Talk of the Town section, New Yorker, 9/27/10: …In higher education, the reform story isn’t so fully baked yet, but its main elements are emerging. The system is vast: hundreds of small liberal-arts colleges; a new and highly leveraged for-profit sector that offers degrees online; community colleges; state universities whose budgets are being cut because of the recession; and the big-name private universities, which get the most attention. You wouldn’t design a system this way—it’s filled with overlaps and competitive excess….

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LA Times Editorial Frets About Privatizing UCLA Anderson and Implications for UC

Byuclafaculty

The writer of the LA Times editorial today on the “self sufficiency” model for the UCLA Anderson School of Management seems conflicted. (See earlier posts on the Anderson proposal – a proposal yet to be approved by UCOP and the Regents.) On the one hand, the editorial seems sympathetic to the School’s proposed plan, given current budgetary realities. It seems sympathetic to the idea of diverting money saved from state funding of Anderson to educational programs that are less able to support themselves. On the other hand, the Times is concerned that de facto privatization is occurring throughout UC via…

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Health Care Costs & Public Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

In an op ed in the NY Times, Peter Orzag – former Obama OMB director – makes a point that others have also made. Public higher education nationally is squeezed indirectly by rising health care costs. When state legislatures are faced with rising costs of health care for their share of Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California), they tend to reduce public higher ed budgets to pay for those costs. Most likely, this effect is a reflection of the fact that unlike many other public programs, higher ed has a potential non-tax source of funding: tuition. In any event, some excerpts:A Health…