UCLA History: Kerckhoff Hall
This photo of Kerckhoff Hall as seen from Royce Hall provides a view that may seem familiar. But look closely. It was taken in 1937. Much of what you would see now is not there. (From LA Public Library photo collection.)
Author: uclafaculty
U.C. Proxy Voting on Investment Portfolio Said to Skirt Social Issue Review Guidelines
U.C. Proxy Voting Skirts Review Guidelines, Documents Show (excerpts) Tess Townsend, NY Times/Bay Area Citizen, 9/16/10 The University of California, which prides itself as a leader on social and environmental issues, voted against hundreds of shareholder resolutions designed to promote human rights, environmental sustainability and efforts to fight discrimination, a review of U.C.’s voting record shows. The resolutions involved corporations like Exxon Mobil, PepsiCo and Occidental Petroleum and pertained to about one-third of the university’s $65 billion investment portfolio, a portfolio that includes some 5,000 companies. Like many other universities, U.C. employs a private firm to manage its investments and…
Listen to Audio of Regents Meeting of 9-16-10 (Approval of Increased Pension Contributions)
The Regents provide a live audio stream of their meetings but they don’t place the recordings online afterward. However, yours truly recorded the Regents meeting of earlier today. It involved preliminary discussion of the retirement system – pension and retiree healthcare – and the raising of the employer and employee contributions to the pension. Also approved was an augmentation of the members of the Investment Advisory Board to the pension fund. See the earlier post on this blog on that subject. I had to convert the audio into videos (just a still picture on the screen) so that it could…
If You Build It, the Money Will Come Seems to Be Theory Behind UC-Merced Med School
UC Merced, Davis to train students in valley’s clinics (excerpts) Modesto Bee By Ken Carlson and Jamie OppenheimSeptember 15, 2010, posted 9/16/10 UC Merced has entered a partnership with the University of California at Davis School of Medicine, which brings the university closer to establishing a medical school at the Merced campus. In fall of 2011, the school will enroll six medical students in the partnership program. For the first two years of the program, students will take classes in science and medicine at the University of California at Davis medical school campus. Their second two years will be spent…
Rank Order (Odor?)
If you like rankings of universities, here is what the Times of London produced for the entire world: UC-Berkeley 8; UCLA 11; UC-Santa Barbara 29; UC-San Diego 32; UC-Irvine 49, UC-Davis 54; UC-Santa Cruz 68; UC-Riverside 117 Methodology at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/analysis-methodology.html Complete rankings at: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html
Regents to Consider Employee Representation on Investment Advisory Board
At today’s Regents meeting, a proposal is being considered (and likely approved) for an Investment Advisory Board with employee representation in relation to the pension plan. The item is below. This move is apparently in response to pressure for greater representation after the UCRS Advisory Board was defanged by a legal decision at UCOP. For many years, the UCRS Advisory Board – which had faculty and staff representation – acted as a significant body in decisions regarding the UC retirement system. Although advisory, it initiated recommendations and had an influence on actual policy. Collective bargaining at UC is regulated under…
The Total Comp Issue for UC and the PEB Recommendations
In broad terms, the UC labor officials quoted in the LA Times piece excerpted below are taking the same position as the Academic Senate in the dissenters’ report on the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force recommendations. The dissenters’ report notes that all of the options under consideration: Option A (which the dissenters reject), Option B (which they might accept), and Option C (which the majority report took off the table and the dissenters want put back into consideration) represent a cut in total compensation. (Previous posts provide links and discussion of the 3 options.) On a total comp basis, UC is…
DB for Campus Police (Only)?
It’s unclear what the election of either gubernatorial candidate would mean for upcoming changes in the UC pension system. As previous posts have noted, UC would be well advised to have its plan in place before the new governor takes office in early January. We could end up with the defined-benefit (DB) plan only for campus police if we wait and are swept into some statewide public pension reform, according to the item below from an LA Times blog: PolitiCal blog, LA Times, Anthony York Whitman says pension-reform plans don’t apply to police, firefighters (excerpt) September 15, 2010 | 1:01…
Some Background As to Why California Has a Chronic Budget Problem
The UCLA Anderson Forecast today suggested California is in for an extended period of sluggish economic performance. Such sluggishness obviously makes coming to some state budget accord difficult. You can find a press release on the Forecast at http://uclaforecast.com/contents/archive/2010/media_91510_1.asp However, tucked away in each quarterly Forecast publication is an updated version of a chart, reproduced here, that gives a long-run perspective. The chart show a long-term trend rate of employment growth that lasted until about 1990. In the early 1990s, while the nation as a whole had a very mild recession, California had a major one. The year 1990 is…
Majority PEB Response to Senate Dissent
If you have followed the issues surrounding the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force report, you know there was a majority report calling for a two-tier pension and providing the Regents with Options A and B – both defined-benefit (DB) plans. The dissenters put an option C back on the table – also a DB plan. A and B were “integrated” with Social Security; C is a simpler plan that is not integrated. (Go to earlier posts on this blog for more details.) Now the majority has replied to the dissenters. You can find their reply at http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/ucrpfuture/files/2010/09/peb_dissenting_response_0910.pdf The response to the…