CalPolicy Report on U of Calif’s fight over high subscription cost to Nature & other major research journals http://bit.ly/9VflbC CalPolicy Union-mgmt conflict reported at U of Calif over pay for post-doc researchers http://bit.ly/bAak08
Below is a link to a document from a joint senate-administration committee on faculty pay. The thrust of it is a plan to apply a med-school type compensation plan to other faculty, essentially a base state salary with supplements paid out of research grants or non-state sources. The document recognizes that for many non-med faculty, such grants/sources will not be available. I checked with UCOP to be sure this is not a confidential document before posting it. http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzVLYPK7QI_4MjBmYjJjOGUtOWYzZi00MjBlLWI4NDctMDQ4YjNiZTM5OWMy&hl=en&authkey=CMv_4-AO
Various propositions will be on the November ballot with implications for the state budget – and, therefore, the UC budget. One would eliminate the 2/3 super-majority vote required to pass the budget and change it to a simple majority. It would not change the 2/3 requirement for raising taxes. (The 2/3 vote on budgets goes back to the Great Depression; the 2/3 vote on taxes was part of Prop 13 of 1978.) But another initiative would impose the 2/3 requirement on raising “fees.” The fee vs. tax distinction is not always clear and has provided some wiggle room for the…
President Yudof and his counterparts at CSU and the community colleges discussed the Master Plan at a session at the Commonwealth Club on June 16, 2010. No shocking statements. Yudof, towards the end of the hour-plus session, did give some support to the 3-year undergrad degree concept. Available for viewing by clicking on the video below:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-NZP7qRyWs&fs=1&hl=en_US]
The State’s “Little Hoover Commission” is holding hearings on public pensions in California. There was a hearing yesterday on legal issues and one today 6-24-10. There does not appear to be any direct participation of UC in these hearings. Whether the UC pension is included in some background reports for the hearings is unknown (to me). The agenda is at: http://www.lhc.ca.gov/studies/activestudies/pension/Public_Notice_06-24-10.pdf UC’s unique pension situation tends to be lost in state discussions of the much larger CalPERS and CalSTRS systems. Note: A radio discussion of public pensions – including yours truly – can be heard at:http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R201006180900 A Sacramento Bee report…
The furlough and minimum wage issues are getting closer. The governor can’t order UC to pay minimum wage or impose new furloughs. But – as noted in prior posts – the issue is whether UC will be politically able to go its own way when other state workers (including those at CSU) are subject to furloughs and minimum wages. As also noted previously, the imposition of the min wage does not depend on whether cash is available to pay full salaries. It depends only on whether a budget is in place on July 1, which seems unlikely. PolitiCal (LA Times)…
Budget Update: June 22 Legislative Activity California Treasurer Bill Lockyer says that the tax plan developed by the assembly Democrats in the legislature depends on a bond sale Wall Street will not accept. That is because the Attorney General’s office (Jerry Brown) says the borrowing would violate Prop 58 of 2004. (If such a bond were declared to be illegally issued, the holders could lose everything, even if the state had the cash to honor the commitment.) Assembly Democratic leaders say they disagree with the legal opinion and seem to be pursuing their plan. But if their bonds cannot be…
Selected non-YouTube audios and videos from the discontinued savingUCLA website are available below. Click on the links below. Note: Audios are actually videos with a still picture. Originally, these audios/videos were moved to video-Yahoo. As a post in December 2010 indicated, video-Yahoo is discontiuing its service. (Yahoo is in commercial decline due to competition from Google, YouTube, etc.) . So the files were transitioned to Facebook. In some cases, the audio is poor, either because it was poor originally or because the files were saved in a way that limited the quality. I have originals in some cases that are…
Selected YouTube references transferred from the discontinued savingUCLA website are listed below. To view the videos, click on the links or paste the URL for your selection into your web browser.–Dan Mitchell The 2010-11 Budget: Overview of the May Revision by LAOhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hNfgYd0sxc State Senate Pres Steinberg says no $$ increase for higher edhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpR9TgsXlDg Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger Proposes to Raise Higher Education Funding by Cutting Prison Costshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O16BJStl9bc U of California President Mark Yudof on the Master Plan: Part 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnlD5BBxmwg U of California President Mark Yudof on the Master Plan: Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDTGeKzzgRI Former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young on the Master Plan for…
The article below deals with the minimum wage issue for state employees. It discusses the technical issue of whether the governor – if there is no budget on July 1 – could order workers paid the min wage in what used to be the June 30 payroll. (As a budget gimmick, the June 30 payroll was moved to July 1, thus “saving” some money for fiscal 2009-10.) Further in the article is the info that the legal case that was fought out in 2008 could lead to a min wage order over the summer.Exactly what UC would do if all…
