Author: uclafaculty

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The Regents & Napolitano: How Was the Match Made?

Byuclafaculty

The ongoing debate about the Regents’ selection of Janet Napolitano is still going on, according to the LA Times: The high-profile and surprising choice of former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to head the UC system has fueled criticism over the secret selection process, echoing debates around the country about how higher-education leaders are chosen. Supporters of a more open method say that better decisions are made when three or four finalists for a university presidency or chancellorship are formally identified to the public. At that point, faculty and students could have a chance to meet them before a…

Evolving Views at the U of Iowa

Byuclafaculty

According to Inside Higher Ed today, there is one of those evolutionary brouhahas that seem to arise periodically – this time at the University of Iowa.  It seems that a faculty member wrote a blog piece trying to reconcile religion and science and said in passing that there were flaws in the theory of evolution. You can read the blog piece at http://now.uiowa.edu/2013/08/common-ground. And you can read the Inside Higher Ed piece at http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/09/23/should-university-website-publish-anti-evolution-views. To yours truly, it reads as if the author was trying to build a bridge, although maybe a bridge too far. Nonetheless, it’s an excuse –…

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Retiree Health Changes

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, this blog noted the upcoming UC open enrollment period and changes in the various health care options. Among them were what appeared to be rather drastic changes for retirees living outside California. One wonders whether the court ruling noted below might have some relevance for the ability of UC to make such changes.  Any legal scholars want to chime in?  Comments welcome. A superior court judge overturned a freeze on retiree health care for Los Angeles city attorneys this month, citing some of the same case law that made public pensions a vested right that can only be cut…

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UCLA History: Library

Byuclafaculty

Above is Powell Library in the late 1940s.  If you were on campus late last week, you saw the latest crop of undergraduates arriving or returning.  At around the time that this photo was taken, Maurice Chevalier – someone none of today’s undergraduates could identify – had thoughts about being age 20, as it was seen from that era: [Link courtesy of the unofficial Facebook page of the UCLA Emeriti Assn.and its custodian Yousee Elayemeriti who is looking for friends, but only of members of the Emeriti Assn.]

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Health Insurance Open Enrollment

Byuclafaculty

You have undoubtedly been getting emails and other material pointing to open enrollment during October 28-November 26, 2013. There are important changes in various health insurance options. If you are a retiree who lives outside of California, it is really important because there are major changes coming. Essentially, you will be getting a UC contribution towards an exchange. Info at atyourservice.ucop.edu/oe/medical Just a reminder:

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UCLA Water: Then and Now

Byuclafaculty

As the photo below suggests, there used to be a lot of water around UCLA. Nowadays, there is some remnant of that earlier state to be found between Anderson and UES.  You can find a creek, sometimes dry (as it is right now), in a kind of nature preserve at that location.  The creek is channeled underground as it runs south of the preserve.  See the photos below.

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Time Off at the Grand Hotel?

Byuclafaculty

View from the ground. View from above. Yours truly went past the worksite of the UCLA Grand Hotel early Friday afternoon and as the photos above indicate, he found no one there and nothing happening. That was a surprise since – as blog readers will know – we recently had the grand groundbreaking for the Grand Hotel.  On the other hand, across the street at the engineering building construction site, work was clearly in progress for another building, as the photo below shows. Engineering: Click on the photo for a better view of the workers. Enlarged view of the previous…

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Golden Goose

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed pointed me today to the “Golden Goose” awards established by some folks in Congress and in major educational groups as an antidote to other listings that are made to put research in a bad light.  Old timers will remember the Golden Fleece awards of Senator William Proxmire – back in the day –  which made fun of research that seemed silly.  From time to time, such seemingly-silly research continues to be highlighted by Proxmire’s successors.    Of course, there is silly research and there are silly academics.  But not everything that seems silly, or abstract, or just…

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Listen to the University of California Regents, Afternoon, 9-18-2013, 2nd Part

Byuclafaculty

The audio for the Regents session of the afternoon of 9-18-13 through the meeting of the Committee on Finance has previously been posted.  The primary remaining business was discussion of selection of an outside auditor that turned out to be KPMG.  Beyond that, recommendations of the various committees were ratified by the full board.    Since the Thursday Regents schedule was in fact a tour of the Lawrence Livermore Lab, there is no audio for that date. A link to the audio described above can be found below:

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Now Some Students Can Be His Guest at a Brown Bag Lunch

Byuclafaculty

Be my guest! Or is it a Brown (pause) bag-lunch? In an earlier post on the Regents meeting, we mentioned the new “crowdsourcing” UC fundraising effort.  Now some students can be guests of the governor: University of California regents spent much of Wednesday morning cheering a new fundraising initiative to encourage faculty, students and other people to raise money through their social networks for students who demonstrate financial need.  Gov. Jerry Brown, who sits on the UC board and is attending its meeting in San Francisco, pledged to raise $10,000.  If successful, the Democratic governor promises to “host a ‘brown…