Author: uclafaculty

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Public Comments: Possible Preview

Byuclafaculty

There are two public comment sessions on the Regents agenda for this week.  One is on Wednesday morning and the other is on Thursday morning.  (The opening committee meeting today does not list a public comment session on the agenda.)  At public comment sessions, anyone can say anything about anything that concerns UC.  It’s hard to imagine that no one will have anything to say about the new nominee for UC president.  But there are other pending issues.  For example, there are ongoing UC labor negotiations; some blog readers will recall the short strike last month at UC med centers. …

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One columnist wants the new UC prez to give the state’s politicos a tough going over

Byuclafaculty

Most of the commentary about the nomination of Janet Napolitano as the new UC president has been about the candidate or the selection process.  Joe Mathews in contrast thinks she should use her homeland security background to be tough with the state’s political establishment and has this advice for her: …Your focus needs to be changing the reality that the UC has a very minority partner – the state government, which provides only a fraction of its resources – that has majority authority over the system. You need to present the legislature with a stark choice. Either ramp up public…

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Contest Winner!

Byuclafaculty

We have a winner of today’s contest.  The winner noted that Mike Curb, shown here, was Lieutenant Governor during Jerry Brown’s first two terms in office in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  One of the oddities of California political institutions is that the governor and lieutenant governor don’t run as a slate.  So it is possible that the two come from different parties.  Mike Curb was a Republican.  Another oddity is that whenever the governor is not in the state, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor with all the powers of the governor.  (Communications were not easy when California…

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More Scanning of Napolitano’s Appointment

Byuclafaculty

The nomination of Janet Napolitano – former head of Homeland Security and thus TSA and immigration – to be the new UC president will probably get a reasonably full going over at the Regents this week – although yours truly thinks the fix is in as far as confirming the appointment goes.  Chancellor Block evidently agrees with that assessment.  From the Daily Bruin today: …Several public figures such as President Barack Obama, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Jerry Brown and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block expressed their congratulations and support Friday following Napolitano’s nomination……

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Contest

Byuclafaculty

Awhile back, we had a contest on this blog involving identification of someone in a photo.  Let’s try another contest.  At one time, Jerry Brown had to curb his enthusiasm for the man shown in the picture here.  Who is that man and what problem did Jerry Brown have with him?  The first person to answer correctly will win our undying admiration.   Send answers to daniel.j.b.mitchell@anderson.ucla.edu. Here is a hint that may help or confuse.  There is another hint in the text above:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuCrkFeHbQc?feature=player_detailpage]

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The Views Expressed

Byuclafaculty

The story of the new UC prez continues to attract national attention: Christian Science Monitorquotes Bob Powell who makes a bit more of a qualified statement than reported elsewhere: Robert Powell, a chemical engineering professor at UC Davis who heads the system-wide academic senate, said Napolitano will … need to spend time getting to know the university by meeting with students and professors and touring campuses. “She needs to get out to the campuses – meet with faculty, meet with staff, look and see what these places are like and how students live here,” Powell said. Full story at http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0713/Can-Janet-Napolitano-staunch-University-of-California-s-financial-struggles  …

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Can’t say enough

Byuclafaculty

While the governor held his tongue (see our prior post) yesterday, the new Berkeley chancellor just couldn’t find enough words of praise for state politicos in an LA Times op ed:…I applaud the California Legislature and the leadership of Speaker John A. Pérez for the bold effort to make UC and California State University attendance far more affordable through the new Middle Class Scholarship Plan. The plan will reduce tuition costs by 10% to 40% for students from families with household earnings between $100,000 and $150,000…Full op ed at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dirks-uc-tuition-20130712,0,2189269.story Flattery will get you somewhere (presumably):[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dvA-wmVPrM?feature=player_detailpage]

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Brief Welcome

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown, who sometimes has much to say about UC matters, seems short on words concerning the appointment of the new UC president – a former governor and fellow Democrat:Governor Brown Issues Statement on Nomination of New UC President7-12-2013 SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued the following statement on the nomination of Secretary Janet Napolitano as president of the University of California: “Secretary Napolitano has the strength of character and an outsider’s mind that will well serve the students and faculty. It will be exciting to work with her.” Source: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18140 Everyone else had a lot to say: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/rapid-response-homeland-security-secretary-to-head-uc-system.html…

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New UC President (political expertise rather than academic)

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times has a report on its website this morning on the new UC president nominee: Janet Napolitano, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, the Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.  Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders…

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Marking Territory for the UCLA Grand Hotel

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly went past the Ackerman bus turnaround that UCLA closed on July 8 to make way for the grand hotel.  He expected to find lots of demolition work going on.  Instead he found a few construction cones blocking the area and some dug up landscaping.  No one was working in mid-afternoon.  So what we appear to have here so far is a marking of the territory rather than actual work.  Seems like it’s the “facts-on-the-ground” approach. Of course, marking the territory is a natural tendency and there are many ways to do it: