Author: uclafaculty

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Food Gift for Thought

Byuclafaculty

From the Westwood-Century City Patch: A $4 million gift to the UCLA School of Law will go toward establishing a program to study and improve food law and policy, it was announced Friday. The Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy, said to be the first program of its kind at a major law school, will explore ways to hasten improvements in food safety, distribution and access, according to UCLA. The gift from the Resnick Family Foundation provides for as much as another $3 million in matching endowment funds. Lynda and Stewart Resnick ,who own such companies as POM Wonderful,…

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At Harvard, Apparently, Many Faculty Feel that the Oversight of Online Courses Was Overlooked

Byuclafaculty

From the Harvard Crimson: Fifty-eight professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences requested in a letter Thursday to FAS Dean Michael D. Smith that he appoint a faculty committee to draft “ethical and educational principles” that would provide a framework for FAS engagement with HarvardX, the University’s curricular contributions to edX. The letter, shared with The Crimson by one of its signatories, asks that those principles be brought to a faculty vote in the 2013-2014 academic year. “It is our responsibility to ensure that HarvardX is consistent with our commitment to our students on campus, and with our academic…

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Hope for UCLA Commuters?

Byuclafaculty

A new northbound lane of the 405 Freeway was opened Friday between the 10 Freeway and Santa Monica Boulevard… The additional lane stretches for 1.7 miles and opened at 5 a.m. It’s the latest mark of progress for the $1-billion, multiyear 405 Freeway widening project that has been inundated with delays and cost overruns, frustrating commuters and residents alike for years… Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-new-lane-405-freeway-20130524,0,4779451.story A new dawn? Let’s manage our expectations:

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New Tax Graveyard

Byuclafaculty

The governor and the legislative leaders have been tamping down expectations that the Democrats – with a 2/3 “supermajority” in the legislature would be enacting new taxes.  For one thing, the supermajority is shaky at best.  One Democratic seat in the Senate recently became a GOP seat in a special election.  Some of the Democrats were elected in swing districts under the new top-2 primary system and might not vote with the majority on a tax increase. Today’s Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee reports: Measures aimed at creating new taxes on Californians were held by the Senate Appropriations…

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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

Byuclafaculty

Something for the Regents to consider:Gov. Jerry Brown, whose public remarks occasionally include a phrase or two in Latin, explained Wednesday two reasons he liked learning it. “It’s obscure and makes you smarter than everybody,” he told about 1,000 people at a California Chamber of Commerce breakfast… Full article at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-says-latin-makes-you-smarter-than-everybody.html Ipse dixit. Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-says-latin-makes-you-smarter-than-everybody.html#storylink=cpy [And, for those who would critique the Latin phrases above, I learned them online so they must be correct.  Right?  Prima facie evidence!]

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UCLA History: Santa Monica Hospital – now a part of UCLA – back in the day

Byuclafaculty

Santa Monica Hospital in 1941:LA Public Library collection Previous posts on this blog have dealt with the current strike at UC hospitals including UCLA.  News coverage tends to focus on Westwood. But UCLA also operates Santa Monica Hospital which it acquired a few years ago. The two-day strike is also occurring at the Santa Monica location.  (The photo above from 1941 shows a building – seen from 16th Street – that has since been replaced.) Coverage on the strike can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-strike-20130522,0,3925126.story Meanwhile, the conservative FlashReport news aggregation website was so interested in the UC strike story that…

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UCLA: It’s Tufts to Get Into

Byuclafaculty

The University of California system remains a popular destination for incoming freshmen – and getting into UCLA is now as hard as getting into Tufts and Cornell, at least for California students…  UCLA reported an in-state admission rate of 17.4 percent, Becker said, a level comparable to Cornell and Tufts, two of the nation’s most selective universities. Overall, the 10 campuses accepted 82,850 freshman, for an average acceptance rate of 59 percent. Berkeley and San Diego campuses were more exclusive than the average… But the prestigious public U.C. system is changing in one profound way: out-of-state students increasingly make up more…

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UC (& UCLA) hospital 2-day strike to go ahead this morning with court-orded exceptions

Byuclafaculty

A Sacramento judge Monday refused to stop a strike today by thousands of employees at…  UC hospitals – but ordered a limited number of critical care employees to stay on the job.  The union for nearly 13,000 workers, including nursing assistants, pharmacists, medical technicians, operating room scrubs and other health care workers, was to begin a two-day strike at 4 a.m. today (Tuesday, May 21). The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced the walkout of workers at the UC Davis Health System and University of California hospitals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Irvine. The…

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Pension Promises and the UC Budget

Byuclafaculty

One of the issues facing UC is pension liabilities.  As we have noted in prior posts, although it may seem paradoxical, liability for the pension is a young person’s issue.  Old folks tend to worry about whether they will get their promised UC pension when the issue is raised.  However, the actual issue is that because they and everyone else will get what is promised, the UC budget going forward has to meet the promise in future years.  Dollars that will go to the pension won’t go to something else. Although you may read about this or that jurisdiction that…