Author: uclafaculty

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Quake Response

Byuclafaculty

We noted in a prior post there would be increased attention to earthquake risks in LA around the 20th anniversary of the Jan. 27, 1994 Northridge quake.  One item that began to develop was an LA Times article indicating that various buildings were at risk in the LA area, even though they were thought safe when constructed.  One of the buildings in Westwood is owned by UCLA, which asserted that it had been upgraded.  It was also reported that a team of researchers at Berkeley had compiled a list of such buildings, but was not making the list available due…

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Demographic Shift

Byuclafaculty

News accounts have focused on this chart in Gov. Brown’s recent budget proposal which shows the Latino/Hispanic state population exceeding the white-Anglo population by July.  That the shift would occur sometime this decade was obvious from the 2010 Census.  A news account indicates that the shift will occur in March.  Clearly, putting an exact date on the shift is not really possible.  But the change will definitely have occurred by the next Census.  (Official state estimates for the California population at the time of the 2010 Census were way off.  So interim estimates between Census years always have a significant…

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New and Old at the UC Regents

Byuclafaculty

The Regents in 1964 1-17-2014 SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments. Richard C. Blum, 78, of San Francisco, has been appointed to the University of California Board of Regents effective March 2, 2014, where he has served since 2002 and was chair from 2007 to 2009. Blum founded Blum Capital Partners L.P. in 1975 and serves as chairman and president. He has been chairman of the CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. Board of Directors since 2001. Blum has been a member of the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business Advisory Board since…

Are You Available?

Byuclafaculty

No, this is not about office hours.  And it’s not about privacy issues raised in prior postings about public access to faculty emails and documents. Rather, it’s about access to research.  In the recent spending bill – yes, the same one mentioned in the previous post on the subway – there is direction and funding for federal agencies to establish mechanisms to make federally-funded research papers available to the public in digital format no later than 12 months after acceptance by a journal.  In most cases, researchers want their papers to be available and, if there is a roadblock, it…

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She Sure Didn’t Bumble Her Meeting with the Bee

Byuclafaculty

UC prez Napolitano had a meeting with the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee recently and, evidently, said the right things:  Editorial: Janet Napolitano is showing a clear-eyed view of UC mission By the Editorial Board Published: Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014  UC President Janet Napolitano has her priorities for the university system in correct alignment; the question will be in the execution.  In a visit to The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board on Wednesday, Napolitano showed she is a quick study… Importantly, Napolitano was clear-eyed on the basic point that UC was “designed to build California,” and that its role in…

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Enjoy the Coming MLK 3-Day Weekend on the 405 Because the Next One Won’t Be So Nice

Byuclafaculty

The road powers-that-be are warning that the Presidents’ Day weekend – as opposed to the upcoming Martin Luther King Day weekend – on the 405 near UCLA will be unpleasant: County, state and local transportation officials will warn motorists Tuesday that extended lane closures of the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass are planned over Presidents Day weekend. Metro officials are dubbing the planned 80-hour closures on the northbound 405 “Jamzilla” — not quite as serious as the two previous “Carmageddon” closures of the entire freeway, but a serious traffic issue nonetheless. The closures will take place Feb….

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Do They Understand the Key Lesson of Their MOOC?

Byuclafaculty

Seems like a contradiction! To yours truly comes word that Cornell University is offering an  online course (MOOC) on American Capitalism.No problem with that, I guess, but they are giving it away for free.  Don’t think capitalism works like that – but what do I know? Details at https://www.edx.org/course/cornellx/cornellx-hist1514x-american-capitalism-1307

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Ahead of the Curve

Byuclafaculty

The curved neuroscience building Inside Higher Ed takes note of the recent UCLA policy on requests to faculty for public documents such as emails.  Blog readers will recall a recent posting on that new policy. …Carole Goldberg, a professor of law and vice chancellor of academic personnel at UCLA, is co-chair of the joint Academic Senate-Administration Task Force on Academic Freedom, which drafted the statement. She said that no particular incident at UCLA had inspired the statement, but that faculty and administrators wanted to “get ahead of the curve” on academic freedom and scholarly communications, in light of several high-profile…