Author: uclafaculty

| |

Traffic Nightmare Reported This Afternoon/Evening

Byuclafaculty

EMERGENCY OUTAGE NOTIFICATION! *****DESCRIPTION: What: Sepulveda Closure at Mulholland When: Currently Ongoing until midnight Impacts:  Sepulveda Blvd is closed in both directions at Mulholland due to police activity in that area. Mitigation: Please use either the 405 (joke, right?), Beverly Glen, or canyons further east. Thank God it’s not Friday.  Or maybe it is:*  *If you are too young to get the pun, ask an elder. UPDATE: Apparently Friday caught the culprits because Sepulveda is now reported as reopened.

One of our many reminders on what not to click

Byuclafaculty

UCLA.edu WebMail Service UCLA.edu Mail Service messaging center wish to inform all UCLA.edu Email Users. We are upgrading our Webmail clients. Your email account will be upgrade to a new enhanced webmail interface provided by UCLA.edu Mail Service. UCLA.edu Mail Service will discontinue the use of our current UCLA.edu Email System. You are therefore required to re-validate your mailbox. To re-validate your mailbox please click the link below: [link] Yours In Service,UCLA.edu WebMail Service===If you got the message above, look carefully and you will see it doesn’t come from a UCLA address. Spam is the least bad thing that might…

| | | | | | | | |

For whatever it means…

Byuclafaculty

Above are the world rankings of universities from the British Times Higher Education magazine based on “academic reputation.” [Click on the image to make it clearer.] The full list and info on the survey methodology is at:http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013/reputation-ranking

| | | | | |

Regents Meeting Coming Next Week

Byuclafaculty

The Regents are meeting March 13-14 – Wednesday-Thursday of next week.  The agenda is only partly online.  At this point it just lists topics without the supporting materials.  One March 13 item is the UCLA Health Sciences Teaching and Learning Center which we are assured won’t cost the campus a penny.  Of course, we know the Regents will carefully undertake a review of the business plan using outside independent expertise and will be monitoring the project after it is built to ensure it is a total success, just as they did, and surely will do, with the Grand Hotel: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar13/gb.pdf…

| |

At least you have a 3-week warning

Byuclafaculty

It could be worse. Coldwater Canyon is being closed starting March 23 for about 28 days.  Some commuters to UCLA may use Coldwater Canyon and will be directly affected.  But even for those who don’t use that route, it means more traffic will be pushed to Sepulveda and to the 405. From the Westwood-Century City Patch: COLDWATER CANYON BOULEVARD CLOSURE Begins March 23, 2013 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday Starting March 23, 2013, Coldwater will be completely closed to through traffic from Ventura Boulevard to Mulholland Drive for approximately 28 days. In anticipation…

|

Your records are more public than you think

Byuclafaculty

Almost two years ago, we noted that public records requests can be used to harass faculty doing research someone doesn’t like.  If you were at Stanford or USC, your records would be more protected than at UCLA because those institutions are private.  Emails, data sets, etc., are potentially at risk.  Our earlier post is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/04/u-of-wisconsin-email-case.html Yesterday, the Daily Bruin carried a story about an Academic Senate task force formed in late 2011 which is looking into this question at UCLA.  Apparently, the task force is going to release a final report soon.  You can find the story at: http://dailybruin.com/2013/02/28/task-force-tackles-concerns-on-public-records-requests/In the…

|

Long-Term Care Cop Out?

Byuclafaculty

Back on Feb. 20, we posted a piece on a big CalPERS hike for long-term care insurance.  We noted that although UC is not covered by CalPERS, as state employees, UC employees could buy – some might say were encouraged to buy – long-term care insurance through CalPERS.  Now premiums are climbing rapidly and some may drop the insurance (losing what they paid) due to the price hikes. From the Sacramento Bee State Worker Blog: Longtime policyholders say that when CalPERS was pushing the insurance in the 1990s, it guaranteed their rates wouldn’t rise. That gave younger adults – a…

|

What’s the Rush?

Byuclafaculty

Today’s Inside Higher Ed reports that Carnegie Mellon is in no rush to jump into the online course business until some some viable financial model is developed: While other universities move quickly to offer courses online for free, Carnegie Mellon University is instead starting for-profit efforts designed to capture segments of the education market. Provost Mark Kamlet said the university is looking for a “financially sustainable” way to expand its reach. So far, that means a handful of spinoffs with a variety of products aimed at workforce development and online education…  At the same time, Carnegie Mellon is shying away from…

The Rogers Mystery Solved

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, I posted the audio of the Regents Committee on Investments and noted the (phone) presence of someone referred to as Gary (and sometimes Gerry) who pushed for an examination of why the Regents’ endowment funds underperformed those of other major universities. http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/02/listen-to-uc.html Bill Jacobs of UC-SB filled me in on the identity of Gary/Gerry.  He is an advisor to the committee, not a Regent.  However, the odd thing is that the committee seemed unwilling to take his advice and seemed annoyed at even hearing it. Isn’t the purpose of an advisor to give, you know, advice? Nonetheless, despite the…