Author: uclafaculty

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UCLA Tells Grad Students to Stick Around

Byuclafaculty

Today’s Daily Bruin reports that a tightening in the rules on grad students taking leaves of absence (and thus not paying tuition) is meeting protests from those students: Graduate students discussed multiple ways to take action against recent changes to UCLA’s leave of absence policy at a town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon. This quarter, UCLA stopped accepting thesis or dissertation writing as valid reasons for taking time off to help graduate students complete their degree paths on time, said April de Stefano, director of academic services in the UCLA Graduate Division… The change was applied with the intent of encouraging…

Our Advice: Delete

Byuclafaculty

You may have gotten the email above which suggests the website is somehow linked to UCLA or the UCLA medical enterprise.  It actually comes from a Brazilian who probably wants to sell you something or worse.  See below: I suggest you leave Luis to his own devices.  And if you need more from Brazil:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf94Tt2cO0A?feature=player_detailpage]

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Whatever happened to grade inflation?

Byuclafaculty

From the LA Times today: UCLA Medical Center gets failing grade on patient safety: Leapfrog, a healthcare quality rating group, gives an F to UCLA Medical Center for performing poorly on several measures. UCLA officials dispute the failing grade. A national report card on patient safety gave a failing grade to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, one of the country’s most prestigious hospitals and one of only 25 nationwide to receive such low marks. In a report issued Wednesday, the Leapfrog Group, an employer-backed nonprofit group focused on healthcare quality, gave a letter grade of F to UCLA Medical Center…

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Listen to Regents Meeting of Nov. 15, 2012

Byuclafaculty

Now that the audio file has arrived, we are catching up with the parts of the mid-November Regents meeting not previously posted (not to be confused with the special meeting held yesterday).  Below is a link to the final day of the mid-November meeting. During the public comment period, there were complaints about tuition increases and budget cuts.  There was more about the swap deals – see earlier posts on this matter – in which UC swapped a variable interest rate for a fixed one.  As it turned out, interest rates fell so that the “insurance” against a rise in…

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More traffic woes tonight

Byuclafaculty

If traffic were not bad enough near UCLA given the problems on Sepulveda Boulevard this week (see our earlier posting), now comes this: The Sunset bridge will be closed tonight 10 pm until 6 am tomorrow.  (It also happened last night but yours truly did not get the word until this morning.) While you are stuck, you can think about happier traffic days:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77NxU0CHPw?feature=player_detailpage] 

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Follow-Up on Today’s Special Regents Meeting

Byuclafaculty

  We noted yesterday that there would be a special Regents meeting today to approve pay packages for the new chancellor of Berkeley and the new acting chancellor at Riverside. Also noted was the fact that yours truly could not record the live-stream of the meeting and so the posting of the audio would have to await our usual public documents request.  However, I am told there were three votes against the Berkeley salary of $486,800: the governor, the lieutenant governor, and Regent Zettel.  We will post updates.  And we again ask why the Regents’ office, since it has recordings…

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The Westwood Tree Issue Continues

Byuclafaculty

We have previously noted the issue surrounding the proposed removal of certain trees from Westwood near UCLA.  From the Westwood-Century City Patch today: Days after the city OK’d the Westwood Village Improvement Association’s request to remove 18 trees in the area, the Westwood Community Council urged the preservation of as many trees as possible.  The council last week passed a resolution to support the preservation of mature Westwood Village trees and called on the Westwood Business Improvement District, managed by the WVIA, to save as many trees as possible as it embarks on a sidewalk repair and replacement project… Full…

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Social Security Estimator Available

Byuclafaculty

Faculty who are getting up there in years may find it useful to estimate what they will receive in Social Security from the website above at http://www.ssa.gov/estimator/.  Note that some old timers opted out of Social Security when the Regents joined the federal system and that the website will not be applicable for them. You can receive Social Security starting at age 62.  If you wait, your benefits will increase.  (But – and we hate to remind you of this existential fact – the fewer months you will have to receive those benefits.) And a little music while you work…

Silliness Insider

Byuclafaculty

Publish first; ask questions later. UCLA a Dangerous Campus?  Don’t Believe It UCLA Newsroom, November 21, 2012   UCLA is a very safe campus located in a famously low-crime area of Los Angeles. You wouldn’t know this from a story on the website Business Insider that runs under the misleading headline, The 25 Most Dangerous Colleges In America. The story puts UCLA at the top of the list. That erroneous claim came as a shock at UCLA, especially to the officials who report crime statistics to the FBI every year, as do most campuses. They knew immediately that the story…

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Listen to Regents Meeting of Nov. 13, 2012

Byuclafaculty

The UC Board of Regents, Committee on Grounds and Building met on the afternoon of Nov. 13, 2012.  On the agenda were public comments, approval of the UC capital budget plan, discussion of a long term plan for student housing at UC-Santa Barbara, and design approval of a $118.6 million faculty office building project at UC-San Francisco. Two speakers in the public comments session referred to out-of-state students although exactly what was being suggested was unclear. The capital budget is a wishlist of projects that it would be nice if the state funded through general obligation bonds.  However, given the…