Author: uclafaculty

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Listen to Morning Session of UC Regents: 11-14-12

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly was not able to record yesterday’s Regents’ session (Building and Grounds committee).  However, I did listen and record this morning.  [The live stream seemed to start a few minutes after the meeting began.  The recording begins in the midst of Regents chair Lansing celebrating the passage of Prop 30.]  A recording by yours truly won’t be possible of the session tomorrow due to other commitments.  But as usual, we will request the audios as public documents and post them when received. At today’s meeting, Governor Brown attended and raised questions at various points.  Some of the questions were…

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When the Governor Says Freeze (Professional School Tuition), the Regents Dance to His Tune

Byuclafaculty

In the wake of Prop 30’s passage, the governor has requested that the professional school tuition increases that were supposed to be on the Regents’ agenda today be frozen.  From the LA Times:…UC officials dropped consideration of a possible 20%, or $2,400, mid-year tuition hike for all students after Proposition 30 prevailed. But remaining on the agenda was the separate proposal to raise tuition next year for more than 50 graduate and professional degree programs in such areas as business, dentistry, law and social work. Under the plan, the so-called professional degree supplemental tuition would have increased from 1.2% to…

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UCLA and the Regents Denied a Stay of the Injunction on Selling the Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

Loyal readers of this blog will recall the ongoing attempt by UCLA to sell the Japanese Garden that was supposed to be maintained in perpetuity.  They will recall that garden supporters got an injunction against the sale.  UCLA and the Regents asked for a stay of the injunction. That request was denied back on October 26.  The decision says a stay would not “promote the interests of justice.” You can read the decision at: Open publication – Free publishing – More ucla Our loyal readers will also recall that we have urged UCLA to sit down with those who have…

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Swaps as Flops?

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Passing Proposition 30 prevented hundreds of millions of dollars in near-term cuts to the University of California, a laboratory of innovation that fuels our state’s economy. But now a large part of that lifeline might be squandered in payments to Wall Street banks, according to a report released Tuesday by researchers at UC Berkeley. Over the last decade, the UC Board of Regents has engaged in risky deals with Wall Street banks called interest rate swaps. Banks sold swaps to the university and other public institutions as insurance against rising interest rates on variable rate bonds. Under a swap agreement, borrowers…

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Fox & Co.

Byuclafaculty

Craig Fox The New York Times today has an article about the “dream team” of social scientists who advised the Obama campaign.  One team member profiled is Professor Craig Fox of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Excerpt: Late last year Matthew Barzun, an official with the Obama campaign, called Craig Fox, a psychologist in Los Angeles, and invited him to a political planning meeting in Chicago, according to two people who attended the session. “He said, ‘Bring the whole group; let’s hear what you have to say,’ ” recalled Dr. Fox, a behavioral economist at the University of California, Los Angeles. So…

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UC and Affirmative Action

Byuclafaculty

The U.S. Supreme Court will be making decisions on affirmative action in higher ed admissions soon.  UC – despite Prop 209 which bans such affirmative action – seems to be caught up in the case indirectly due to research papers and court submissions dealing with the impact of Prop 209.  Inside Higher Ed today points to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper on the impact of 209 on graduation rates of minorities from UC.  It has been contended that affirmative action programs create a kind of mismatch between students and institutions.  The working paper finds that 209, by…

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Something to Do on Your “Day Off” – The California Economy

Byuclafaculty

ROTC installed on UCLA’s old Vermont Avenue campus in 1920 Yesterday, we noted that UCLA is closed for Veterans’ Day today (Monday) even though Veterans’ Day was on Sunday.  We also noted some not-so-positive history as to why there is no instruction today on UC campuses even though it reduces class time and generally is harmful to the academic endeavor.  And we noted that private universities such as USC and CalTech find it worthwhile to continue instruction today, unlike UC. But since you do have a “day off,” albeit thanks to some prior unwise decisions by UCOP, we offer some…

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Prop 30 Election Post Mortem

Byuclafaculty

We know that Prop 30 – the governor’s tax initiative – passed with about 54% of the vote.  But the polls always showed it in a marginal position and losing support towards the end.  One possible explanation is that Prop 30 always had a plurality of “yes” votes and that undecided voters ended up voting yes in sufficient numbers to enact it. However, the political number crunchers are now raising questions about whether the pollsters’ estimates of “likely voters” were biased towards older folks who were less positive than younger voters about Prop 30. From Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee columnist:…

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When Southern Californians are the Out-of-State Students

Byuclafaculty

…as much as we enjoy your tuition. Inside Higher Ed today has an article about Southern California students attending the U of Oregon.  The idea of attracting out-of-state students who pay full freight (and thus subsidize in-state students) is hardly unique to UC.  UO is doing the same thing.  And some folks are saying that the Southern Californians recruited by UO are not serious academics.  You can find the posting at:http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/11/12/scrutiny-californians-u-oregon If you go to that post, you will find a link to a longer article about those Southern Californians: SoCal students and other out-of-staters come from families who can…