News

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Did I say that?

Byuclafaculty

A look backwards: Lieutenant Governor (and ex officio Regent) Gavin Newsom was interviewed on KGO radio on Oct. 17 about Prop 30 and its relation to tuition.  In the course of the interview, he criticized Governor Brown for being late to get into the campaign for the proposition and, effectively, for not telling students the truth that their tuition would rise even if Prop 30 passed. At the time, polling (which proved inaccurate) was indicating that Prop 30’s chance of passage was marginal.  And Governor Brown had just made a campaign stop at UCLA to enlist student support.  As it…

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UCLA Forecasting

Byuclafaculty

This 1966 photo from the LAPL collection shows a local effort at forest fire prevention by getting weather forecasts through a new “weather-fax” machine. The individual in the photo is identified as Bob Helfman, 28, a UCLA graduate in meteorology. [Note: Did you think the word “fax” (for facsimile) was a more recent invention?] There will be forecasting at UCLA this coming week using more modern technology.  The UCLA Anderson Forecast conference will be held on campus on Wednesday, December 5. Info on that event is at:http://www.uclaforecast.com/event/eventDisplay.asp?iEventID=69 Meanwhile, as far as the kind of forecast for the next few days…

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More on the Stream

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin today has a report that UCLA got another favorable decision regarding the use of live-streaming videos for course purposes. Live-streaming means essentially what you see on websites such as YouTube, i.e., a video (or audio) that you click on and it plays from the web.  The video is not a file that is stored on your computer.  The analogy would be that watching a TV broadcast is similar to live-streaming.  Owning a DVD and playing it on your TV is like having a stored file that you play. Background: There was a prior case in which the…

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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…