News

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UC History: Ansel Adams Photos

Byuclafaculty

A report in the San Francisco Chronicle today indicates that in 1964, UC President Clark Kerr hired famed photographer Ansel Adams to take pictures of the UC system.  The photos came out in a picture book later which has not been reprinted until now when copies were made for incoming UC-Berkeley freshmen. Only a few photos are reproduced in the Chronicle such as the one on the right of a class for veterinarians at UC-Davis.  It’s nice that Adams gave us the horse’s head rather than the reverse. You can find the report at:http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Ansel-Adams-prints-found-at-UC-Berkeley-3909179.php

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They gotta have their meds!!

Byuclafaculty

UC Riverside medical school clears hurdle === Larry Gordon, LA Times, October 3, 2012 (excerpt) A national accrediting agency has approved UC Riverside’s long-embattled plan to open a full medical school and to start enrolling future doctors next summer, officials announced Tuesday. It would be the sixth medical school in the University of California system and the first to open since the late 1960s. Last year, the same panel rejected the proposal because it looked too risky after the state refused to fund the school. But UC Riverside officials have since secured enough other public and private financing for a program that…

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A Little California Background

Byuclafaculty

Each year, yours truly does a presentation during orientation for the incoming MPP students on California and its history, politics, institutions, and even a little on the state budget.  If you have a spare hour and a half, the version from Sept. 25 can be seen in three parts at the links below.  Even long-time Californians may find some new information which may shed light on some current state dilemmas. We began the class with – what else? – the official state song: and then got into the specifics: Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:

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California has a way to go

Byuclafaculty

The two charts above from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics serve as a reminder that California’s economic recovery still has a way to go.  You probably knew that but it is also a reminder that the state budget, and the UC budget, which ultimately depend on the underlying economic tax base, will also be under strain for some time to come. Note: A summary of the UCLA Anderson Forecast for the national and state economies is available at: http://uclaforecast.com/contents/archive/2012/media_92012_1.asp

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UCLA Has a New MacArthur Fellow

Byuclafaculty

From the MacArthur Foundation website: Elissa Hallem Neurobiologist Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics University of California, Los Angeles Age: 34 Elissa Hallem is a neuroscientist who explores the physiology and behavioral consequences of odor detection.  As a graduate student, she undertook expansive studies of olfaction in fruit flies that revealed several important, and sometimes unexpected, insights.  Starting with a mutant fly strain that lacks any odorant receptor in a well-characterized subset of olfactory receptor neurons, Hallem produced more than twenty different transgenic fruit fly lines, each expressing a single, known odorant receptor gene in these neurons. …

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More Online Entrepreneurialism: MBA Admissions Essay

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle today: For years, applicants looking to read examples of admissions essays submitted to top business schools could buy books with such names as “101 Business School (MBA) Essays That Made a Difference” or “65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays.” The books promised readers an inside look at what admissions officers were looking for, along with elements of a successful business school essay. The latest player is a new essay service and website called Wordprom.com, founded by MBA graduates Gili and Ori Elkin, who are looking to turn that old-fashioned model on its head -and raising the hackles of…

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Brown Vetoes Bill Requiring Consideration of Community Service for Tenure

Byuclafaculty

A bill was vetoed yesterday that would have required CSU and “requested” UC to consider community service for tenure and other academic personnel decisions.  The veto message is at:http://gov.ca.gov/docs/AB_2132_Veto_Message.pdf The message notes that such service is already part of the academic review process and that such matters are best left to campus-level decision making.

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Governor Vetoes Collective Bargaining for RAs

Byuclafaculty

Collective bargaining in the public sector in California is regulated by a series of statutes.  The major ones have the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) as their administrative agency.  One of these laws covers UC and CSU and is known as HEERA, the Higher Education Employee-Employer Relations Act.  Current law allows collective bargaining for student teaching assistants. However, research assistants are not covered. Yesterday, the deadline for signing or vetoing bills, Gov. Brown vetoed a bill that would have extended collective bargaining rights to RAs. You can read his veto explanation statement at:http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_259_Veto_Message.pdf For those interested, the full text of…

A word from our sponsor as the fall quarter begins…

Byuclafaculty

This blog is sponsored by the Faculty Association at UCLA, an independent association for members of the UCLA Academic Senate.A form for joining the Faculty Association can be found at:http://www.uclafaculty.org/Join.htmlBy the way, the Faculty Association is planning a campus event on November 7 dealing with funding UC.  More info will be available on this blog as we get closer to the event.