News

| | |

And Yet Another Bill for the Governor to Sign (or Not)

Byuclafaculty

We have been reporting on bills related to UC that have been sent to Governor Brown for his signature or veto.  Here is another:=== A bill approved by the state Senate would give University of California and California State University research assistants the right to collective bargaining…  It would affect 14,000 research assistants in the UC system and about 2,000 at CSU schools. …Gov. Jerry Brown has until the end of September to act on the bill. Full story at http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/23/4752473/uc-csu-research-assistants-would.html Will Brown sign?  Here is what proponents say: Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/23/4752473/uc-csu-research-assistants-would.html#storylink=cpy

Quick Action for Dumb Questions at U of Colorado?

Byuclafaculty

According to the chancellor of the U of Colorado, faculty may not shut down a class just because a student is carrying a gun.  So reports Inside Higher Ed today:=== The Colorado Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that students with concealed carry permits could bring handguns to university classrooms. …(T)his week, Jerry Peterson, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and chair of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, said he would cancel classes if he found that someone had brought a firearm to class… (But) Philip P. DiStefano, the chancellor at UC-Boulder, sent out an e-mail Tuesday to faculty…

Who Will Santa Monica Catch With Its UC-Berkeley DUI Grant?

Byuclafaculty

According to the agenda for the Santa Monica city council meeting for next week, the City is about to get a small research grant to set up more drunk driving checkpoints from UC-Berkeley. Just as a check of my own, I Googled “DUI” and “Santa Monica” on the image setting to see who gets caught. Seems like inebriated celebrity types get into trouble in Santa Monica, as this sampling of pictures from that web search illustrates.  So it should be an interesting study. For more on the grant, you can find the Santa Monica city council agenda item athttp://www.smgov.net/departments/council/agendas/2012/20120828/s2012082803-J.htm Apparently,…

|

More Spam – Supposedly from UCLA – to Which You Don’t Want to Respond

Byuclafaculty

Here is a new wrinkle in the ongoing attempts to get you to click on messages about your UCLA email account from spammers. In the past, they have sent warnings (sometimes with bad spelling and grammar) that your account would be closed if you didn’t respond. But now they offer you good news, if only you will click. See below but don’t click if you got the email!  Just delete it.  Look closely and you will see that the message comes from Italy (maybe) but not UCLA.  The return address is given as ucla4554 (at) libero.it.===In case you have not noticed,…

|

Before we get all-a-twitter about this issue, maybe the question for the governor is whether there is a problem

Byuclafaculty

Another bill related to higher ed seems to be going to Governor Brown’s desk.  Not clear that section 2(a) is compatible with 2(c). The bill apparently was triggered by reports that some employers were requiring job applicants to hand over their Facebook, Twitter, etc., passwords. But this bill, unlike another in the legislature, refers to universities, not employers. Is it really addressing a known problem?  Even if it is, maybe the governor needs to send this one back for more work; blanket prohibitions can lead to unforeseen difficulties down the road.Last year, Brown vetoed an unrelated bill saying “not every…

| | | | | |

Will He Sign It?

Byuclafaculty

State lawmakers have approved first-in-the-nation legislation requiring California universities with the most high-profile sports programs to provide financial protections for student athletes who suffer career-ending injuries…SB1525 would apply to universities that receive more than $10 million annually in sports media revenue. The bill by Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from Los Angeles, would apply this year to the University of Southern California, UCLA, Berkeley and Stanford University…Full article at http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/22/4749123/bill-would-help-injured-student.html

| | |

Money Race on Governor’s Initiative

Byuclafaculty

In a posting yesterday, we noted that the opponents of the governor’s tax initiative (Prop 30) have begun campaigning with radio “issue” ads. It appears, however, that in the race to raise money for the election campaign, a lot more has been raised to support the initiative than to oppose it.  There were concerns that the “paycheck protection” initiative (Prop 32) – which also is on the ballot in November – would divert union funds away from from the governor’s campaign.  (Prop 32 would ban union payroll dues deductions from being used for political purposes.)  Indeed, much funding has gone…

|

Good News/Bad News

Byuclafaculty

The good news is that reading this blog every day will keep you informed about UCLA and UC concerns. The bad news, according to our friends down the road in Santa Monica at the Milken Institute, is that it can make you fat:===== Waistlines of the World: The Effect of Information and Communications Technology on Obesity Summary: Information and communications technologies have improved living standards around the world. But the increased amount of time that people devote to using computers, watching TV and playing video games- so-called “screen time” -is a significant factor in the global rise of obesity. In Waistlines of the World:…

| | | |

Is Catch-Up the Strategy on the Tax Initiative?

Byuclafaculty

The opponents of the governor’s tax initiative are already on the radio advertising.  Although the governor’s campaign for his tax initiative is in principle in motion, the media advertising has yet to begin.  As readers of this blog will know, the Regents have endorsed the governor’s initiative. When Jerry Brown ran for governor in 2010, he also was slow to get going against Meg Whitman.  However, he did win with a concentrated blitz toward the end.  Possibly, that is the strategy now.  It is unclear how much funding opponents will have for full-fledged media campaign as the November election nears….