News

Verify the Feds

Byuclafaculty

We have been providing some hints about avoiding email fraud/spam being sent to UCLA folks.  Here is some more general info courtesy of your friendly feds: Every day, the federal government uses social media services like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to communicate and provide easy access to government benefits and services. But unlike most government websites, which are hosted on a .mil or a .gov domain, social media sites are hosted on commercial domains. Without the .gov or the .mil, it can be difficult to determine which social media accounts are official government sources of information and which are impersonators….

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Prop 30 Campaign Officially Starts

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown kicked off the official campaign for his tax initiative – Prop 30 – which, as readers of this blog will know – was endorsed by the Regents. Early polling has shown a bare majority of voters favor it (and the other two tax initiatives on the November ballot are polling poorly).  It is unclear how much funding the opposition to Prop 30 will be able to raise for a negative campaign.  However, Prop 38 – the “Munger tax” initiative which is focused on schools – does have money behind it and its campaign will push the argument that…

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Follow Up on Close-Loophole-for-Tuition-Cut Bill

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we noted the passage in the state assembly of a bill that closed a corporate tax loophole and used the money for higher ed tuition cuts.  The bill required a 2/3 vote and squeezed by with one independent vote (a former Republican who quit the party) and one from a renegade Republican – Brian Nestande – who deviated from the party line. The renegade – depending on which story you read – either stepped down from chairing the Republican caucus in the assembly or was forced out. The stepped-down version is athttp://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/15/4726584/california-republican-leader-gives.html The forced-out version is athttp://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid=4877 It probably…

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UCLA’s Tech Spinoffs

Byuclafaculty

The LA Business Journal has a section this week on tech-type firms that have been spun off by UCLA.  Well, not exclusively UCLA; Caltech and USC are also part of the story.  An excerpt from the UCLA portion: UCLA: Enabling Campus Entrepreneurs UCLA spun out 19 startups during its 2011 fiscal year, making it the leader among the University of California campuses in technology transfer. About 90 startups have come out of the campus in the last five years. Some of the startups to come out of UCLA in the past several years show the wide range of the school’s…

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UC Submits Legal Brief on Affirmative Action to US Supreme Court

Byuclafaculty

There is currently a challenge to the University of Texas’ affirmative action plan before the U.S. Supreme Court. Various interested parties have submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the U of Texas program. Inside Higher Ed today carries a lengthy article on the case. California voters enacted Prop 209 in 1996 which barred affirmative action in student admissions, so it might seem that UC has no interest in the Texas case.  (In 1995, before voters enacted Prop 209, the Regents had enacted a similar ban.  That ban was removed after Prop 209 made it redundant.)  However, UC has submitted a…

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And in the State Senate?

Byuclafaculty

From the Sacramento Bee‘s Capitol Alert blog last night: By a razor-thin margin, the California Assembly passed legislation today to raise a billion dollars annually for middle-class college scholarships by altering tax law for numerous out–of-state corporations. The measure, Assembly Bill 1500, passed 54-24, the bare-minimum two-thirds vote needed for tax or fee increases. Democrats supported the measure, as did Republicans Brian Nestande of Palm Desertand Independent Nathan Fletcher of San Diego Assembly Speaker John A. Perez proposed the bill as a companion to his separate legislation, Assembly Bill 1501, which would spend the billion dollars raised to assist college and university students whose families earn less than $150,000 per year……

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The Legislature is Watching

Byuclafaculty

From the publication “Supplemental Report of the 2012-13 Budget Package” put out by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO): Item 6440‑001‑0001—University of California (UC) Audit Report. It is the intent of the Legislature, and in follow‑up to State Audit Report 2010‑105, that by July 31, 2012, UC provide to the appropriate legislative budget subcommittees and LAO the recommendations of the systemwide working group established to examine variation in funding across the system.  Further, it is the intent of the Legislature that UC identify the amount of revenues from the general funds and tuition budget that each campus received in 2012‑13 for…

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You Might Not Want to Look…

Byuclafaculty

…at the July cash statement of the state controller. Because if you do, you will find out that revenues in the first month of the fiscal year came in over $400 million below estimates in the recently-enacted state budget. And, of course, there could be trigger cuts in the budget (including at UC) although such cuts are more contingent on the passage by voters (or not) of the governor’s tax initiative, Prop 30. If you do want to look, nonetheless, the report is at:http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy1213_jul.pdf Look if you dare:

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Even the Email Identity Thieves Targeting UCLA Can Improve

Byuclafaculty

The identity thieves that have been sending UCLA email users phishing messages designed to steal your passwords, etc., turn out to be followers of Émile Coué (shown at left). In past messages from them, there have been incorrect spellings and odd grammar, as we have noted in past blog posts.  But they are getting better, day by day. Still, you should not reward their efforts at self improvement by clicking on their messagessuch as today’s edition: Dear Bruin OnLine E-mail user, This is to inform all users that our server upgrade/maintenance is scheduled for August 30 2012. You may experience login…

Student Evaluations of Teaching: Always a Hot Topic

Byuclafaculty

What are they saying? Inside Higher Ed today notes complaints from Australian faculty about increased use of student evaluations of teaching for faculty advancement.  The article is at http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/08/13/australian-professors-object-student-evaluationsand it links to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald which says (excerpt): …Teachers at the Australian National University now need to explain themselves if too many students are not pleased with them and colleagues must argue why courses with student satisfaction rates of less than 50 per cent should be kept. One teacher emailed the union: ”I feel under pressure to lower standards and make the student experience more comfortable…