News

Yet More Pepper

Byuclafaculty

Just when you thought there could not be more to contemplate about the UC-Davis pepper spray incident, there is this from the Sacramento Bee: The internal affairs investigation into last November’s pepper-spraying controversy at UC-Davis concluded that Lt. John Pike acted reasonably, with a subsequent review concluding he should have faced demotion or a suspension at worst, according to documents obtained by The Bee. Despite those recommendations, Pike was fired Tuesday after UC Davis Police Chief Matthew Carmichael rejected the findings and wrote in a letter to Pike that “the needs of the department do not justify your continued employment,” according to…

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Back Home in Indiana (Where the Campus Hotel Pays Taxes)

Byuclafaculty

We have noted in past blog posts on the UCLA proposed hotel/conference center that the business plan assumes that the hotel is tax exempt (because it is – and has to be – non-commercial).  One of the anecdotes cited at the July Regents meeting session that approved the hotel financing plan was a campus hotel at Indiana Uuiversity.  (Listen to the link below.)  Above is a screenshot of the webpage for that hotel.  If you go on that webpage and book a room, you will find that the room cost includes TAX. This is the problem.  Many of the uses…

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More Email Fraud: Don’t Answer

Byuclafaculty

More email fraud/spam you should not answer that may have appeared in your e-mailbox.  If you did reply, you might have noticed that the reply address is not at UCLA.  Change your password immediately if you did reply: This Email is from UCLA Communications. We have been monitoring this account through our server’s log file and have noticed that this account is been accessed from different distinct location simultaneously as against webmail policy, for security purpose we will be shutting down this Account unless you verify this account by filling out the outlined Information below or your account will be…

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Advice from the Beatles on the Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

In earlier posts, we have noted advice from Fredric March and Winston Churchill to UCLA on the sale of the Japanese Garden – now halted by court order.  The local newspaper for the Japanese-American community in LA, Rafu Shimpo, has a lengthy article today on the sale and the court decision which also suggests the sensitivity of this matter to the Japanese-American community.  Example: …One garden supporter commented that choosing Aug. 15 — V-J (Victory over Japan) Day — as the day to open the bids “tells us how they are culturally senseless as a world-class educational institution.”… Full article…

What Management Thinks

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed has provided an interesting survey on how management at universities (national survey) thinks about financial circumstances.  The chart above gives some indication of what you can find out.  It indicates that both financial officers and provosts are skeptical about faculty understanding of financial issues.  CFOs are more likely than provosts (academics) to think more spending cuts can be made without an impact on quality although only a minority of CFOs feel that way. You can find a lengthy article on the survey with a link to the actual document athttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/business_officer_2012 Since there is skepticism about faculty understanding…

Something to keep in mind from our colleagues at UC-Irvine

Byuclafaculty

People with exceptional memory recall, have different brains People who can easily recall every moment of their lives have different brains than others, a new study has claimed. University of California-Irvinescientists have found fascinating differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10, the ‘Science Daily’ reported. The phenomenon of highly superior autobiographical memory first documented in 2006 by UCI neurobiologist James McGaugh and colleagues in a woman identified as “AJ” has been profiled on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ and in hundreds of other…

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The Tax Battle Begins

Byuclafaculty

The tax initiative battle seems to be beginning. A couple of weeks ago, we posted a YouTube ad favoring the governor’s tax initiative.* It was longer than a typical 30-60 second TV ad, but probably provided a clue to what the TV pro-initiative ads would emphasize. We now have a radio ad from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. which suggests that the anti side will emphasize public pensions, public-sector unions, and the cost of the governor’s high-speed rail plan. The radio ad doesn’t specifically name the governor’s tax plan and could just as easily be seen as opposition to any…

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UCLA’s Capstones Reviewed in Chronicle of Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

Every UCLA undergrad with a dollar bill can see a capstone. Indeed, that particular capstone can see him/her, or so it appears.  However, the Chronicle is reviewing capstone courses and their merits and demerits. College Too Easy? UCLA Makes It TougherBy Dan Berrett (excerpt): During a review of undergraduate programs at the University of California at {sic] Los Angeles, Judith L. Smith was struck by an uncomfortable realization: Too many majors demanded too little from students. Some students could graduate without ever taking a senior seminar or completing a substantial research project. The result, says Ms. Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education, is that students could “be pedestrians…

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Taxes, Taxes: News on the Tax Front

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee today is reporting various news on the tax front.  As readers of this blog will know, there are three tax measures on the ballot: the governor’s plan which the Regents recently endorsed, the Molly Munger school tax (Prop 38), and a close-corporate loophole tax (Prop 39). Folk wisdom has it that where there are too many measures on the same subject, voters may reject all of them in confusion. In part to overcome that confusion, the legislature passed a bill that effectively put the governor’s plan as the first initiative on the ballot (Prop 30). In order…