News

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We know the view from Berkeley. From UCLA?

Byuclafaculty

About a month ago, UC-Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau and co-authors issued a report calling for more autonomy for the UC campuses.  Here is the abstract: The University of California (UC) needs to respond to the fundamental and ongoing changes that are occurring around it if it is to remain financially sustainable, accessible, and academically excellent. As the campuses that make up UC have matured in the past 50 years they have, rightly, developed unique strengths and challenges. The uniqueness of individual campuses has been a natural response to the increasing complexity of our world and the highly competitive nature of higher education. These differences have…

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More Pay Less/Say More from the Legislature

Byuclafaculty

Say less or pay more A reporter from the Daily Bruin called my attention to the proposed state constitutional amendment that would cap the proportion of out-of-state admissions to UC.  The proposed amendment caps such admissions at 10% of total, on a campus-by-campus basis.  It would require a 2/3 vote to get to the ballot and that is very unlikely to happen and even less likely to happen in time for November 2012.  There is no quid pro quo in this amendment, i.e., so much money in exchange for the cap. The issue of out-of-state admissions has been raised in…

The Golden Mean

Byuclafaculty

Below is a cross-post from another site – the Employment Policy Research Network – for which yours truly also blogs.  You may have an interest in this item: ===================================== Mitchell’s Musings 5-21-12: The Golden Mean Daniel J.B. Mitchell California, the Golden State, has had well-publicized budget problems for years.  Its formal budget process consists of the governor proposing a budget in January for the upcoming fiscal year which begins July 1.  The legislature is supposed to enact a budget by June 15 and the governor is supposed to sign it, possibly with line-item vetoes, by June 30.  In fact, although…

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LAO Report on the May Revise: UC Barely Exists

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst has issued its evaluation of the governor’s May Revise budget proposal. There is little of direct UC interest in the text. On the other hand, one would be hard put to find anything that would encourage the legislataure to “buy out” a tuition increase as the Regents wanted at their recent meeting.  There is nothing about UC pension obligations.  There might be a bit of relief for Cal Grant students at UC but even if so, the relief would come in future years. The LAO has suggestions for reframing parts of the budget which might free up…

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Throwing Stones in the Well?

Byuclafaculty

The media release below was issued by UCLA yesterday: Campus wins court ruling on Japanese garden sale, extends sale process By Phil Hampton, May 17, 2012 A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has rejected a request for a temporary restraining order to block UCLA’s sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden. While the May 17 ruling confirms UCLA’s right to proceed with the sale of the property at 10619 Bellagio Rd. in Bel-Air, UCLA announced that it will extend the period during which prospective buyers can submit bids. “Even though we are confident that all appropriate steps have been followed and…

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Buried in Paper While Trying to Download the EIR for the Proposed UCLA Hotel?

Byuclafaculty

As noted in a prior blog post, the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center is available and a public hearing will be held on June 5, 7 pm, at the UCLA Faculty Center.  If you tried to download the report from the official site, you may have found downloading around 700 pages slow and difficult.  So below, the report is divided into seven parts for easier access.  It will also be preserved in an alternative site. Not exactly bedtime reading but… Part 1 Open publication – Free publishing– More ucla Part 2 Open publication – Free…

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Off Message?

Byuclafaculty

UCLA often points to its environmentalism, particularly when construction projects are an issue.  But in the case described below, someone in the Housing and Hospitality empire seems off message. Below is an email sent today by Prof. Donald Shoup of Urban Planning to Robert Gilbert, Special Assistant to AVC & Sustainability Manager, UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services. It was the latest of a series of emails that went back and forth on the student housing project described in the message. Subject: Master metering wastes electricity in UCLA apartment buildings Dear Robert, Thanks for your message. As I understand our correspondence,…

Online

Byuclafaculty

There is growing interest in outline higher education, as readers of this blog will know.  UC has been experimenting with it for some time.  Recently, NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman touted a new venture called coursera.org which apparently has linked to some major universities, as the picture above indicates.  His column is at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/opinion/friedman-come-the-revolution.html.  If the NY Times wants to charge you to look, the same column appears in the Sacramento Bee at http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/17/4495739/online-revolution-in-higher-education.html Clearly, it’s the in thing: Indeed, NY Times columnists seem to be on a kick about this topic.  Below is David Brooks’ version (also as reprinted…

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Hobgoblin Pensions

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly is not exactly sure what a hobgoblin is, except that consistency was said by Emerson to be the hobgoblin of small minds. As readers of this blog will know, the Regents and UCOP have been effusively praising the governor for somehow committing to funding the UC pension system fully, even though all he has done is said that UC could use some of its state allocation for the pension (which was always the case).  Absent some larger understanding between UC and the powers-that-be in the state on funding UC operations generally as well as the pension, such statements…