News

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    Systemwide Pepper-Spray Report Released

    Byadmin

    After the pepper-spray incident at UC-Davis, various reports were prepared.  Among them is one recently released for comment by UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and UC-Berkeley Law School dean Christopher Edley.  Below are some excerpts from the Robinson-Edley Report followed by a link to the full report.  Note that unlike other reports, this one is meant to be advisory to the entire UC system rather than just UC-Davis.  News accounts have noted the report’s idea of musing “mediation” to defuse conflicts.  See, for example, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2012/05/05/MN3P1ODI4S.DTL Excerpts from “Robinson-Edley Report” …We have divided our recommendations into the following nine thematic categories:…

  • Cinco de Mayo Background: UCLA-Related Insights

    Byadmin

    Sometimes this blog posts items relevant to holidays of the day and today is Cinco de Mayo.  On May 3, 2012, UCLA Professor David Hayes-Bautista was interviewed by Warren Olney on KCRW radio’s Which Way LA? about the history of Cinco de Mayo.  He was also interviewed on the UCLA Newsroom blog on the same topic and recorded a YouTube video for that blog on the subject of Cinco de Mayo (link to that video and text at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/uncovering-the-origins-of-the-232941.aspx). Prof. Hayes-Bautista notes that the celebration of the holiday has much to do with the American Civil War.  On the radio…

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    Time Out for More Seat Time?

    Byadmin

    As readers of this blog will know, at the March Regents meeting, UCLA attempted – and failed – to get Regental endorsement of its proposed hotel/conference center project.  After an embarrassing session of a Regental committee at which the proposal was presented, UCLA pulled the item from the agenda due to the strong doubts expressed by members of the committee.  It was said that the item would be brought back to the Regents in May. The May 16 agenda for that meeting has just been posted and no such item is to be found. At a recent meeting for staff…

  • Escape the Mundane Tomorrow

    Byadmin

    If you wish to escape the mundane (Earthly) problems that usually are reported in this blog, consider the following tomorrow night: The full Moon has a reputation for trouble. It raises high tides, it makes dogs howl, it wakes you up in the middle of the night with beams of moonlight stealing through drapes. If a moonbeam wakes you up on the night of May 5th, 2012, you might want to get out of bed and take a look.  This May’s full Moon is a “super Moon,” as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of…

  • Letter of Non-Intent

    Byadmin

    The Beverly Hills Courier published an interesting history of the Japanese Garden and its proposed sale by UCLA in its May 4 issue.  Links to just that article and to the paper as a whole are below.  It contains an interesting statement by former Dean Fred Eiserling on p. 10: Using a letter written by Dean of Life Sciences Fred Eiserling in June 1993 to Vice Chancellor Alan Charles, UCLA partially based its argument to sell the gardens on Eiserling’s assertion that it did research purpose and would be better suited for another use within the University. In 1965, the…

  • We’re (in Wave) #1!! Guess We’ll Go With the Swim

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed pointed me to a UC notice dated 5-3-12 in which it was announced that certain UC human resource functions will be consolidated at UC-Riverside.  UCLA will be among the first set of campuses (“Wave #1”) to make the transition. UC RIVERSIDE SELECTED TO HOST NEW EMPLOYEE SERVICE CENTER   After a thorough review and analysis, UCPath executive sponsors Peter Taylor, chief financial officer, and Nathan Brostrom, executive vice president of business operations, have selected UC Riverside as the host location for the UCPath Center, the new systemwide shared service center.  The UCPath Center will process routine transactions related…

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    Gov. Brown: “Vote for the Tax. Suck it In.”

    Byadmin

    There probably have been more enticing campaign slogans for ballot initiatives.  But Governor Brown seems to have come up with one that is, well, quotable for the November ballot initiative campaign.  He does appear to have gathered the necessary signatures to get the tax initiative on the ballot, despite a very short timeline for doing so.  UC is likely to endorse the initiative in one way or another.  Details athttp://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/05/jerry-brown-says-tax-signatures-in-hand.html

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    The Crack in Forever and the Japanese Garden Sale

    Byadmin

    A column in the Huffington Post LA discusses the Japanese Garden issue, emphasizing the “in perpetuity” promise that was part of the history of the garden donation.  It cautions future donors that since perpetuity seems to have ended with the ongoing sale of the garden, they may want to be cautious about future gifts.   It may well be that UCLA and the Regents should not have pledged to do something forever.  But that is what happened and this matter might have been better handled as a result.  As prior posts have noted, it appears that the sale is not…

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    Moving Toward Michigan

    Byadmin

    This blog previously noted the rise in non-California students at UC and UCLA (who pay full tuition) that has occurred as a response to the ongoing budget crisis.  See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/04/it-doesnt-seem-to-add-up.html.  Today, the Sacramento Bee features the story and notes the “Michigan Model” as analogous to UC’s approach.  Although UCLA has said it just adds non-state students (as opposed to displacing in-state students), it appears from the numbers as reported in the previous post that there is some displacement. Excerpts from the Bee: …UC officials are aggressively courting non-resident students through college fairs and high school counselors… System officials say the push beyond…

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    PowerPoint Presentation for Emeriti Board on Hotel/Conference Center

    Byadmin

    Yours truly made a PowerPoint presentation earlier today (May 2, 2012) to the UCLA Emeriti Board concerning the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center project.  It runs about 43 minutes.  You can see the slides and hear the audio of the complete presentation at: Because the above link may be slow to load and play, here are alternatives with the presentation divided into three parts that may work faster: Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: The full 43-minute presentation can be downloaded in various formats at http://archive.org/details/PresentationOfDanielJ.b.MitchellOnUclaHotelconferenceCenterProjectTo