News

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Japanese Garden Meeting Follow Up

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday’s blog featured the audio from a local meeting concerning the proposed sale of the UCLA Japanese Garden. As a follow up, you can read some documents that were distributed at the meeting below.  Also, reference was made at the meeting to the legal action that was taken by UCLA (technically by the Regents) to allow the sale.  Some legal documents from that action can also be found below.  Note that there is reference in the documents to there being no opposition from the state Attorney General.  Obviously, there has been opposition from other quarters including the Carter family.  Whether…

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UC Needs to Get Off the State Pension Train Before It Goes Too Far

Byuclafaculty

As we have noted many times, the Regents modified the UC pension plan back in December 2010 to deal with its funding issues.  Since that time, the risk has been that UC would be swept into some statewide pension reform really aimed mainly at CalPERS and CalSTRS.  UC needs to get off that train before it is too late. The excerpt below from a recent news report indicates that the train is rolling and so far we are on board. UCOP and the Regents need to be involved in legislative discussions. …At a hearing of the Legislature’s Conference Committee on…

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Worries About the Obama Tuition Plan Seem Confined to Private Universities

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog  noted the remarks of President Obama indicating that the federal government would somehow penalize universities whose tuitions were rising.  But yours truly also opined that it was very unlikely that public universities, such as UC, would be penalized since their tuitions were lower than the privates and they tended to enroll a greater percentage of lower income students. A short piece today in Inside Higher Ed seems to reinforce that view.  It seems that it is presidents of private universities that are upset. See http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/02/01/white-house-adviser-takes-questions-obamas-plan In short, it’s one less thing to worry about.  So be…

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Audio of Meeting on Sale of UCLA Japanese Garden: 1-31-12

Byuclafaculty

A hearing or meeting was held today at the Community Magnet School in Bel Air on the proposed sale of the Japanese Garden.  Representatives of the Carter family (the original donor) were there.  Hannah Carter’s son Jim was the spokesperson and strongly condemned the sale.  Also presented were histories and photographs of the garden. UCLA was represented by Bradley Erickson, Executive Director, Campus Service Enterprises. Almost all of the individuals in the audience were from the neighborhood and almost all were opposed to the sale. UPDATE: The Daily Bruin has a summary of the meeting at:http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2012/02/local_residents_faculty_alumni_oppose_sale_of_the_hannah_carter_japanese_ga Audio of the meeting…

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State Out of Cash?

Byuclafaculty

You may see some headlines about the state running out of cash.  The state controller today sent a letter to the legislature supporting passage of a bill allowing for more internal borrowing.  What does this development mean? As we have noted in past blog posts, in the current fiscal year and the past two years, in common English parlance the general fund of the state has been in rough balance, i.e., inflow = outflow.  But prior to that there were big deficits that ultimately left the state with a negative reserve in its general fund. When the general fund has…

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Listen to Radio Program on Japanese Garden

Byuclafaculty

At the link below, you can listen to Which Way LA? on KCRW which featured a program this evening on the UCLA Japanese Garden.  Guests are Martha Groves of the LA Times, R. Michael Rich – research astronomer, and EVC Scott Waugh.  The program does not have anyone from the Carter family or background on the source of the original gift. It runs about 10 minutes at the beginning of the link below. UCLA’s position is that it would like to see the garden preserved but wants to sell it.  No guarantee is made, however, that the sale would be to…

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Imitation is Not Always Flattery

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times today carries a story about the UCLA Anderson’s School’s use of the Turnitin.com system for catching plagiarism in essays of applicants for the MBA program.  The system is more commonly used for checking reports written for class assignments by already-enrolled students.  Excerpt: …”The more we can nip unethical behavior in the bud, the better,” said Andrew Ainslie, a senior associate dean at UCLA Anderson. “It seems to us nobody ought to be able to buy their way into a business school.”  In the school’s first review of essays from potential MBA candidates this year, Turnitin found significant…

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UCLA History: Fundraising

Byuclafaculty

The issues of the sale of the Japanese Garden and the construction of the hotel/conference center both point to fundraising and gifts to UCLA.  The recent history of UCLA – UCLA: The First Century – has a section on the early days of fundraising.  (See an earlier blog post on the book.) In the book is the undated photo on the left of Dean Neil Jacoby of the business school promoting his idea of a building for the school.  The book, incidentally, incorrectly gives his dates as dean as 1948-73.  In fact, when yours truly arrived on campus in the…

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Audio Recording Indicates that UC Needs to Talk With Legislative Leaders on Pensions

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday’s State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee carried a story about remarks by California State Senate President Darrell Steinberg on public pensions.  It includes a link to a recording of Steinberg’s remarks on pensions at a press conference of 1-26-2012.  Good luck with that link; the IT guy at the Bee must have gone home for the weekend.  Nevertheless, yours truly has come to the rescue and you can hear it without hassle by clicking on the link below. There is a back story which state politicos will understand regarding Steinberg’s remarks.  Last year, the legislature kept waiting for…