News

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    Pension Initiative Seems to Be Out of Gas (for Now)

    Byadmin

    Earlier posts noted a pension initiative drive – fronted by San Jose Mayor Chris Reed – that would have swept in UC.  For now, the effort seems to have stalled.  The proponents have decided to litigate the title and summary by the attorney general of the initiative.  Effectively, that will take enough time so that they will not be able to gather the signatures needed to get the initiative on the November 2014 ballot.  The decision to litigate may just be a polite way to bow out for now.  See:http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/30/6116016/public-pension-measure-likely.html Of course, if your car stalls for whatever reason, you…

  • Is there Twitter after retirement?

    Byadmin

    Of course, the Big Question is usually is there life after death?  But we can’t answer that one here.  The lesser question – Is there Twitter after retirement? – can be answered, at least in the case of former UC prez Mark Yudof.  YES!  Not surprisingly, Yudof stopped tweeting around the time he left the UC presidency.  But then, in late December, came another tweet.  It’s actually a link to a Harvard Business Review piece, and says: “Once you know your greater purpose, there are lots of roads that will take you there.” http://s.hbr.org/18NiGul [See https://twitter.com/mark_yudof] I always thought the…

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    Listen to the Regents Meeting of Jan. 23, 2014

    Byadmin

    We continue indefinitely archiving the Regents meetings since – as numerous prior posts have complained – the Regents view an “archive” as lasting only one year.  Below is a link to the meeting (open sessions only) of Jan. 23, 2014.  We have previously posted the morning session of Jan. 22.  The afternoon session of that date – which runs well over 4 hours –  will eventually also be done.  But it takes over 4 hours to do it so yours truly will get to it when he can. At the Jan. 23 meeting, there were public comments involving (among other…

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    Are some administrators shivering?

    Byadmin

    No, not because of the cold weather in other parts of the country.  Rather, because of the headline regarding Northwestern University’s football program in today’s Inside Higher Ed:  Athletes Move to Unionize The Internet – or at least, the piece of the Internet where people pay moderate attention to college sports – blew up Tuesday afternoon with the news that some number of Northwestern University football players are seeking to unionize.  The apparently unprecedented step is a potential watershed moment for athletes in commercial sports programs like those at Northwestern, who were lauded by outspoken critics and sports columnists who…

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    Another of our periodic email cautionary notes

    Byadmin

    From time to time, we have provided reminders about email problems.  One problem – which we have noted – is that at a public university, your emails may be subject to public documents requests. Another problem is that hackers may try to get into your email account through “phishing,” probably to use it to send out scam messages to your contacts.  Such an event seems to have occurred at UC-Davis: Hackers compromised the email accounts of three UC Davis doctors last month, potentially gaining access to personal or medical information on as many as 1,800 patients, the university announced Monday… …

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    Stay Away from the 405 Tonight and Tomorrow Night

    Byadmin

    The northbound San Diego (405) Freeway will be closed overnight through the Sepulveda Pass tonight and Wednesday night so crews can re-stripe the roadway and move k-rail barriers. The northbound freeway will be closed between Moraga Drive and Ventura Boulevard, according to Metro, which is overseeing the freeway-widening project. Ramps will begin closing at around 7 p.m., followed by lane closures at 10 p.m. and the full freeway closure at midnight, continuing until 5 a.m… Full story at http://centurycity.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/northbound-405-freeway-to-close-overnight-through-sepulveda-pass

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    MOOc

    Byadmin

    An interesting analysis of MOOCs in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Stanford economist Caroline M. Hoxby suggests that heavy dependence on online ed won’t work for what she terms highly selective post-secondary educational institutions.  In essence, such institutions depend in important ways on alumni loyalty which is hard to obtain if students take courses online that come from anywhere. Abstract: I consider how online postsecondary education, including massive open online courses (MOOCs), might fit into economically sustainable models of postsecondary education. I contrast nonselective postsecondary education (NSPE)in which institutions sell fairly standardized educational services in return…

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    USC Has a Bad Patch

    Byadmin

    We posted yesterday about the news from UC-Berkeley that many earthquake-prone buildings are located in southern California – including in Westwood.  The Westwood-Century City Patch, in picking up the story from the LA Times, blamed USC instead of UC-B, at least in the headline.  See above.  Probably just as well.  Who wants to be the bearer of bad tidings?.

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    Napolitano Responds to UCLA’s Moreno Report

    Byadmin

    Moreno UC President Napolitano issued a response to the (former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos) “Moreno Report” of Oct. 2013, formally titled “Independent Investigative Report on Acts of Bias and Discrimination Involving Faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles.”  It includes directives to all campus chancellors: 1) Every campus should designate an official to serve as its lead discrimination officer. This official is responsible for ensuring that an appropriate response is made to all reports of perceived acts of discrimination, bias, and harassment involving faculty, students, and staff from all parts of the campus. * The discrimination officer will…