News

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More pension hearings?

Byuclafaculty

We posted audios from the legislature’s public pension hearings on December 1. Apparently, according to the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee, there will be more hearings to come. Although the special pension committee was supposed to have concluded its work by January, …”This cannot be a two-hearing answer,” said Democratic Sen. Gloria Negrete-McLeod, co-chair of the panel. A spokeswoman for Democratic Assemblyman Warren Furutani, also a co-chair, said the committee will probably end up holding at least four hearings in all “in order to get through all of the information.” … Whatever the motives of the committee, if…

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Faculty Association Sends Report on UC Pension to Legislative Committee

Byuclafaculty

The UCLA Faculty Association has submitted a report to the members of the legislative committee studying the governor’s proposals for public pensions. (See an earlier blog post.) The cover letter to the committee members is reproduced below. Below that is a link to the report which details the history of the UC pension system. ===== To: Members of the Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions AB 340/SB 827 From: Faculty Association at UCLA Date: Dec. 1, 2011 Subject: Examining the Governor’s Twelve Point Pension Reform Plan Dear Representative Furitani, On behalf of the Faculty Association at UCLA, an independent association…

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Not Quite So Bad

Byuclafaculty

It won’t be quite so bad as the picture suggests. But if you are a night owl at UCLA and use the 405, you may have a problem: The northbound 405 Freeway will be closed between Getty Center Drive and Ventura Boulevard for construction starting Tuesday night. Crews will be reconstructing the Mulholland Bridge. Ramps were expected to close as early as 7 p.m. and freeway lanes may close as early as 10 p.m. The closure could continue for several nights. The southbound side was expected to be closed in the same area beginning Saturday night. Source: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=resources/traffic&id=8447786

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Testimony in Sacramento Coming Up on UC Pension

Byuclafaculty

Two UC officials will be testifying tomorrow about the UC pension at a legislative hearing on the governor’s public pension proposals. We don’t know what the UC reps will be saying. Hopefully, it will be a polite version of “no thanks; we have our own plan.” If more info becomes available, we will post it. Meanwhile, the hearing agenda can be found below. Pension Agenda(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

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Waiting for the Plans on Conceptual Hotel-Conference Center

Byuclafaculty

Just to keep our blog readers up to date: The UCLA Faculty Association has filed a formal request for the business plan of the proposed hotel/conference center which so far has not been released. Since at the scoping meeting on the project, the architectural plans were described by the campus architect as merely “conceptual,” the Faculty Association is concerned that the business plan may also be in a preliminary stage. In any event, below is the formal request and acknowledgment from the university official handling such matters. ================================ Faculty Association at UCLA P.O. Box 33336 Granada Hills, CA 91394-3336 Nov….

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Update: Brown on Pepper

Byuclafaculty

Jerry Brown says he’s ‘seriously concerned’ about protest response (excerpt) Capital Alert blog of Sacramento Bee 11-28-11 …”I am seriously concerned that the rules governing the use of force, in particular the use of pepper spray, are not well understood in the context of civil disobedience and various forms of public protest,” Brown wrote to Paul Cappitelli, director of the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. “The recent ‘occupation’ protests in cities throughout California and on campuses of the University of California underscore the urgency of articulating guidelines that are crystal clear and comport with constitutional requirements.” Brown,…

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Listen to Audio from Regents Meeting of Nov. 28, 2011 Until Cut Off

Byuclafaculty

Below you can listen to the audio of the rescheduled Regents meeting of earlier today. The meeting was a teleconference at various campus sites. It consisted mainly of the public comment session. See earlier postings on this blog for further information. After the public comments session, the Regents attempted to discuss the UC budget. At that point, the audio went on and off, apparently in response to demonstrations. There was a statement that the room at UC-San Francisco had been cleared. The audio finally cut off entirely about 11:45 AM. Update: A copy of the Regents audio that covers the…

UC-Berkeley Police Statement

Byuclafaculty

The union representing UC-Berkeley police released a statement to the news media this morning, apparently timed for the rescheduled Regents meeting. It appeared in Political Blotter (link below). It is our hope that this letter will help open the door to a better understanding between UC Berkeley police and the University community. The UC Berkeley Police Officers’ Association, representing approximately 64 campus police officers, understands your frustration over massive tuition hikes and budget cuts, and we fully support your right to peacefully protest to bring about change. It was not our decision to engage campus protesters on November 9th. We…