News

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And don’t forget the trigger

Byuclafaculty

Just a reminder that we still have the budget trigger – enacted by the legislature – aimed at UC among others. (If revenues don’t match certain projections, additional budget cuts are imposed.) Here is what state controller John Chiang had to say about it: …The Democratic controller credited the “trigger” cuts for adding certainty to the state budget in unpredictable times, noting that credit rating agencies have looked favorably on that mechanism. But he knows many Democratic lawmakers, who agreed to triggers only at Brown’s urging, don’t feel the same way. “As I share with a few legislators when I…

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Too Much Pension News (and Some Useful Data)

Byuclafaculty

The Regents Committee on Compliance and Audit is meeting via teleconference on Nov. 7 in advance of the general Regents meeting the following week. We will post the audio when it becomes available. The agenda for the full Regents meeting has not been posted yet, but the Regents are likely to have some discussion related to the governor’s pension proposals. Included in the Committee’s agenda is an audit of the pension plan. Below is a data summary taken from that audit. The full document is at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov11/a5attach4.pdf = = = = = = = = = = = = =…

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Questions, Answers, & Comments Needed on Hotel/Conference Center

Byuclafaculty

Now that we have arrived at the morning after on the hotel/conference center plan, it is important to consider what we don’t know. We don’t yet have a business plan. So we don’t have yearly projections of assumed revenues and expenditures. We don’t know what assumptions are being made about the demand on campus for conferences and overnight stays. We don’t know how the facility will be operated. Will it be staffed by UCLA employees? Contracted out? There appeared to be an error in the initial press release about assumed future local area competitive hotel rates. What are the actual…

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Hotel/Conference Center: We await details

Byuclafaculty

We now know the general outlines of the hotel/conference center revised plan but the devil is in the details. We know the project is not replacing the Faculty Center. But at least one error in FAQ section – reproduced in the prior post – has been found. The earlier proposal for the Faculty Center site had a projected room rate of $360/day when put on a basis corresponding to what the recent FAQ response says would be $185 before inflation. But the FAQ put that number as $270, not $360. So there is an inconsistency, apparently, that someone will have…

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UCLA Hotel-Conference Center Plan Announced

Byuclafaculty

As indicated in yesterday’s post, UCLA has announced its plans for the hotel/conference center (which does not displace the Faculty Club). Below are some highlights: Location: Central campus, at the end of Westwood Plaza near Pauley Pavilion, in the space currently occupied by Parking Structure 6 Projected Groundbreaking and Demolition: Summer 2013 Projected Completion: Winter 2016 Estimated Project Cost: Roughly $152 million ($40 million from UCLA donors Meyer and Renee Luskin and approximately $112 million in financing) Square Feet of Meeting Space: 25,000 Number of Guest Rooms: 250 Number of Stories: Seven Amenities: Restaurant, business center and fitness center Planned…

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Quakers

Byuclafaculty

CaliforniaWatch has an article on older concrete, and potentially earthquake-unsafe, buildings in the state (public and private) at http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/new-seismic-inventory-identifies-potentially-unsafe-buildings-13334 The report links to the underlying survey at http://www.eeri.org/wp-content/uploads/Concrete_Coalition_Final_0911.pdf Page 94 of the underlying survey says there are 12 such buildings at UCLA. A footnote with an incorrect link cites an earlier report on the subject of earthquake-unsafe buildings that listed a larger number of UCLA structures (not all of which are on the Westwood campus). Below is the earlier listing and the correct link to its source: Seismically hazardous buildings in the UC system 3/17/11 UCLA: Center for Health Sciences…

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Halt or I’ll Compute!

Byuclafaculty

UCLA mathematicians devise an algorithm based on data from the Los Angeles Police Department for the Hollenbeck area east of downtown Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2011 A team of UCLA researchers has delved again into the world of crime fighting, this time developing a computer program capable of pointing police to potential suspects when feuds between rival gangs erupt into violence. The work is the latest contribution in the fast-emerging field of predictive policing — a broad area of study rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes,…

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No Satisfaction on the I-405

Byuclafaculty

More bad traffic news if you are the type who works late at UCLA: The 405 Freeway contractor will begin demolition and reconstruction of the northern half of the Sunset Boulevard Bridge starting Monday, Oct. 31, for 12 consecutive nights. Construction work will take place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., with bridge demolition occurring between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Demolition of columns and bents is anticipated to take place on Wednesday, Nov. 9 through Friday, Nov. 11, 2011… Full article at http://www.smmirror.com/#mode=single&view=33337 Very unsatsifying:

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Statement by Academic Senate Task Force on Investments & Retirement on Governor’s Pension Plan

Byuclafaculty

October 31, 2011 ROBERT ANDERSON, CHAIR, ACADEMIC COUNCIL RE: Governor Brown’s Twelve Point Pension Reform Plan Dear Bob Following circulation of the Governor’s Twelve Point Pension Reform Plan, the Senate Task Force on Investments and Retirement (TFIR) discussed the proposed reforms, and prepared the attached document: “TFIR’s Comments in Response to the Governor’s Pension Reform Plan”; TFIR would like to post this document on the TFIR section of the Senate’s web site, and hopes that you will place a link to the document on the main page. The goals of the TFIR statement are 1) to let Senate faculty know…