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The Sprowls Website on Computing

Byuclafaculty

What you see above is a screenshot of a website designed by Professor Emeritus R. Clay Sprowls, a professor of statistics at what is now the Anderson School from 1951 until 1990 when he retired. The dean of the Anderson School last night circulated an email obituary of Prof. Sprowls. Mentioned in the obit was the above-website which provides a history of computing at the School from the 1950s through the 1970s. Although it is largely specific to the School, I suspect there were similar events going on around the campus as computing was introduced to the university and then…

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Peter Taylor, chief financial officer of UC, at Milken Conference

Byuclafaculty

At the Milken State of the State conference of Oct. 13, Peter Taylor – chief financial officer of UC – was a panelist and spoke on the economic impact of UC on California, tuition, out-of-state students, privatization, and UC-Merced. This is the same event at which Gov. Brown spoke earlier in the day. See prior post. (Cellphone picture of event on the right.) Below is an audio of the Taylor excerpts. (Video with still picture.)

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Gov. Brown Says Pension Proposal Will Involve Constitutional Changes & a Vote of the People

Byuclafaculty

At the Milken Institute State of the State conference today (attended by yours truly), Governor Brown was asked by Michael Milken about public pensions in California. (Cell phone photo of conference event at right.) Brown indicated he was working on a proposal on pensions – but did not give a precise date when it would be unveiled. He did say that it would involve a constitutional amendment that would have to be approved by a vote of the people. It was unclear what the coverage of the pension proposal would be. All state and local pensions in California? Just state-level…

A matter of degree

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed reported yesterday that the governor of Florida thinks its a waste of money to offer degrees in anthropology at public universities in his state. http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/popup/news/2011/10/12/florida_governor_challenges_idea_of_non_stem_degrees Today it turns out that his daughter majored in anthropology, albeit at an out-of-state private college http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/10/13/qt#272765 I don’t know why he thinks anthropology degrees are expensive to provide. You can have them for a song:

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From the UCOP-top-website-press-releases-as-of-today file

Byuclafaculty

MERCED — Chancellor Dorothy Leland of the University of California, Merced, said today (Oct. 3) the 6-year-old campus has made significant contributions to the state through its innovative research and that more investment is needed for it to meet its promise to bring greater economic prosperity to the San Joaquin Valley, the fastest-growing region in the state… UC President Mark G. Yudof, along with some 300 community members, formally welcomed Leland to the university during a ceremony today in the Carol Tomlinson-Keasey Quad… With countries such as Saudi Arabia, China and India aggressively funding higher education infrastructure for research, Leland…

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Piggy-Back

Byuclafaculty

Can UC piggy-back on CalSTRS? We are “education,” too. And we have pension funding issues. If you don’t ask, you surely don’t get. See below: CalSTRS reported ready to seek more state funding Sacramento Bee, 10/11/11, Dale Kasler For more than two years, CalSTRS has been talking about asking state lawmakers for more money to plug its funding gap. Now the teachers’ pension fund believes the Legislature is ready to listen. Pension fund Chief Executive Jack Ehnes said last week he wants Gov. Jerry Brown to include additional CalSTRS funding in a long-awaited pension reform proposal he’s expected to release…

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Just sign us up

Byuclafaculty

From today’s Inside Higher Ed comes some interesting news about a collective bargaining contract UC recently signed: “We believe that if courses are moved online, they will most likely be the classes currently taught by lecturers,” reads a brief declaration against online education on the website of UC-AFT, the University of California chapter of the American Federation of Teachers… Now the California lecturers, who make up nearly half of the system’s undergraduate teaching teachers, believe they have used… bargaining power to score a rare coup. The University of California last week tentatively agreed to a deal with UC-AFT that included…

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The Money Tree at the Fresno Bee

Byuclafaculty

You probably don’t follow the editorial page of the Fresno Bee religiously. With that in mind, yours truly reproduces an editorial that appeared on it last week – without comment. But before I do, you might be interested in the comment by state controller John Chiang regarding state revenues through the first quarter of the fiscal year and the possibility that the so-called budget “trigger” would be pulled – further cutting the UC budget: “For better or worse, the potential for revenue shortfalls is precisely why the Governor and Legislature included trigger cuts in this year’s State spending plan,” Chiang…

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Cal State-Westwood?

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Pat Brown signs the Donahoe Act in 1960 implementing the Master Plan for Higher Education. The LA Times ran an editorial yesterday, lamenting rising tuition at UC and the lack of state support. It also threw out some suggestions. Among them: …The university also should consider a temporary policy that favors admission to students in the immediate geographical area for a certain percentage of new undergraduates. That way, more students could live at home and avoid the hefty cost of a dorm. UC campuses are not usually commuter schools, but troubled times call for a willingness to make sensible…

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UC Regents Meeting: Sept. 15, 2011

Byuclafaculty

The Regents met Sept. 13-15, 2011. Yesterday, we posted audio for the first two days. This is Day 3. That day is significant for what did not happen, namely approval of President Yudof’s plan for a multi-year schedule of tuition increases in light of diminishing state budget support. The audio is divided into Parts 1 and 2. Part 2 contains the discussion in which the Regents fret about the budget situation but do not act. The agenda for Day 3: 8:30 am Committee of the Whole (public comment) http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/sept11/cw15.pdf 8:50 am Committee on Compensation (open session) http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/sept11/comp1.pdf 9:00 am Committee…