News

Let’s Hope the Courts Are Again Sensible

Byuclafaculty

Van burned by animal rights terrorists, June 2008 From the Daily Bruin website: An animal rights activist group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the University of California Board of Regents demanding that UCLA release documents regarding its use of animals in research. Stop Animal Exploitation Now, the organization that filed the lawsuit, claimed the organization does not know whether UCLA is violating any laws regarding animal use in research. The lawsuit seeks to obtain information that would enable the organization to learn whether any violations have occurred, the organization said… Stop Animal Exploitation Now said it submitted a request for…

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Dividing the $5 Million Pie for Undocumented Students

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin is carrying a story on its website detailing how the $5 million for undocumented students allocated by President Napolitano is to be spent: [excerpt] …UCLA will receive $848,000 of the total $5 million for undocumented student services and financial aid, the most out of any UC campus, according to the letter. UCLA currently enrolls more than 450 undocumented students, a 65 percent increase from last year. There are about 900 undocumented students in the UC system.  Of the amount allocated to UCLA, $250,000 will provide services for undocumented students and $598,000 will go toward undocumented student financial…

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Pension/Retiree Health Initiative that Includes UC Just Keeps Advancing

Byuclafaculty

Readers of this blog will know that an initiative has been filed – which appears to have some serious money behind it for a campaign – that would cover UC’s pension and retiree health care programs.  In principle, it would be up to the Regents to make any plan revisions the initiative would allow.  However, they would be compelled to produce an analysis of what such revisions would be and it might be politically difficult to resist implementing such plans, particularly if other state and local entities are doing it. The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has now prepared its analysis…

UC-SD Chancellor’s Statement on American Studies Association Israel Boycott

Byuclafaculty

Khosla From Inside Higher Ed today: The chancellor of the University of California at San Diego has issued a statement in opposition to the American Studies Association’s resolution which backed the boycott of Israeli higher education institutions.  “We affirm the right of the faculty to advance their scholarship and research through open dialogue with academic colleagues in all countries,” Pradeep K. Khosla said. “UC San Diego faculty collaborations draw on richly diverse ideas and views around the globe, including in the Middle East. Excluding scholars limits discussion and conflicts with the University of California’s highest aspirations.” Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/20/chancellor-reacts-american-studies-boycott The official…

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UC Prevails in Public Disclosure Case

Byuclafaculty

UC invests in pension and other funds in a broad array of assets including investments in private equity firms.  Such firms are exempt from most forms of public disclosure since investments with them are not publicly available.  However, there have been attempts to get at their records through UC by demanding the reports that UC receives from the firms as an investor.  The firms reportedly will refuse to allow future UC investments if their records are subject to disclosure. Finance types generally view having a broad array of assets in a portfolio as a Good Thing and therefore exclusion by…

Word from the White House: Go Easy on MOOCs

Byuclafaculty

That’s the headline for an article in today’s Inside Higher Ed.  According to the article, “President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has a message for the federal government and regional accreditors: Go easy on the MOOCs.”  You can read the article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/12/19/white-house-science-council-recommends-us-accreditors-support-moocs It’s probably OK, however, to sing to them as they are guided along: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cFji4CmHE?feature=player_detailpage]

Receive a Dubious Email: Don’t Click! Delete!

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly received the email below today, ostensibly from UCLA.  Did you get it?  If so, you might have noticed that it doesn’t come from a UCLA address.  Best advice: Don’t click!  Instead, delete.=========================== important Notice For UCLA Faculty and staff of our email database(University of California, Los Angeles UCLA)We currently updated our UCLA email database.IT Help Desk requires all our faculty and staff (University of California, Los Angeles), to confirm their email account or sending and receiving emails will be difficult. For full access of your email account, follow the reference link bellow to confirm your email account.UCLA FACULTY AND STAFF…

Research Funding

Byuclafaculty

Edison: R&D was cheaper back then Thirty institutions reporting the largest FY 2012 R&D expenditures in all fields: NSF Data (Millions of dollars) All institutions $61,257 Leading 30 institutions $24,458 1 Johns Hopkins U. a 2,004 2 U. MI Ann Arbor 1,184 3 U. WI Madison 1,029 4 U. WA Seattle 1,023 5 U. CA San Diego 943 6 U. CA San Francisco 936 7 Duke U. 983 8 U. CA Los Angeles 937 9 Stanford U. 840 10 Columbia U. in the City of New York 807 11 U. NC Chapel Hill 755 12 U. Pittsburgh Pittsburgh 822 13…

Napolitano’s Mission to Russia

Byuclafaculty

Here are your orders. From the CapitalAlert blog of the Sacramento Bee: President Barack Obama has decided not to attend the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February, so he’s sending a delegation of athletes and diplomats in his place. Leading the group, the White House announced yesterday, is Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California system, who also led a delegation to the closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. She will be joined by former tennis champion Billie Jean King and figure skating gold medalist Brian Boitano, among others. “I look forward to being in Sochi…