News

The Brand

Byuclafaculty December 11, 2013

We’re still fascinated by that page on the UC website that provides “brand guidelines” so that we can all “speak UC.” You can find it at http://brand.universityofcalifornia.edu/. Clicking around and you will learn that “University of California” is actually a “wordmark.” And you probably thought it was just the name of the UC system! In fact, the “University of California” wordmark serves as the primary graphic identifier of the university for systemwide communications. However, the visual identity is more than just the wordmark. Photography, other graphics, typography, color palettes—all these elements help form the “visual ecosystem” for the name of the…

A Berkeley Admissions Dossier Reader Tells All

Byuclafaculty December 11, 2013

Yours truly confesses he missed an August 1 article in the NY Times concerning the UC-Berkeley admissions process (which undoubtedly applies to UCLA as well). The article gets into the sensitive area of admissions in the post-Prop 209 era. [Prop 209 bans affirmative action in admissions.] Since you may also have missed it, here is an excerpt below with a link to the full article: A HIGHLY qualified student, with a 3.95 unweighted grade point average and 2300 on the SAT, was not among the top-ranked engineering applicants to the University of California, Berkeley. He had perfect 800s on his…

controller | State Budget

Cash News (Or Really Non-News)

Byuclafaculty December 10, 2013

The state controller has issued his cash statement for the first 5 months of the fiscal year (July-November). Revenues for the general fund are about what was projected in the state budget passed last June. Personal income tax receipts are running ahead of forecast (which probably means the rich are getting richer). Sales tax receipts are a bit behind (not so good retail performance). But really there is no news. Receipts are highly seasonal due to dates when estimated taxes are due. At the moment, the reserve in the general fund is negative to the tune of almost $20 billion…

miscellaneous | UCLA

Wait a Minute!

Byuclafaculty December 10, 2013

In case you were wondering what your students are doing during exam week, the Daily Bruin provides a clue on its website in the form of a “radio” interview at the link below: http://dailybruin.com/2013/12/09/ucla-students-find-many-ways-to-procrastinate-during-finals-week/ The audio didn’t play on Firefox but it did work on Chrome. [Maybe someone just didn’t have the time to make it compatible with Firebox.]

health care | uc retirement

Lab Retirees Want Back In on UC Health Plan

Byuclafaculty December 9, 2013

There has always been a question about exactly what is the legal obligation of UC to pay for retiree health care. The position of the university has been that unlike the pension, there is no obligation. Nothing was really promised for sure. It’s just a nice thing UC does. Employees of one of the former nuclear labs, once operated exclusively by UC but now administered under a consortium including UC, have been litigating over being cut off from UC retiree health as a result of the administrative transition. See below: T Two years ago… the California Supreme Court confirmed that…

academic freedom | diversity | UCLA

The GSEIS “Problem” Continues

Byuclafaculty December 9, 2013

Inside Higher Ed continues its coverage of the controversy in a course at GSEIS involving… well, it’s not quite clear what is involved, despite the lengthy article. It does seem like the kind of development that needs some Academic Senate review. [Excerpt] For the first time since graduate students staged a sit-in during a class they said exemplified what’s wrong with race relations at the University of California at [sic] Los Angeles, the course met again late last week. But in an apparent attempt at compromise between the aggrieved students and the instructor, its configuration was changed – raising concerns…

miscellaneous

Bullying Experiment Featured in Daily Bruin

Byuclafaculty December 8, 2013

Excerpt: As she watched a man getting shoved to the ground, Caitlin Estudillo sprang from a bench near Powell Library and tried to stop what she perceived as a bullying incident unfolding in front of her. For the third-year sociology and world arts and cultures/dance student, the act was instinctual. “I didn’t give it a thought; it was just something I had to do,” Estudillo said. “I didn’t think of the consequences.” At the time, Estudillo did not know that the conflict was a staged fight designed to gauge how people would react to seeing someone else be bullied. Various…

If You Don’t Want to Talk to the Piper, Why Not Talk to the Piper’s Paymaster?

Byuclafaculty December 8, 2013

As blog readers will know, there is currently a potential ballot initiative on public pensions and other retiree benefits (health care) that as written sweeps in UC. We won’t rehash why it would be best if UC was excluded – as it ultimately was from the governor’s pension bill. But let’s just say for purposes of this posting that excluding UC would be a Good Thing. At present, there is no rush needed to get signatures for 2014, or possibly 2016. And we have suggested in the past that the folks in UCOP might want to talk to San Jose…

new hotel-conference center | UCLA

Location, Location, Location

Byuclafaculty December 7, 2013

We earlier blogged about the content of the UCLA Anderson Forecast that took place last week. But we also like to remind readers from time to time of the location. Sometimes the Forecast is in Ackerman. Sometimes it is in Korn Hall at Anderson. This time, it was at Covell. Note that these are all venues that can accommodate large conferences and can do so without the creation of the UCLA Grand Hotel. You can even have food service at any one of them, as the picture at the top shows. If, when the Grand Hotel becomes available, the Forecast…

health care | UCLA

UCLA and the Covered California Exchange (the State Component of “Obamacare”)