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UCLA History: Extension in 1930

Byuclafaculty

About a block away from the scene on the left in downtown LA, UC ran an extension service. Extension operated at that location before the general campus moved from Vermont Avenue to Westwood and afterwards. The scene in the picture is 7th Street and Hill in the 1930s. Extension was at 815 South Hill, a block away. (Sorry, I can’t find a picture closer than this one.) It is not clear if the Extension program reported to UCLA or connected directly to Berkeley. (Any historians out there who know?) The catalog below indicates that people take extension courses aimed “at…

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Yudof Ruminates on Privatization

Byuclafaculty

On his Facebook page and on YouTube, President Yudof ruminates on privatization in general, e.g., roads, postal services, and of higher ed in particular. The YouTube version is below. The Facebook written version (which skips a few ad libs) is at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150181306213379 He attributes the trend toward de facto privatization of higher ed in part to demographics and the aging of the baby boom: …Now, part of this can be explained by demographics. In the early 1960s, 57% of American families had children under the age of eighteen. Today, that number hovers around 46%. Along these same lines, American senior…

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UCLA History: Arpanet (and its consequences)

Byuclafaculty

UCLA has long taken credit for pioneering work on the Internet (originally the Arpanet). The 1970 photo above purportedly shows unidentified UCLA folks using a SIGMA-7 computer on the Arpanet. Absent such work, presumably there would be no UCLA Faculty Association blog or, indeed, any blogging at all. Given that achievement and its impact on the blog world – and since there is little UC-related news today (Sunday) – I will take the time to salute another blog – LAObserved http://www.laobserved.com/ – for the best juxtaposition of two consecutive blog entries of the past week. You can see the two…

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LAO wrecks hybrid (pension plan study)

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has opposed a plan in the governor’s budget proposal to give CalPERS funding to study a “hybrid” pension plan for all state public pensions, not just CalPERS. CalPERS is on record as opposing such a plan, so giving it funding to do a study may have been a way for the governor to sink the idea. Under a hybrid plan, there is essentially a cutback defined benefit pension and a defined contribution element. The LAO position is at http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/budgetlist/PublicSearch.aspx?PolicyAreaNum=42&Department_Number=-1&KeyCol=430&Yr=2011

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Circulating Cap

Byuclafaculty

The initiative filed to place a formula cap on state spending can now be circulated with the summary and title below. As prior posts have noted, this initiative seems to have been filed as part of negotiations between Republican legislators and the governor regarding the state budget. It essentially rejuvenates the old Gann Limit concept that voters approved in the wake of Prop 13 but later gutted. Whether someone has the needed $1-$2 million to hire signature gathering firms is unknown. The governor said in his May revise oral presentation that he supports a cap. He did not specify the…

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Jerry Brown as the Terminator (of CPEC): LAO Objects

Byuclafaculty

The California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) is among the boards and commissions the governor proposed in the May revise for termination. CPEC is supposed to coordinate among the public and private elements of higher ed. However, the Legislative Analyst’s Office prefers other options, or at least suggests such alternatives be considered. LAO’s position below: Options Related to Governor’s Proposal for CPEC Background We believe there are several critical coordination functions necessary to protect the state’s investment in higher education. Examples include data collection and analysis, planning and oversight, and review of new program and campus proposals. Some of these activities…

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Who Will Bail Out UC?

Byuclafaculty

The parking of a Hummer belonging to Lipstick Bail Bonds (slogan: “Kiss Jail Goodbye”) at the UCLA med center recently raises the issue of who bails out UC if the governor’s tax extensions-resumptions don’t pass. Students, apparently, will be the answer: UC tuition might jump 32% if tax proposal fails, official says UC President Mark G. Yudof tells regents that this fall’s 8% tuition increase may be dwarfed by an additional 32% midyear hike if Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for tax extensions is not approved. By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times May 19, 2011 Reporting from San Francisco — University…

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LAO Points to Alternatives to the May Revise

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has prepared its analysis of the governor’s May revise proposal. It believes that recent increases in state income tax receipts are more heavily the result of capital gains than the governor does. In the short term, i.e., through the next fiscal year, the source of the revenue doesn’t much matter. However, the LAO believes that in the outyears (beyond 2011-12), less revenue can be expected than the governor’s projection would suggest. LAO provides a similar analysis of the corporate profits tax; it has a less rosy outlook in the outyears than the governor. The LAO…