News

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The Faculty Center Issue: Fungibility and Purpose

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly will be posting the audio from the public forum of earlier this evening on the hotel/conference center that was proposed to replace the Faculty Center. That posting won’t happen until tomorrow. (The audio needs to be converted to video and then divided into segments that meet certain technical limits.) However, one issue that came up this evening was the flexibility of use of the Luskin gift. Did the Luskins exclusively want a hotel/conference center along the lines originally proposed? That question was not precisely answered. There were general comments about donors having particular visions. On March 18, a…

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Governor Brown Warns UC Tuition Will Take Off If There is a Cuts-Only Budget

Byuclafaculty

From the San Jose Mercury-News today:…In an address Wednesday to the California Hospital Association, Brown said UC undergraduate fees could hit $20,000 to $25,000 a year if the Legislature approves and he signs an all-cuts budget. Current fees are nearly $12,000 for in-state students, plus thousands more for books and other fees, and are scheduled to rise by more than $900 a year next fall. Brown said California’s universities and colleges are its “engine of creativity and wealth and well-being. It’s going to make it harder for people to go to school. You have higher loans, and the quality of…

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Meeting Tonight on the (Postponed) Hotel/Conference Center in the (Reprieved for Now) Faculty Club

Byuclafaculty

There will be a public forum at the Faculty Club tonight (7-9 PM) on the proposed UCLA hotel/conference center project which – as a prior blog entry indicated – has now be postponed for re-study. Undoubtedly, the announcement of the postponement will take some of the edge off what might have been a very contentious meeting.Yours truly suspects there will requests for clarification of what the postponement means in terms of the time frame involved, about what the process of the re-review will entail – who and how, and about other issues. Will it go as nicely as this? We…

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(May) Revise and Resubmit

Byuclafaculty

In normal times, the state budget is first submitted by the governor in January, per the California constitution. But there is a second stage, a tradition, of the “May Revise.” In mid-to-early May, the governor submits a second budget proposal which reflects updated economic forecasts plus a gathering of political intelligence concerning what will fly and what will not. There was a deviation from this tradition in 2009. In February 2009, the legislature both revised the current year’s budget and enacted a budget for the following year – which contained the now-expiring temporary tax increases. Things did not go smoothly…

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Did He Mention the Pension?

Byuclafaculty

A previous post noted that President Yudof would be meeting with the governor today. The video below is his statement, apparently made before the visit. Members of the UC community would not disagree with anything he said. Reports of the subsequent visit to the governor suggest that what occurred with Brown was more the governor looking for support in his efforts to get his tax program before the voters, one way or another, than the university making its needs known. (See http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/04/gov-brown-talks-tax-extensions.html.) Not clear is whether UC (UCOP) had a specific agenda for the governor’s consideration. As noted in prior…

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An Opportunity to Go Beyond Meet and Greet

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, this blog noted that President Yudof “hoped” to meet with Governor Brown. Today’s news is that a meeting will occur this morning. From Capital Alert: Higher education brings out big guns today in the budget wars, with University of California President Mark Yudof, California State University Chancellor Charles Reed and Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott pleading their case for sparing colleges and universities from more cuts. They kick off Higher Education Advocacy Day at 9 a.m. on the Capitol’s west steps. Gov. Jerry Brown is set to meet with them privately later this morning. Full article: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/#ixzz1IenLHu6n Of course,…

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Hotel/Conference Center Train Halts; Mishap Averted

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog will know, a public forum on the proposed hotel/conference center to replace the current Faculty Center structure is scheduled for April 6 (7 pm, Faculty Center). This forum was shaping up to be an unpleasant confrontation. However, it appears that the train has been halted before unfortunate consequences ensued. The Council on Planning and Budget’s (CPB’s) negative evaluation of the project described in an earlier post – combined with other communications from faculty and senate committees – seems now to have led to a re-evaluation by the administration. After the CPB report was received by…

Student Interns: Must They Be Paid?

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly is involved in a conversation on another website in which the following question arose. It has been increasingly common for college students to undertake unpaid internships with private organizations (including businesses) for course credit. In fact, to they have to be paid? Can someone decide to work for free despite the existence of minimum wage and overtime laws? As it turns out, the answer seems to be that such activities have to be paid – at least the minimum wage – except under a narrow set of circumstances. Below are the guidelines from the U.S. Department of Labor,…

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Let’s Hope It’s More Than Hope

Byuclafaculty

We have been noting the need for UCOP to engage the governor concerning his pension proposals which – as has been reported – include UC and could override the Regents’ actions taken last December. From a San Jose Mercury-News article about higher ed lobbying activities planned for tomorrow: …University officials hope that “Advocacy Day” in Sacramento will help stave off further reductions to public colleges and universities, as some in the Legislature threaten to adopt an “all-cuts” budget to close the state’s budget gap without additional revenues… …On Tuesday, UC President Mark Yudof, Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed and California…