News

The U of Wisconsin Email Case

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today carries a story on the request in Wisconsin for emails of a history professor by the state’s GOP in relation to the passage of anti-union legislation in that state. Wisconsin has a state equivalent of the federal Freedom of Information Act – as does California. One take-away from this episode is that faculty should not assume emails are private communications. Even if you use an outside service such as gmail, your communications can be forwarded around and wind up on services which are subject to outside scrutiny. Undoubtedly, UCLA would take a position similar to the…

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UCLA History: Nuclear Reactor

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin last week ran a history of a small nuclear reactor that operated at UCLA from 1959 to 1984. The caption to the photo above read “Thomas E. Hicks (right), engineering professor and then-chief supervisor of the UCLA reactor, and Ronald MacLain, his chief assistant, stand on top of the newly built reactor in December 1960. The nuclear reactor, which had the power of 100 toasters, was small and used mostly for research purposes.” Full story at http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/03/small_ucla_reactor_used_by_students_shut_down_in_1984_because_of_potential_safety_hazards_declining_

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CPB Report Nixes Hotel/Conference Center Project

Byuclafaculty

The Council on Planning and Budget (CPB) of the Academic Senate yesterday sent the letter below to the chair of the Academic Senate. I have reproduced the text below. Yours truly broke the letter down into more paragraphs than the original for readability on this blog and marked some sections with bold printing for emphasis. In simple terms, the CPB thinks the hotel/conference center project is likely to fail and doesn’t think failure is a good option for UCLA. Here is the CPB letter: Professor Ann KaragozianChair, UCLA Academic Senate Re: Residential Conference Center Proposal Dear Professor Karagozian, On The…

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Letter by Farseeing Astronomers and Physicists to the Chancellor Concerning Faculty Center Demolition for a Hotel/Conference Center

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly was given a letter sent yesterday to the chancellor concerning the Faculty Center affair. The text is below since direct reproduction of the letter (as you can see at right) is difficult to do legibly on this blog: Dear Chancellor Block: Due to the unusual amount of discussion regarding building the proposed residential conference center on the site of the Faculty Center, the faculty within the Department of Physics and Astronomy encouraged a departmental faculty vote to ascertain if there was strong feeling within our department concerning this issue. A ballot was sent out asking whether to urge…

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FAQs On the Faculty Center Replacement Project (FAQsTHNGAAIASYWHSPAATPFOA6)

Byuclafaculty

Prof. Dora Costa of Economics has sent yours truly an interesting list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about the proposed hotel/conference center slated to replace the Faculty Center. They are reproduced below. Actually, they are not just FAQs. They are FAQsTHNGAAIASYWHSPAATPFOA6 = Frequently Asked Questions That Have No Good Answers Although I Am Sure You Will Hear Some Purported Answers At The Public Forum On April 6th. Why is a luxury hotel a UCLA priority? The whole UC system is facing budget shortfalls. Faculty and staff positions have been cut, employee benefits have been cut, class sizes have increased, and…

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Ever Heard of UBTI? Those Pushing the Hotel/Conference Center Undoubtedly Have

Byuclafaculty

If you are wondering, UBTI = Unrelated Business Taxable Income. In the case of UCLA entities – which are normally tax exempt – getting into commercial business renders the activity taxable. The IRS ruling below would seem not only to challenge solicitation or acceptance of such business at the proposed hotel/conference center slated to replace the Faculty Center, it seems also to challenge the kinds of activity going on – or proposed to go on – elsewhere on campus. That would include the “other” hotel/conference center going up in the Northwest area that this blog reported on earlier. See:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/03/did-you-know-about-other-conference.html The…

University Autonomy Issue in Oregon

Byuclafaculty

The current budget crisis seems to be pushing university system and campuses to press for more autonomy. Earlier posts on this blog have noted developments at the University of Wisconsin. Below is an excerpt of a report from the U of Oregon: From Inside Higher Ed today: …Governor John Kitzhaber and the president of the University of Oregon, Richard Lariviere, agreed Tuesday that the university would postpone for a year its push for legislation that would give it a new financing stream and an independent governing board separate and apart from the existing State Board of Higher Education. Under the…

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Part III: UCOP & Regents – Have You Talked With the Governor (Yet)? Where Are You?

Byuclafaculty

Below is a press release from Governor Brown’s office issued yesterday. It explicitly mentions CalPERS and CalSTRS. Less clear is what other state plans – including UC’s plan – would be included. One of the headings say that it applies to state and local plans. The release has definite items and some items that are under consideration. I have put in large italics some of the latter items that could pose problems for UC – depending on the precise details. Note that a pension cap is mentioned, but there is no reference to the precise $106,000 figure that earlier press…

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California Assembly Bill Would Freeze Pay of State Employees Earning $150,000+; Urges Regents to Comply

Byuclafaculty

From the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee, 3/30/11: Committee OKs freeze on state pay over $150,000 per year (excerpt) The Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee has approved a bill that would freeze the pay of state employees earning more than $150,000 per year. Assembly Bill 7, authored by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, prohibits the salary increases or bonuses for those higher-end employees until Jan.1, 2014, while they are employed in the same position or job classification… Full article at http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2011/03/bill-introduced-to-freeze-stat.html#ixzz1I8VZTLSJ The article provides a link to the bill. The bill contains the following language related…