News

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UCLA Developments Related to Japan Crisis

Byuclafaculty

UCLA students to leave Japan as Bruins join relief effort (excerpt) Mar 17, 2011, Alison Hewitt, UCLA Today As the threat of radiation exposure grows in Japan following the catastrophic March 11 earthquake and tsunami that severely damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant, UC decided to suspend its study-abroad programs in the country and is in the process of evacuating students, including nine UCLA students from Tokyo. Meanwhile, several UCLA professors and some campus groups are joining relief efforts, including a pediatrician who is part of a medical team trying to reach the devastated areas, a geographic information systems (GIS) expert…

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Audio of Regents Meeting of 3-17-11

Byuclafaculty

At the Regents meeting of 3-17-11, the session started with open comments. (A student from a class co-taught by yours truly in winter quarter was a speaker.) There was then a presentation by the UC-Davis chancellor, Linda Katehi, about developments on that campus, including budget concerns. The Finance Committee approved options for borrowing for the pension fund from STIP and possible pension bonds. Oddly, but consistent with earlier presentations, the primary motivation is described as a kind of interest arbitrage. In fact, the original motivation for these options was the $2 for $1 issue; roughly each $1 of contributions by…

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UC ax doesn’t fall on Merced

Byuclafaculty

UC ax doesn’t fall on Merced: Regents hear about other campuses’ struggles to slash expenses further (excerpt): Yesenia Amaro, Merced Sun-Star, 3/17/11 University of California officials are preparing plans to meet the proposed “draconian” cuts the university system is facing. But UC Merced seems to have eluded the budget ax. Those plans were discussed during the UC Board of Regents’ regularly scheduled meeting at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus Wednesday. UC President Mark Yudof last month assigned the 10 UC campuses target reductions or other actions to help meet the $500 million reduction proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown….

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Santa Monica Bus Service to UCLA May Change

Byuclafaculty

UCLA Transportation posted the following info: Santa Monica Big Blue Bus recently released its proposed service changes scheduled to be implemented in the coming year. Among these proposed changes are several that would have significant impacts on some UCLA riders: Lines 3 & 14: Under the proposed plan, Line 3 would no longer serve the UCLA campus directly. Instead, Line 14 would follow Line 3’s current route from UCLA as far west as Bundy Dr. (in Brentwood), where it would turn south and follow Bundy/Centinela until the line terminated at Culver Blvd. in Mar Vista. Current Line 3 riders east…

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More Background on Anti-Asian Video Posted by UCLA Student

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee reports that the video described in an earlier post was to be part of a larger enterprise: The UCLA student whose anti-Asian video rant garnered millions of views online and intense backlash throughout the world is from Fair Oaks and appears to have had aspirations of creating similar videos as part of a blog. Shortly after the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan on Friday, Alexandra Wallace, 20, posted a three-minute video on YouTube in which she mocked Asian languages and expressed her annoyance with Asian students talking loudly in the library on their cell phones, including those…

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48% of Voters Think Public Pensions Are About Right or Not Generous Enough

Byuclafaculty

Just a straw in the wind from the latest California Field Poll. Note that the headline on the poll press release (see URL below) is “MORE CALIFORNIA VOTERS NOW VIEW PUBLIC PENSION BENEFITS AS TOO GENEROUS.” What the headline refers to is the change since October 2009 in the response to the “Too Generous” option. Yours truly is more impressed with the fact – reflected in the headline on this blog post – that after the Bell City scandal and all of the agitation about public pensions – voter opinion still tilts toward “About Right” and “Not Generous Enough.” It…

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Please Don’t Mention Their Pension

Byuclafaculty

Pension reform is lucrative for former Capitol insiders (excerpts) Capitol Weekly, 3/17/11, Malcolm Maclachlan The consulting company hired by Republican lawmakers known as the “GOP 5” to do research on reforming public employee pensions signed a similar but much larger contract with a conservative pension reform group last month. The company, Capitol Matrix Consulting, is headed by Mike Genest, who served as finance director for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Matrix’s other two principals, Brad Williams and Pete Schaafsma, also are well-known in the Capitol as top-level financial analysts. All three men, incidentally, have state pensions worth more than $100,000 a…

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Audio of Regents Meeting on Budget, 3-16-11, For Your Listening Pleasure

Byuclafaculty

The Regents meeting this morning dealt with budgetary issues. There were reports by three chancellors (from Santa Cruz, Irvine, and Berkeley) on the impact of the budget squeeze on their campuses. The Regents had various reactions to the situation. Plans were offered by Peter Taylor to generate more cash through portfolio management. He argued that even though somewhat more risk was entailed, the proposals were sufficiently conservative to insulate UC from a crisis. There was discussion of a new plan under which UCOP would pass state funding down to the campus level so that campuses would operate more autonomously. The…

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Field Poll suggests voter support for tax extensions

Byuclafaculty

The California Field Poll suggests voter support for the governor’s proposed tax extensions. The table above summarizes the results when the question is asked generally. When it is asked more explicitly (see below, naming the taxes), there is somewhat less support (58%) but still a majority. “The governor is proposing to extend for five more years the one-cent increase in the state sales tax, the ½ percent increase in vehicle license fees and the ¼ percent increase in personal income taxes that the state enacted in 2009. Some of the money would be transferred to local governments for schools, public…

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CalPERS sticks to assumed rate of return above UC’s

Byuclafaculty

A prior post noted that CalPERS might lower its assumed rate of return on investment to 7.5%, the same as UCRP. What CalPERS might have done would have had no direct effect on UC, but it would have deprived us of being the more conservative. Now that won’t happen, according to the press release below:CalPERS Discount Rate Unchanged Press Release March 15, 2011 External Affairs BranchPatricia K. Macht, DirectorBrad Pacheco, Chief, Office of Public AffairsContact: Edward Fong, Information Officer CalPERS Discount Rate Unchanged Assumed Investment Return Rate to Stay at 7.75 Percent SACRAMENTO, CA – A key committee of the…