News

| |

We’re Not Alone in Pointing to the Risks of Open-Ended Capital Projects

Byuclafaculty

Vannevar Bush From: The Endless Frontier: Reaping what Bush Sowed?   by Paula Stephan (pp. 33-34)* NBER working paper 19687 (Nov. 2013) Excerpt: Overexpansion of research facilities In recent years, universities have gone on a building binge, constructing a substantial amount of new research space which led to a 30 percent increase in net assignable square feet for research between 2001 and 2011. Most of this increase is for facilities in the biological, biomedical and health sciences—a response of universities to the doubling of the NIH. Some of this space has been paid for by private philanthropy. At MIT, for…

| | | | | | | |

Lessons from Berkeley’s White Elephant Stadium for UCLA, the Regents, and UC?

Byuclafaculty

People keep noticing Berkeley’s White Elephant money-draining stadium – one of the grand capital projects that the Regents routinely approve based on pretty slides and business plans offered by the campuses.  Peter Schrag in the San Francisco Chronicle today ties the low graduation rates of Berkeley athletes with the stadium: …Fueling the… issue is the chronic matter of cost – what the university kicks in to the sports program – and what someone called “its gold plated” spending. Brian Barsky, a Berkeley computer science professor and vocal critic of the athletics program, says between 2003 and 2011, athletics “drained campus…

| |

Unsolicited Suggestion for the Traffic Stop

Byuclafaculty

We have been offering unsolicited advice to Murphy Hall about what to do about the traffic stop “problem” that arose a week ago.  Before the lawyers get hold of this matter and make it complicated (think, for example, about the Japanese Garden affair), how about just starting with an apology to Judge Cunningham?  It’s been done before and we offer a modest proposal below:

| |

Unsolicited Follow-Up for Our Unsolicited Traffic Stop Advice

Byuclafaculty

Devoted blog readers will recall our unsolicited advice of last Wednesday to the folks in Murphy Hall.  We suggested that they spend their Thanksgiving weekend trying to figure out what happened when a UCLA police car stopped a motorist in Westwood for driving without a seatbelt buckled.  According to the Huffington Post, African-American Judge Superior Court Judge David Cunningham exited L.A. Fitness Gym around 10 am on Wednesday. [“Start” on the map above.] Presumably, he pulled out of the garage you can see above in his Mercedes – beltless – and proceeded north on Gayley.  According to the press release…

|

Reviving Westwood

Byuclafaculty

Westwood went into decline after a visitor was killed in a shooting between rival gang members in 1988.  Since that time, various efforts have been made at reviving the area which still features empty stores up and down Westwood Blvd. Warren Olney on KCRW’s “Which Way LA?” did a segment on “Will Westwood Every Be Hip Again?” on Nov. 26, 2013.  The program notes the empty stores and the decline of Westwood as a popular destination since the late 1980s.  Yours truly had trouble downloading or playing the segment so we provide an alternative link to it below. (function(d, s,…

|

Monday Visit

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: University of California President Janet Napolitano and actress Eva Longoria will visit UCLA on Monday to discuss how to improve educational outcomes for Latinas. The speakers are expected to reveal new initiatives of their own to enhance Latinas’ educational opportunities, according to the UCLA Graduate School for Education and Information Studies, which is hosting the panel event…  Only those who RSVP’d can attend Monday’s panel. The event is currently full… Full article at http://dailybruin.com/2013/11/27/napolitano-longoria-to-discuss-latina-education-at-ucla/

Unsolicited Advice for All UCLA and UC Faculty

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we provided some unsolicited – and maybe unwelcome? – advice for the folks in Murphy Hall.  Today, we provide some advice for all UCLA and UC faculty.  Actually, it is a reminder of advice that we give from time to time.  We live in an age where the word “transparency” has taken on an aura of unmitigated goodness.  In practice, transparency – at public universities – can mean invasions of privacy when it comes to emails.  Emails at public universities are subject to public documents requests.  From time to time, groups that don’t like what some faculty has said…

|

Unsolicited Thanksgiving Advice for Murphy Hall

Byuclafaculty

Dear Murphy:  The Judge Cunningham affair is a real turkey for you.*  You might want to spend your Thanksgiving weekend finding out what happened.  A good place to start might be by asking why campus police would be bothering with a minor off-campus traffic infraction unrelated to UCLA.   Katehi apologizing It’s not a question of having jurisdiction, so let’s not get entangled with legalities of whether it was technically OK to stop the judge.  It’s a question of priorities and common sense.   Remember the Pepper Spray Cop affair at UC-Davis and how the chancellor there spent months apologizing, investigating, testifying,…

| |

Eviction

Byuclafaculty

There have been worse landlord-tenant disputes From the Daily Bruin:A former UCLA employee reached an undisclosed settlement agreement with the UCLA Foundation Monday morning, the culmination of an eviction lawsuit brought forward by the university. In late October, the UCLA Foundation served Roselle Kipp with a lawsuit asking the court to evict Kipp from the boarding house that the UCLA Foundation owned, said Magda Madrigal, Kipp’s attorney. The UCLA Foundation assumed control over the property after the owner, Jorge Estrada, died in December of last year and bequeathed it to the foundation in a trust deed, Madrigal said.Estrada operated the…

| | |

Losing Our Edge

Byuclafaculty

Probably a different Edge Report: Calif. losing its edge in higher education SAN FRANCISCO — More attention must be paid to the California State University system and to the state’s community colleges if California is going to produce the educated workers its economy needs, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom says in a report set to be issued Tuesday.  The report commissioned by Newsom argues that the state is losing its place as a national leader in higher education.  The report, prepared by the nonpartisan Committee for Economic Development based in Washington, D.C., finds that the percentage of young adults earning associate…