News

| | | |

Regents Contemplate the Budget & Admissions 1-19-11 – Part 1

Byuclafaculty

I am going to be posting the Regents meeting audio from the session of 1-19-11, morning. This session was devoted to the budget outlook and a proposal to expand “holistic” admissions. It takes me some time to get the audios in shape for posting. I am going to post four which deal primarily with the budget and one which gets into the holistic discussion. When I have time, I will continue the posting. However, the budget discussion – although no decisions were taken – may well be significant. If you listen to the speeches by Regent Gould, President Yudof, and…

| | |

LAO Perspective on Higher Ed in Governor’s Budget

Byuclafaculty

Below is the report on higher ed and the governor’s proposed budget just issued by the Legislative Analyst. In certain respects, the report tends to minimize the problem. For example, a chart below (Figure 5) shows the budget through the current year but omits the cut for next year. That cut brings the budget down to last year’s. In its earlier report, and now this one, the Leg Analyst repeats the idea that the legislature should tell UC how to make the cuts. At today’s Regents meeting, there was much talk about the budget cuts; the idea that the legislature…

|

Regents Approve UCLA Student Housing Construction Project

Byuclafaculty

The Regents meetings are audio-streamed. Sadly, as pointed out previously on this blogsite, they are not archived. Yours truly cannot record them all and post them since he has other activities and responsibilities. If there is a good reason why Regents meetings cannot be audio-archived, I have yet to hear it. I did hear, but not record, a bit of yesterday’s Regents meeting at which a construction project for UCLA was among the items approved. The Regents approved the project – replacement and expansion of various student apartment houses near campus. For the proposal, see http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jan11/gb2a.pdf However, they did so…

| |

UCLA Faculty Assn. Chair Dwight Read Suggests a Budget Forum to the Chancellor

Byuclafaculty

Below is the text of a letter sent today by UCLA Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read to Chancellor Block suggesting a budget forum. Gene D. BlockChancellor, UCLA2147 Murphy HallLos Angeles, CA 90095-1405 Jan. 18, 2011 Dear Chancellor Block, As Chair of the Faculty Association at UCLA, an independent, voluntary organization of Academic Senate members on this campus, I am writing to you again about the welfare of the University in the current budget crisis.Governor Brown¹s budget proposal cuts $500 million from UC’s budget if the voters extend tax increases for another 5 years. If this source of revenue fails, there…

| | | |

Former Chancellor Young Reviews Funding Options for UC in the Face of the State Budget Crisis

Byuclafaculty

In a chapter for the current edition of California Policy Options, former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young reviews funding options for UC. He discusses status quo funding, privatization, and “modified self-sufficiency” in this chapter and suggests the last as the most viable of the three. California Policy Options 2011 will eventually be available in full on the web. However, you can access the Young chapter at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzVLYPK7QI_4MzhmMjMyMmUtN2Y0Zi00Njc4LWEyMWQtOWE0MWVkMjdlNjY0&hl=en&authkey=CMLHxK4O A related item is an op ed by yours truly in today’s Daily Bruin: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzVLYPK7QI_4Y2E4OTFjZmQtM2QzNy00NjA2LWI4MDAtZWNkYTRhODdiMWI2&hl=en&authkey=CLeVhc8JAnd finally, if you really want to know more than you should about the way state budget sausage is made,…

|

UCLA History: Drink Me or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Byuclafaculty

Just a little experiment by a UCLA professor in the 1950s with giving a nice lady LSD at our neighboring VA Hospital: The footage is discussed in the UK Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348080/Grandma-acid-Researcher-finds-rare-footage-1950s-housewife-LSD-experiment.html Here is a bio of Prof. Cohen, shown in the video: Sidney Cohen conducted early LSD research in the 1950s and was a noted U.S. public expert on drug abuse from the 1960s to the 1980s. Cohen was a Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and served in the Nixon Administration as the first Director, Division of Narcotic Abuse and Drug Addiction at the National Institute of Mental…

|

There’s No Stopping Expansion at UC-Merced: Budget Crisis or Not

Byuclafaculty

UC Merced marks site for $89m science building Yesenia Amaro / Merced Sun-Star / 1-16-11 University officials, students, and local and state elected officials convened at the school’s library on Friday for a dedication ceremony for the new $88.8 million Science and Engineering Building 2. The 102,000-square-foot, three-story building will be located across from the Science and Engineering Building. The new building is expected to open its doors in 2014. Chancellor Steve Kang said the new building “will allow UC Merced to continue to provide exceptional academic and research opportunities.” … UC Merced was allocated more than $100 million from…

|

UC is on a Bridge to Nowhere: Other Public Universities are Taking Action

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article today on various public universities that are working on establishing some type of new agreement with the powers-that-be in their states in the wake of budget cuts. Sadly, UC seems stuck in its reactive mode, a bridge to nowhere. The legislature/governor cuts the UC budget. The Regents & Yudof responsively raise tuition and/or cut enrollment. They are then criticized for their actions by the legislature/governor. This is a a bridge to nowhere, politically and budget-wise. We cannot get off the bridge by issuing glossy brochures and statements to the effect that UC is…

Silicon Valley CEOs Advocate Stable Funding for California Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown asked a group of Silicon Valley CEOs for suggestions as to how to stimulate employment growth in California. Among their suggestions:Develop a reliable and equitable financing and fee structure for state institutions of higher education and strengthen the buying power of the Cal Grant program for both public and private universities to encourage graduate and undergraduate student development. You can find the complete document at http://svlg.org/docs/whitepaper_govbrown.docx Note that the opening statement in the document that California did not create jobs during the past decade is misleading. Below is a graph of California nonfarm payroll employment I pulled from…