News

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A Misleading Headline: Darrell Steinberg Blasts UC and CSU Fee Increases

Byuclafaculty

Today’s Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert blog carries the headline “Darrell Steinberg blasts UC and CSU fee increases.” It goes on to describe a letter sent by California Senate President Darrell Steinberg addressed to Regents Chair Gould, UC President Yudof, and their counterparts at CSU. Here is an excerpt from the text of the Capitol Alert blog: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has written to state university chiefs to object to new fee increases after legislators restored and boosted state funding this year to the embattled systems. During tough budget negotiations, Steinberg said in a letter Thursday, “we provided…

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A Little Help From Our Friends at Stanford

Byuclafaculty

It seems likely that when the Regents meet for their special session in December, they will ultimately approve President Yudof’s recommendations on pensions and retiree health. If you listen to the Regents session of the last two days (see the earlier postings on this blog), the presentation of those recommendations went off with little debate. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Jerry Brown, when he becomes governor, or the legislature would override UC or put something on the ballot that would sweep UC into some statewide pension reform plan. However, there is ongoing agitation in the state about the public pension…

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UCLA and UC Well Represented on New Redistricting Commission

Byuclafaculty

In 2008, voters approved taking redistricting legislative seats after the 2010 Census away from the legislature and gave the job to a citizens redistricting commission. In the recent election, they rejected abolishing the commission and gave it the additional task of redistricting congressional seats. Eight commissioners have so far been selected through a complicated process. UCLA and UC are well represented, as the report below from the Rose Institute at Claremont indicates. First 8 CA Commissioners are a Well-Educated Group The first 8 people chosen for California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission are a well-educated group. All 8 hold both a bachelor…

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Day 3: The Regents Session of 11-18-10

Byuclafaculty

Below are links to audios (videos with a still picture) of the Regents meeting of 11-18-10. (The audio is divided into 13 parts due to duration limits of video-Yahoo.) The meeting began with public comments. In that session, a message was read from Assembly leader Perez protesting the tuition increase. President Yudof cited the lack of state pension contributions to UC in rebuttal. As in the previous day, the comments were those of students objecting to the tuition increase and unions generally objecting to the benefit changes and lack of input into them. Students also objected to the switch in…

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LA Times/USC Poll on State Budget

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times/USC poll reproduces, once again, the general public inconsistency about what to do about the state budget. Here (below) is a simplified version of the poll. The first figure is percentage support by program for not cutting spending or for increasing spending. The second figure represents percentage support for cutting spending a little or a lot. (Figures don’t add to 100% due to those answering “don’t know” or refusing.) K-12: 71% vs. 26% Health care for kids & low/moderate income families: 56% vs. 36% UC & CSU: 59% vs. 36% Transport, road, rail: 47% vs. 48% Prisons: 20%…

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New PPIC Poll on Public Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

A new poll on public higher ed is out from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). In broad terms, Californians are evenly split on whether taxes should be raised to support higher ed. But they oppose tuition increases. They are more likely to say that not enough is being spent on higher ed than to support raising taxes. PPIC summarizes the findings as follows: About three-fourths of Californians say state funding for public higher education is inadequate. Most Californians favor more money for higher education even at the expense of other state programs. Almost 60 percent of all parents…

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Day 2: Regents Sessions 11-17-10

Byuclafaculty

Below are audios (videos with a still picture) of the Regents session of 11-17-10. The morning sessions – which actually ran until about 12:30 PM – are divided into 16 parts. Most of the afternoon sessions were closed but the one open session is included. To hear the sessions, start by clicking the large circle below. Then click on the various urls below that. The afternoon open session is the last entry. Here is the agenda for 11-17-10: 8:30 am Committee of the Whole (public comment) 9:30 am Committee on Educational Policy (open session) 10:15 am Committee on Finance (open…

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Yawning Gap Between Student and Instructor

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today features a YouTube video (below) from a Cornell instructor who becomes upset when someone yawns. Apparently, the lectures are routinely videoed by the Hotel School and the YouTube extract comes from the official recording. Although in this case the recording was official, it is well to note that cellphones can produce videos and that there are very small audio and video recorders that students may have in class. (The yawn is not heard on the video. There is a clicking sound which may be some artifact of the recording.) Can we say this episode is a…

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Day 1 at the Regents: Capital Projects

Byuclafaculty

Today (Nov. 16) was the quiet day at the Regents. No issues of tuition, pensions, etc. A bunch of capital projects were approved. There was a bit of questioning about whether the state would pay for such projects, or even float general obligations bonds to pay for them. Of course, the answer was “no.” An argument was made that UC needed to have shovel-ready projects in case someone did step up to pay for them. But that seems unlikely with the new and likely paralyzed Congress and the condition of the state budget. Nonetheless, there was little dissent. You can…

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Regents to Approve Next Year’s Budget on Nov. 18

Byuclafaculty

The Regents will be approving a budget for 2011-12 at their meeting of Nov. 18, 8:50 AM session. The total UC proposed budget for the coming year will be $22.6 billion. Of that total, $3.5 billion is requested from the state, up from $2.9 billion in the current year. Of the $600 million increase being requested from the state, $172 million is for pension funding. I will leave it to the reader to estimate the probability that the state will cough up what is being requested. You can find the budget document at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov10/f9attach2.pdf The figures to which I refer…