UCLA History: Large Anti-Vietnam War Campus Demonstrations in May 1970
The extension of the Vietnam War into Cambodia led to large anti-war demonstrations in early May 1970. Photos from LA Public Library collection.
News
An Offering for Halloween: Scary Things – Past, Present, & Future – As We Deal with the Retirement System
The Regents have to decide soon about the future of the UC retirement system. A bad decision could turn UC INSIDE OUT. A scary prospect for Halloween:
UC Med Schools Poppin’ Out All Over!
The article below deals mainly with cutbacks at an adjunct Palm Desert campus of UC-Riverside. But note the last sentence. Merced ain’t alone in grand plans. Local UCR campus slashes budget by 40 percent: Executive director, five administrators laid off (excerpt) Michelle Mitchell • The Desert Sun • October 30, 2010 Full article at http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201010300321 The executive director of the University of California, Riverside, Palm Desert campus, and five other employees were laid off effective Monday, the school reported Friday. The cutbacks, which represented 40 percent of the graduate center’s budget, should not impact academic programs and were caused by…
Take a Hike (in tuition) at CSU – and Eventually at UC
CSU considers spring fee hike (excerpt) Capitol Alert, October 29, 2010, Laurel Rosenhall California State University trustees will vote on a mid-year fee increase on Nov. 9 that would raise tuition by 5 percent for the spring term. If the action is approved, tuition for a semester at a CSU campus would rise to $2,220, not including fees that specific campuses charge or books, housing and living expenses. The proposal is not unexpected. When CSU trustees voted in June to raise fees for the current semester they said they would consider another fee increase after a state budget was approved….
faculty pay | pension | pensions | Yudof
Academic Council Comments on Lower-Tier Pension Options
The Academic Council released a statement on the pension options. It appears that the process of commenting began well before President Yudof went for a version of Option C for the new lower tier. The Council noted the Yudof announcement (see earlier post for the annoucement) but produced a document that nonetheless referred to all three options: A, B, and C. Its key point is that there should be offsetting increases in cash pay. It also opposes separating faculty and staff into two different plans. The Council letter is at https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzVLYPK7QI_4OWRhYTYwMDUtZjFiYy00MmZhLTgwYTQtZTA3NjRkZjJhNjg4&hl=en&authkey=CNXzgOMD
Advice on What Not to Do on the UC Health Plan That I Can Vouch For
Members of the UC health system periodically receive offers for an Amazon or other retail voucher if they fill out a health survey form online. Based on the info filled out on the form, you receive advice on how to improve your health. From the San Francisco Chronicle: Ex-UCSF employee sentenced for voucher scam A former UCSF Medical Center employee was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in federal prison for using the Social Security numbers of fellow workers to complete health surveys so he could receive hundreds of $100 vouchers good for purchases from Amazon.com. Cam Giang,…
CSU | Master Plan | politics | UC | UC enrollment
Brown and Whitman on Higher Ed
Excerpt from California Watch: …Whitman and Brown agree that higher education needs more money. Whitman says she would get $1 billion from cuts to welfare and other reforms and would look to college officials on how to best spend those funds. Brown says he’d shift spending from prisons. Brown also proposes a new Master Plan, the long-ignored 1960 document that defined the roles of the UC, CSU and community college systems and promised a tuition-free education for all Californians. He would emphasize online classes to expand access to education, he says, and would ease the transfer process from community colleges…
Hip-hop UC professor battles chemical company citing pesticide impact on frogs
An interesting tale appears today in California Watch: Allies of Syngenta, a company that produces a ubiquitous but controversial herbicide, have continued attacks on UC Berkeley Professor Tyrone Hayes, a leading critic of the chemical who has fought the company through outrageous e-mails laced with rap lyrics, original rhymes and raunchy put-downs… …UC Berkeley has defended the professor’s free speech rights. Hayes is preparing to submit a new study co-authored with dozens of scientists around the world that says atrazine is a reproductive toxin. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to hold more hearings on the chemical’s use. And…
Red Balloon
I came across something called the “Red Balloon Project” sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). No UCs belong to this group, although some CSUs do. Exactly what it entails is not clear – I suspect there is a fair amount of impetus for online education, etc., involved. From the AASCU website (excerpts): http://www.aascu.org/programs/redballoon/index.htm The Red Balloon Project is a national initiative to re-imagine and then to redesign undergraduate education for the 21st century. Public colleges and universities are facing a complex set of challenges: transformational changes in technology, reductions in funding, shifting student demographics, growth…
UCLA Used to Be Normal
UCLA, when it first was created as the Southern Branch of the University of California, operated in an old state “normal” school on Vermont Avenue where LA City College is now located. If you have been in that neighborhood, you may have noted that LACC is at the corner of Vermont and Normal Street. Above is a photo of the California State Normal School. (Normal schools were teacher training institutions. A quick internet, dictionary, and encyclopedia search failed to determine why they were called “normal.”) UPDATE: The comment by Andy Sabl seems to have it right. Normal school is a…