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Upcoming Events of Interest
Byadmin October 11, 2010

The final gubernatorial debate between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 6:30 PM. Channel 4 – KNBC – will carry it. UPDATE: Local public radio stations as of the morning of the debate are not listing on their websites whether or not they will carry the debate. KQED radio in San Francisco will carry the audio and its programs are streamed on line at http://www.kqed.org/radio/listen/ FURTHER UPDATE: Apparently KCRW 89.9 will carry it. There will be a campus-level forum on the Post-Employment Benefits (PEB) Task Force report on Thursday, Oct. 14, Royce Hall. See…

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UC enrollment

6-Year Graduation Rates at UC
Byadmin October 11, 2010

A group called the American Institutes for Research has been receiving publicity for a database on higher ed and, in particular, dropouts from 4-year institutions. The group describes itself as follows: AIR’s purpose is to conduct and apply behavioral and social science research to improve people’s lives and well-being, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged. Website at http://www.air.org/ Its database includes data on 6-year graduation rates from federal data sources during 2003-2008, i.e., what percentage of incoming freshmen graduate within 6 years. You can find the database at http://collegemeasures.org/ The report goes beyond graduation rates and puts dollar figures…

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miscellaneous | UC Berkeley

Journal Publishers Not Yearning to Be Free
Byadmin October 11, 2010

Inside Higher Ed today reports slow going in a project to change professional journal publishing. The project was announced about a year ago by a consortium of universities including UC-Berkeley. In essence the idea was that journals would be free and open to anyone online. Universities would provide the revenue for reviewing, editing, etc. This approach was thought to be less expensive than library subscriptions to journals. From an article from Sept. 2009 at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/15/open “What the model does long term is change the way universities support journal publishing from having them pay fees to publishers for access to the…

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miscellaneous

Ice Skating in Westwood (in 1939)
Byadmin October 10, 2010

LA Public Library photo collection

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parking | UCLA

Free and Easy Parking at UCLA (in 1939)
Byadmin October 10, 2010

Photo from LA Public Library collection

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UC Merced

Strong funding for UC Merced
Byadmin October 9, 2010

From the Merced Sun-Star, Saturday, Oct. 09, 2010 Strong funding for UC Merced included in state budget UC Merced has praised the state for allotting more than $100 million to support the school. The funding entails $81 million for construction of the Science and Engineering II building, $10 million in base funding for operations, $6.5 million for continued site development and infrastructure at UC Merced and $5 million in supplemental operating funds, according to UC Merced officials. “We are very pleased that the approved state budget reflects the critical importance of higher education to the people of California,” said UC…

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pension | pensions | State Budget | UC

Chop, Chop: The Budget With the Governor’s Line-Item Vetoes (Including a UC Pension-Related Veto)
Byadmin October 9, 2010

The previous post on this blog gave the LAO’s description of the newly-passed state budget. It provided reserve at the end of the current fiscal year that I described as within the range of white noise. The governor has now exercised his line-item vetoes, raising the reserve projected for June 30, 2011 to $1.3 with roughly a billion dollars in vetoes. So for the current year, revenue and transfers remain as in the previous post at $94.2 billion. But expenditures drop by a billion to $86.5 billion, leading to an operating surplus of $7.7 billion. The governor’s budget document is…

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State Budget

LAO’s Initial Explanation of Budget Deal
Byadmin October 8, 2010

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has provided a description (not really an evaluation – that will come later) of the budget deal that passed the legislature earlier today. In summary, LAO estimates the General Fund to have been left with a negative reserve of -$6.3 billion at the end of the last fiscal year, i.e., on June 30, 2010. It also estimates that the negative reserve was the result of prior sins because the budget (with all the accounting tricks, etc.) for 2009-10 was roughly balanced (revenue = expenditure). The new budget assumes “revenues and transfers” of $94.2 billion and expenditures…

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tuition | UC Merced

UC Lobbyist Protests Regents Action on Tuition
Byadmin October 8, 2010

An article appears today in the Merced Sun-Star about a student protest over rising tuition. It is not unusual for faculty members to join such protests over Regents actions. (The Regents raised tuition substantially last year.) But under the photograph above that accompanied the article, the caption reads: SUN-STAR PHOTO BY MARCI STENBERG Bryant Ziemba, head lobbyist for UC Merced signs a banner against fee hikes Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 afternoon, during a protest against fee hikes in the quad area in front of the Koolligan Library at UC Merced. The head lobbyist for a campus protesting a Regents action…

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CSU | State Budget | UC

Despite Apparent Budget Deal, State Continues Indirect Use of UC’s Credit Card
Byadmin October 8, 2010

The state has so far managed to avoid handing out registered warrants (IOUs) instead of making payments in cash. As you will recall, a year ago there were such IOUs issued. Part of the way the state has conserved cash is by not having a budget, so that certain payments could not be legally made. And part has been by deferring payments to various entities at other levels of government that it normally would make. Those entities then have to borrow as best they can or use up reserves to operate. Among the programs to which the state has deferred…

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News

Upcoming Events of Interest

6-Year Graduation Rates at UC

Journal Publishers Not Yearning to Be Free

Ice Skating in Westwood (in 1939)

Free and Easy Parking at UCLA (in 1939)

Strong funding for UC Merced

Chop, Chop: The Budget With the Governor’s Line-Item Vetoes (Including a UC Pension-Related Veto)

LAO’s Initial Explanation of Budget Deal

UC Lobbyist Protests Regents Action on Tuition

Despite Apparent Budget Deal, State Continues Indirect Use of UC’s Credit Card

UC Faculty Associations

Higher Ed Policy

Labor and Advocacy

UC Faculty Associations

Higher Ed Policy

Labor and Advocacy

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