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Previous Posts on Whistleblower Case and Removal of Faculty from a State Board Now Seem Connected

Byuclafaculty

Note: There have been previous separate posts on this blog which are now connected by the item excerpted below. For the earlier posts, see: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2010/08/faculty-from-ucla-and-other.html http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2010/08/ucla-researcher-firing-questioned-in.html————–Researcher files whistle-blower retaliation complaint against UCLA (excerpts) September 7, 2010 | Erica Perez | California Watch A UCLA environmental health sciences researcher whose appointment was not renewed this year has filed a whistle-blower retaliation complaint against the university, saying he’s being punished for publishing politically incorrect research findings and for previous whistle-blowing against colleagues. UCLA officials had planned to end epidemiologist James Enstrom’s appointment August 30 but extended it until March 2011 after outside…

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UCLA Management School Plans to Move Away from State Funding Due to California’s Budget Crisis

Byuclafaculty

Giving Up State Funds (excerpts)September 7, 2010Inside Higher Ed How bad are things in California? The budget cuts and fiscal uncertainty are so severe that the University of California at Los Angeles’s business school is proposing that it give up all state funding — in return for greater budget flexibility and the right to raise out-of-state tuition to the levels of private institutions. The plan has been approved by UCLA, but is awaiting a review by Mark G. Yudof, president of the university system. Leading public universities regularly complain about the decline in the shares of their budgets that come…

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More Doctorates to Be Offered by CSU?

Byuclafaculty

Bills would add CSU doctorates (excerpts) Sep. 06, 2010, Sacramento Bee, Laurel Rosenhall Two bills heading to the governor’s desk raise a fundamental question about how California educates health care workers who are not physicians: How many of them need doctoral degrees? Assembly Bill 867 would allow California State University to offer a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, which would prepare professors to educate future nurses. AB 2382 would allow CSU to offer the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, which a professional association has deemed will be necessary to become a physical therapist in 2015 and beyond. Together, the bills…

Labor Day Advice to Grad Students Looking for Work: Be of Good Cheer (at least, if you are an MBA)

Byuclafaculty

The National Bureau of Economic Research has released the study summarized below. In today’s tough job market for grad students, it suggests inherent optimists do better – at least for MBAs. Happy Labor Day. The Importance of Being an Optimist: Evidence from Labor Markets Ron Kaniel, Cade Massey, David T. Robinson NBER Working Paper No. 16328September 2010 Dispositional optimism is a personality trait associated with individuals who believe, either rightly or wrongly, that in general good things tend to happen to them more often than bad things. Using a novel longitudinal data set that tracks the job search performance of…

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UCLA VC Steve Olsen Endorses Subway to UCLA

Byuclafaculty

There will be increased discussion about the “Subway-to-the-Sea” and its proposed stop at UCLA now that an environmental impact report has been released. See http://www.metro.net/projects_studies/westside/images/Draft_EIS_EIR/Executive%20Summary%20DEIS.pdf In a promotional video put on YouTube last October by the LACMTA, UCLA VC for Finance Steve Olsen endorsed the project. His remarks are at about the 6-minute point on the video: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz95Gr6VVLM&fs=1&hl=en_US]

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Yudof Quits CalChamber Board Over Political Endorsement in Gubernatorial Race

Byuclafaculty

From the PolitiCal blog of the LA Times Education leaders California Chamber of Commerce board to protest Whitman endorsement (excerpt) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/09/community-college-chief-quits-chamber-board-to-protest-whitman-endorsement.html [Updated] September 3, 2010 | 12:29 pm [Updated at 4:40 p.m.] The president of University of California and the chancellor of the California community college system has resigned in protest from the California Chamber of Commerce board of directors after the organization backed Meg Whitman’s bid for governor. Jack Scott, a former Democratic state senator from Pasadena who was appointed as chancellor by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced his resignation in a letter to chamber President Allan Zaremberg after the…

Some Data to Ponder on the Labor Day Weekend

Byuclafaculty

Below are data from a table from the recently-released “The Digest of Educational Statistics 2009” published by the National Center for Educational Statistics. It shows the estimated rate of 2005-06 high school graduates attending degree-granting institutions, by state, in 2006. Note that California – despite all of the talk we hear about preparing the workforce of the future – is not particularly highly ranked. The full table is available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_203.asp United States…………. 62.0% ——————————- Mississippi ………….. 75.4 New York …………….. 75.0 Massachusetts ………… 72.6 South Dakota …………. 72.1 North Dakota …………. 71.9 New Mexico …………… 71.1 New Jersey ………………

Hey Professor! What’s Your Bottom Line, Texas Style?

Byuclafaculty

Texas A&M System grades faculty — by bottom line (excerpt) September 01, 2010, Vim Patel, The Eagle Frank Ashley felt the shifting winds several years ago: As state officials embarked on accountability measures for K-12 teachers, he said, he told his faculty colleagues that public sentiment would eventually demand such measures in higher education. Now, Ashley, the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System, has been put in charge of creating such a measure that he says would help administrators and the public better understand who, from a financial standpoint, is pulling their weight. A several-inches thick document…

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What Exactly is an Aspirational Graduate Student?

Byuclafaculty

Below is an excerpt from California Watch: UC commission looks to boost grad student enrollment (excerpt): Erica Perez, September 2, 2010 A commission that advises the University of California on its long-term goals this week recommended increasing the proportion of graduate students at the UC from 22 percent to 26 percent of the student body. The 25-member UC Commission on the Future discussed the need for more graduate students at their Aug. 31 saying the move was necessary to serve the university’s research mission and educate California’s future professors. Considering the university’s tight budget, however, moving to increase graduate students…