News

  • But Professor, I Need an A for My Bet er I Mean My Scholarship

    Byadmin

    New Site Lets Students Gamble on Their Grades KTLA News 10:51 PM PDT, August 11, 2010 LOS ANGELES — A new website is giving higher education a Vegas twist, allowing college students nationwide to bet on their own grades. The site, Ultrinsic.com, lets students bet on whether they can achieve or exceed a certain grade, with bets starting at $25. The student puts up some of the money, and the company fronts the rest — more for A’s, slightly less for B’s, and so on. The amount is also moderated by other information like the student’s past academic record and…

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    Out-of-State Recruiting of Dissatisfied California Students

    Byadmin

    Inside Higher Ed today has an article about a New York State college recruiting California students at community colleges due to limited course offering here. Does this matter for UC? UC is pushing the idea of more transfer students from community colleges. And the legislature is anxious to see more transfers. The ad on the left appeared in 60 community college newspapers. Full story at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/08/12/cobleskill

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    Cash Balance Pension? New Ham & Eggs for UC?

    Byadmin

    There are folks out there who are convinced they have the solution for public pension plans in California and maybe the universe. They are pushing something called cash balance (CB) plans. These are in contrast to defined benefit (DB) plans, such as the UC basic pension, and defined contribution (DC) plans (which UC had until recently as a supplement). So let’s start with definitions. A DC plan means the employer puts in a particular contribution, say, a percent of pay each period. (There may be employee contributions, too, also defined. The UC version of DC had only employee contributions.) The…

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    DNA for Berkeley Freshmen: Top Legislative Priority?

    Byadmin

    Below is an excerpt from a Sacramento Bee article describing a legislative hearing over a UC-Berkeley freshmen orientation program which involved voluntary DNA testing. The full story is at http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/11/v-print/2950513/uc-berkeley-professors-defend.html “Two UC Berkeley professors Tuesday defended a controversial plan to perform genetic testing on incoming freshmen during a legislative hearing that also featured testimony from privacy experts and bioethicists blasting the plan. Lawmakers asked questions about the Bring Your Genes to Cal project, but ultimately have no authority over the University of California. Whether the project moves forward likely depends on the outcome of a meeting today between UC Berkeley…

  • Sacramento on $1000 a Day

    Byadmin

    Ever wonder why UC doesn’t have more influence in Sacramento. California’s Capitol, a website devoted to goings on in Sacramento, recently posted the memo excerpted below from the California Restaurant Association which suggests the gastronomic link to having such influence. —-MEMBER BULLETIN From: California Restaurant Association To: Central Valley, Fresno, Los Angeles, North State, Orange County and San Diego County chapters These have been hard times for restaurant owners. Even though California’s more than 61,000 restaurants employ more than 1 million people, the current economic slump has hurt business and caused closures throughout the state, particularly those areas hardest hit…

  • Why No State IOUs? There Is Cash On Hand

    Byadmin

    You may be wondering why last summer at this time the state was issuing IOUs and this summer it isn’t – despite a budget crisis. Note first that last summer a budget was in place. One had been enacted in February 2009 and, despite voter rejection of various budget-related propositions in May 2009, there was authorization to spend. This time we have no budget so some payments are not being made – which saves cash. The state controller has just issued his report for July 2010. The state has on hand roughly $6 billion in “unused borrowable resources” compared to…

  • He/She Said What?

    Byadmin

    An interesting essay appeared today in Inside Higher Ed on the consequences of a student posting a brief YouTube clip of a professor’s lecture with an apparently false interpretation of what was said. See http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/08/10/walling Apart from the details of that particular case, anyone can easily make an audio or video of a lecture nowadays – especially the former – without asking permission and can then post excerpts online. The essay above suggests that if something like this were to occur at UCLA, campus administrators need to take a deep breath before taking action. A more delicate issue involves anonymous…

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    Do Student “Fees” Support Financial Aid? Depends on How You Divide the Pie Says LAO

    Byadmin

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office put out a “policy brief” on that question Aug. 6. You can find it at http://www.lao.ca.gov/sections/higher_ed/FAQs/Higher_Education_Issue_19.pdf Essentially, LAO says that since student costs are partly paid by the state’s general fund and partly from student fees, when you divert some of the total (state support + student fees) into aid, it is impossible to say from which part the aid comes. In short, LAO seems to say that you can divide the pie any way you like to get any answer you like. However, there is a potential problem with that approach. UC in particular has…

  • No Faculty Center for 3 Years? Food Trucks Instead?

    Byadmin

    In June, Lawrence Kruger, Chair of the University Emeriti & Pre-retirement Relations Committee, got wind of a grand plan to tear down the Faculty Center and replace it with a “Residential Learning Center” which would contain space for a new Faculty Center. However, the project would take 3 years to complete and in the interim the only suggestions for operating the Center involved some kind of bubble building and food trucks. He sent a letter to Academic Senate chair Robin Garrell expressing concern, both about how the Center could be viable during such an interruption and the lack of faculty…