News

  • FYI

    Byadmin

    [Neuroscientist and Nobel laureate Eric R.] Kandel, a professor at Columbia University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, was in Southern California for the recent Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego and the Leo Rangell Lecture at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, where he is a visiting scholar. He sat down to talk about his books, his work and the state of neuroscience… Q: Is there anything being lost in the effort to map the brain, as proposed by the Obama administration?A: There was a worry in the beginning, when terms like this were being…

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    Info Needed on Open Enrollment Issues

    Byadmin

    We are getting anecdotal reports of problems encountered during the UC open enrollment period for the various health plans.  If you are having problems at any UC campus, either with the actual plans that are now available or with the process of obtaining information and enrollment, let us know.  We are aware of problems with access to hospitals at Santa Barbara and Riverside and with out-of-California retirees who are being bumped off UC plans and given the phone number of an external consultant.  But if you have more detailed points on any of those issues, we would like to know….

  • Known Unknowns at the Regents

    Byadmin

    Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was famous for his known unknowns.  One of the known unknowns apparently is what went on at last Wednesday’s afternoon Regents meeting which had an open session as you can see from the agenda for that day/time below: 1:00 pm Special Meeting: Committee on Finance (Regents only session) 2:30 pm Board (Regents only session) 3:00 pm Committee on Investments (open session, followed by closed)  The open session was supposed to discuss criteria for the next Chief Investment Officer and Vice President for Investments.  But when you look at the archives now posted for Wednesday,…

  • For Your Information: Request from Berkeley Faculty Assn.

    Byadmin

    The request to circulate the item below was received by Prof. Meranze of the UCLA Faculty Assn. board from the UC-Berkeley Faculty Assn.: Berkeley Faculty Association Calls for Increased Support of Grad Student Employees: At the end of September, the current 3 year-contract of UAW 2865 representing UC Academic Student Employees (GSIs, readers and tutors) expired and ASEs are now working without a contract. UCOP Labor Relations and UAW 2865 have not yet reached an official “impasse.” But the Berkeley Faculty Association is concerned that UCOP’s last offer of a 2% rise doesn’t come close to eliminating the gap with…

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    Did Wiseman Catch This? (Check Prior Post)

    Byadmin

    UC Berkeley, the world’s top-ranked public university, is admitting student athletes with shockingly low grades and scores if they show promise as revenue-generating football or basketball players, say two Cal scholars whose new study helps explain why athletes on campus have the worst graduation rates in the country. While the highly competitive university routinely turns away applicants who earn straight A’s in high school, it has also been admitting student athletes on full scholarship even if their average high school grade was a B-minus. Its policy, in fact, permits a C average.Also disparate is the way Cal evaluates students’ scores on the…

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    “At Berkeley” Opens

    Byadmin

    The Frederick Wiseman documentary, “At Berkeley,” opens at the Royal Theater in West LA.  Warning, it runs over four hours!  Yours truly suspects the theater opening is a prelude for a public TV showing later.  Running as a movie in a theater is probably to qualify for an Academy Award.  (That’s a guess!)  From the Kenneth Turan review in the LA Times: Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman makes his films his way, and the way he makes them is reflected in how we experience them. “At Berkeley” is Wiseman’s 38th doc in 43 years, and each of them, as titles like…

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    Listen to the Regents Morning Session: Nov. 13, 2013 (including the Napolitano speech)

    Byadmin

    As noted in prior posts, yours truly is out of town and behind on listening to, and recording, the Regents meeting.  I am now current through the morning of Nov. 13.  That was the morning in which UC president Napolitano gave her speech on her goals for UC.  Blog readers will recall that there was supposed to be a similar unveiling of goals in a speech awhile ago, but that turned out to be a booster/dud.  This one was more significant, but more on that below. Again, we provide audio archives of Regents meetings because regental policy is to preserve…

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    The Power of Positive Thinking on the I-405

    Byadmin

    From the Westwood-Century City Patch: Good news about traffic on Sunset Boulevard near the 405 Freeway! (Yes, you read that right — there’s good news about traffic on the Westside.) Starting tomorrow, LADOT will begin changing the signaling and striping at one of the more congested intersections in the area, allowing drivers exiting the 405 Freeway more time to make a right on red from southbound Church Lane to westbound Sunset. Currently, there is a “No Right Turn on Red” sign at the intersection, significantly contributing to the maddening traffic bottleneck we all endure. This small change is expected to…

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    TA Union Strike May Accompany Other Strike on Nov. 20

    Byadmin

    The Daily Bruin is reporting that the union representing TAs may strike along with the larger AFSCME one-day strike on Wednesday, November 20. Excerpt below: University of California teaching assistants, tutors and other unionized academic student workers will go on strike on Wednesday in solidarity with another UC workers union. Many discussion sections for undergraduate coursework scheduled for Wednesday could be cancelled, said Cody Trojan, a recording secretary for UC Student-Workers Union Local 2865 and vice president of academic affairs for the Graduate Students Association. Unionized teaching assistants will not show up to class to teach their sections, Trojan added….