News

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MOOc comes to Harvard Business School

Byuclafaculty

From Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Harvard Business School is quietly developing its first online learning initiative, which it hopes will make HBS the world’s top provider of high quality online business education. The move has the potential to shake up the nascent online education market and give the elite business school a toehold  in the world of MOOCs, or massive open online courses.  It’s a high-stakes gamble for HBS, which has one of the world’s best-known—and carefully burnished—educational brands. John Fernandes, the chief executive of the business school accreditation group Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, called Harvard’s move a “watershed”…

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A different kind of student sit-in and a modest proposal

Byuclafaculty

It may not be quite so much fun. From the Daily Bruin today: A total of three students will be able to sit on committees during the UC Board of Regents meeting next month, which some say is still not enough to fully represent the student voice. The newest student to join the discussion, Vanessa Garcia of UC San Diego, will attend the meeting as a student observer, a new position established by UC officials after receiving a request from the University of California Student Association, an activist coalition of UC students. Regents members and UC administrators hold committee meetings…

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Nobel Sharing

Byuclafaculty

These days, Nobel prizes are often shared among researchers.  It’s interesting that those who win Nobel prizes are also shared among universities. From the UCLA Newsroom: UCLA alumnus Randy Schekman, a professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his role in figuring out how proteins are secreted and transported in human cells. He shares the prize with James E. Rothman of Yale University and Thomas C. Südhof of Stanford University for solving the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Schekman became the seventh UCLA…

Email Virus: Don’t Pay the Ransom! (It will only make things worse.)

Byuclafaculty

Authorities locally and nationwide are cautioning Internet users of a new trend in computer viruses known as “ransomware,” which take control of victims’ computers and demand a ransom to restore the users’ data. They have different names, such as Reveton or Crypto Locker, and they attempt to extort money from victims by encrypting or blocking access to their data without their knowledge, then demanding a ransom in order to undo the damage, according to police and FBI officials… In August, the FBI issued a similar warning regarding a ransomware virus known as “Reveton,” which scams victims by purporting to be…

Things to Come?

Byuclafaculty

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed: The government shutdown that began last week is already taking a toll on higher education, despite assurances from policy makers that colleges and students would be largely spared in the short term. Research projects have been interrupted, academic meetings have been postponed or canceled, and some students are being urged to put off their educations until the federal-budget impasse ends. Such disruptions will only multiply as the shutdown drags on… So far, the shutdown has not affected Pell Grants or student loans, the cornerstones of the federal student-aid system. That’s because the programs are…

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UC Health Union Says It Will Take Strike Vote

Byuclafaculty

Union Demonstration against imposed terms, July 26, 2013 First, some legalities and background: Last summer, UC declared an impasse in its negotiations with AFSCME 3299, the union that held a two-day strike in the spring.  Under state law governing collective bargaining (a statute for UC and CSU known as HEERA), once an impasse exists, an employer can unilaterally impose terms and conditions.  Note that the determination of an impasse can be fuzzy.  In this case, the union filed unfair labor practice charges against UC in connection with the dispute and strike. The charges involve interrogation of particular employees about their…

Climate Delayed

Byuclafaculty

Remember the campus climate survey taken last winter.  There were concerns expressed at UCLA about the length of the survey and what biases might be introduced.  The survey seemed to be the result of Regents’ concerns stemming from racial/ethnic incidents at various campuses.  In any event, the Daily Bruin is reporting that the results, which were supposed to be released by now have been delayed until next year. …UC officials will present the survey findings to the UC Board of Regents before making them public, Montiel said. The results are expected to be reported to the regents in early 2014……

Info Available for Parents on K-12 Neighborhood Schools

Byuclafaculty

UCLA faculty interested in finding out about the quality and other characteristics of neighborhood K-12 public schools may be interested in the search engine provided by the California Department of Education. Simply type in the name of the school and the search engine will generate a report.  The engine is a bit clumsy.  For example, when I typed Benjamin Franklin for the name of a Santa Monica school, it showed me options under that name in other areas, but not Santa Monica.  When I typed in just Franklin, it found the school.  So some experimenting may be needed before you…

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UCLA: Take Me Out of the (Legal) Ballgame

Byuclafaculty

Note: Readers of this blog will have been alerted to the situation below in an earlier posting. UCLA has gone to court to overturn a decision that could force it to give up its baseball stadium on land leased from the U.S. veterans agency. The university described itself as a “surprising casualty” of an August ruling that the Department of Veterans Affairs violated federal law by leasing part of its sprawling West Los Angeles campus for commercial use. In court papers, UCLA asked to be heard by the court before the order is enforced in February. The motion was joined…