News

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Not Quite Enough

Byuclafaculty

If you are state budget aficionado, you may recall that last June there was a disagreement between Governor Brown and the legislative leaders as to whether to use a conservative forecast for 2013-14 state revenue.  The governor pushed for, and ultimately won, the use of more conservative forecast revenue than the LAO and the legislative leaders wanted to use. We are now two months into the fiscal year and according to the state controller, actual revenue received was below the governor’s estimate by something over $300 million.  In addition, the state is looking at some unexpected spending for such things…

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The Regents are Coming! The Regents are Coming! (Next week to UC-SF)

Byuclafaculty

The Regents are meeting next week: Sept. 17-19.  The basic agenda is below.  The major capital project this time from UCLA is a $70 million “Phase 2” engineering building opposite the now-under-construction Grand Hotel.  It appears that one thing leads to another.  From the online documentation for Sept. 17, we learn that “Phase 1 is already under construction; without Phase 2, the site would be underutilized.”   Source: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept13/gb5.pdf.  As we have noted many times before, the Regents never, in the end, turn down a campus capital project.  And the Regents have no independent capacity to examine the case for the…

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Reminder that it is currently possible to hold a large conference at UCLA

Byuclafaculty

The photo above – taken at today’s Anderson Forecast – is yet another reminder that UCLA is often host to conferences involving large numbers of people at various venues around campus. This event took place in the Executive Dining Room at Anderson.  The Executive Dining Room is actually three rooms with movable partitions.  It might also be noted that the parking to be provided within the new $150+ million Grand Hotel/conference center now under  construction could not have accommodated all of the people who came to the Forecast event. A picture is worth 1,000 words but apparently not 150 million…

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Broken Ground

Byuclafaculty

Official Program Shovel Ready Chancellor Block EVC Waugh Donors Shovel Photo Op Audio recording of event link below (about 14 minutes): {Note: Archive.org where audio is posted is currently down for maintenance – as of morning of 9-11-13.  Check back later if you don’t find the audio.  It is also directly accessible athttp://archive.org/details/UclaHotel-conferenceCenterGroundbreaking9-10-2013 when the archive.org website is functioning.} Update: Given the delay today in the archive.org service, below is an alternative source for the audio: Concluding Thoughts: All’s Well That Ends Well: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YFUJ8aBkpc?feature=player_detailpage]

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Construction on Wilshire West of 405

Byuclafaculty

There is a construction project now approved for Wilshire between Federal and Bonsall west of the 405 involving adding a bus lane by widening the avenue.  This construction will begin once the current 405 construction over Wilshire ends.  (Bonsall is the street that runs through the Veterans’ home area.  Click on the image above for a better view.)  Exactly what happens going east from Bonsall is unclear in terms of any construction since once you get to the freeway overpass, further widening for the bus lane would not be possible. The lanes to be added west of Bonsall won’t subtract…

The Harvard Business School Frat House is Classy

Byuclafaculty

On Sunday, we posted a link to the NY Times piece on the Harvard Business School and its frat house atmosphere.  Now the Times is running a piece saying the class divide among the students is even more of a problem:  …In recent years, second-year students have organized a midwinter ski trip that costs over $1,000, while others, including members of “Section X,” a secret society of ultrawealthy students, spend far more on weekend party trips to places like Iceland and Moscow… When Christina Wallace, now the director of the Startup Institute, attended Harvard Business School on a scholarship, she was told…

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Trouble Brewing

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: Two first-year students recently chose not to participate in part of a sex education presentation offered at UCLA’s freshman orientation for religious reasons, prompting confusion about whether the presentation is mandatory.  Bella and Angelica Ayala, twin first-year biology students, said they wanted to be exempt from part of UCLA’s mandatory sex education presentation in late August because of moral objections to contraception. New Student Orientation lasts three days and includes informational sessions on extracurricular activities, academics and class enrollment procedures at UCLA, as well as discussions about topics like sex and alcohol… Angelica Ayala said she and her sister…

Yet another review questioning whether for MOOCs there is a there there

Byuclafaculty

A lengthy review of the MOOC world appears in The Nation.  The author notes that you might do better perusing iTunes and YouTube if you want to watch courses.  Lack of credit for most courses, even from the institutions offering them, is also noted.  And there is the big dropout rate. You can get a sense from the title alone: “Inside the Coursera Hype Machine.”  The article is at:http://www.thenation.com/article/176036/inside-coursera-hype-machine