News

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Only half as grand – and yet big!

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, we report on the “progress” of the UCLA Grand Hotel.  Sometimes, it’s helpful to illustrate just how grand it will be.  According to the official website for the Grand Hotel, it will have 250 rooms and 25,000 square feet of conference space.  So how big is that?  We have in past postings compared it with hotels in the local area.  It’s big!  Below is another comparison.  A developer in Santa Monica is proposing a hotel with 136 rooms at 5th and Colorado.  The proposal is drawing opposition which you can read about at http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Santa-Monica-Churches-Speak-Out-Against-Proposed-Hotel-At-5thColorado/38323.  But here…

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Five Seats in Search of a Regent

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times is carrying a story about Governor Brown’s seeming reluctance to fill five empty seats on the UC Board of Regents.  Speculation appears in the article about the motive.  A gubernatorial spokesperson says there is no motive.  But there could be an agenda.  The governor has been attending Regents meetings as an ex officio Regent and has noted that he is technically the president of the Board.  He has been pushing for online ed and performance standards.  (He line-item vetoed a mandate for UC he himself had inserted in the latest state budget on the promise that UC…

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Not a thumbs up moment for Janet in her new job

Byuclafaculty

The University of Michigan has raided UC San Diego, hiring a pair of young computer scientists who’ve been drawing attention for their efforts to help Google find better ways to operate online. Jason Mars, an assistant professor, and Lingjia Tang, a member of the research faculty, decided to leave UCSD’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering only a year after they arrived. Mars is the first African American in the department’s history to hold a tenure track position. “They’re both excellent researchers. This is the single biggest setback I’ve had as chair,” said Rajesh Gupta, who took over the fast…

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UC Should Have an Interest in CalPERS Privacy Hearings

Byuclafaculty

As noted many times on this blog, the wholesale release online of payroll and pension data BY NAME is a violation of personal privacy of employees and retirees and raises the threat of ID theft.  No private universities are forced to release such data.  None would do it voluntarily.  Indeed, no private employers of any type – including the newspapers that provide such databases – would do it for their own employees (although they clearly have the data). Although UC has gone along with the wholesale disclosure of salary and pension data by name, a fuss has now been raised…

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Alternative Choices

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we ran this photo from a recent Regents meeting with a kind of multiple-choice test for incoming UC President Napolitano on what song was (now former) President Yudof likely NOT thinking of in the scene shown above.  But it has been suggested that he might not have been thinking about songs at all.  It might have been movie scenes.  So we will repeat the basic question modified to be “What movie scene below was President Yudof most likely NOT thinking about?” Selection A Selection B Or maybe he could have been thinking about some more recent films by an…

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At recent Regents meetings, Jerry left his Mark…

Byuclafaculty

And now, Mark has left Jerry.  (The Yudof term concluded at the end of August.)  Today is September 1, so we are now in the era of Janet Napolitano.  And since she is coming from the Obama administration with its emphasis on objective performance standards for higher ed, it might be useful if she took a short multiple-choice quiz.  So below is a modest offering. Question: When the photo above was taken, which song was most likely NOT running through President Yudof’s mind? a. You’re Mean to Me [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k429BOuUGo?feature=player_detailpage] b. You Can’t Always Get What You Want [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkGrkNu6mDg?feature=player_detailpage] c….

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More than you wanted to know about the state budget?

Byuclafaculty

It may be more than you wanted to know, but a draft chapter for California Policy Options 2014 on the California state budget (with some references to UC) is available at: http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topic/402/research/californias-sleep-well-state-budget-draft-8-31-2013  [Click on pdf to download.]

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Supreme Court Challenge to Michigan Proposition Could Void Prop 209

Byuclafaculty

Prop 209, banning affirmative action in public university admissions, was passed by California voters in 1996.  The final vote count in favor was actually slightly higher than the chart here – from preliminary data shortly after the election – shows.  (54.6% yes rather than 54.5%.)  Prop 209’s history goes back to an earlier action by the Regents banning affirmative action at UC.  (The Regents later repealed the ban but, by that time, Prop 209 took precedence and the repeal had no effect.) The LA Times today carries a report of a challenge at the Supreme Court to a similar proposition…

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The Secret of Groundbreaking

Byuclafaculty

Apparently, there can be big secrets in groundbreaking as the headline above indicates.  And the big secret of the Sept. 10 groundbreaking for the UCLA Grand Hotel is that you have to break ground before the groundbreaking.  So although not much seemed to happen on the site of the Grand Hotel at the Ackerman bus turnaround and parking structure #6 after it was blocked off last July 8, now work actually seems to be occurring.  I wouldn’t say that I saw feverish activity when I passed by yesterday, but there was work being done. A view of the Great Wall…

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Waiting to find out what it means

Byuclafaculty

Room for waiting Inside Higher Ed is reporting today that the reason the higher ed establishment has been relatively quiet about the Obama plan for higher ed performance standards, tuition, etc., is because no one really knows what it means or what in detail is in the plan. They’re all waiting to find out. See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/30/after-obamas-announcement-higher-ed-lobby-offers-cautious-response It’s tough to wait: