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UC Payroll Data Online

Byuclafaculty

You can find the data for calendar year 2012, including the chart above, at http://compensation.universityofcalifornia.edu/payroll2012/.  [Click on the chart to enlarge it.]  Among the interesting figures is that about one eighth of payroll goes to ladder faculty, another eighth to other instructors, and about 6% to TAs.  By the way, if you don’t want to be in the database, apparently you need to become a student for part of the year: Pursuant to federal student privacy laws, the names of all employees who were UC students (including medical residents) at any point during a given calendar year have been redacted…

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Business of College Sports Not What It Was

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee ran a story June 4 that mysteriously reappeared for a time on its website today and that reminds us that the business of college sports is not what it was back in the early 1940s when Jackie Robinson played football for UCLA (photo). Excerpt: Ending weeks of speculation, Eddie Vanderdoes made it official Tuesday: He will not attend Notre Dame on a football scholarship and will instead play at UCLA.Vanderdoes, the 6-foot-4, 305-pound All-America defensive end from Placer High School, expressed gratitude to Notre Dame in a text sent to The Bee for being “gracious” in the…

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I know it’s unpleasant to hear but…

Byuclafaculty

When you listen to Regents’ comments at their meetings on the state budget, you have the impression at times that they think that the state and governor have reversed course and now acknowledge responsibility for the UC pension plan.  So, for the record, here is the Legislative Analyst’s summary of the latest state budget and the UC pension: Contains Intent Language Regarding UC Retirement Costs. The budget plan does not designate any funding for UC employer retirement costs, though the university expects these costs to increase by $67 million in 2013-14. Budget trailer bill language states, however, that the absence of…

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Where the money is

Byuclafaculty

Willie Sutton was supposed to have explained that he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.”  As this blog has pointed out on numerous occasions, while the regents and the governor worry about finding efficiencies and about saving some money via online education, big bucks capital projects – such as UCLA’s Grand Hotel – get little scrutiny.  And even when questions are asked – as occurred with the Grand Hotel – the requests are ultimately approved.  The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about a nonprofit entity that works on tallying and “visualizing” publicly available data.  You can find the…

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Does everything have to be seen?

Byuclafaculty

From time to time on this blog, we have pointed to the issue of privacy and potential ID theft posed by the practice of certain newspapers posting public employee and pensions by name.  While courts have seemed to see the handing over of raw payroll data as a required public disclosure, we have noted that whatever purposes such posting has – ostensibly “good government” – could be accomplished using job titles without names, statistical distributions, etc. It may seem at this point that nothing more could be said or done about the impact on UC.  Note that private universities face…

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So it continues at Harvard

Byuclafaculty

Back in April, we noted that it was becoming evident that the way to show erudition was to begin answers to questions with the word “so.”  See our earlier post for references at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-answer-any-question-with.html On Harry Shearer’s Le Show radio program, he began to provide a “So’s of the Week” feature.  For those blog readers who might have thought that the so-thing was a passing fad, we – through Shearer – provide evidence from no less than Harvard that it continues. So click on the link below:

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Almost Secret Garden

Byuclafaculty

In the past when we have written about UCLA and gardens, it has been about the Japanese Garden that the university has been blocked from selling.  The university would prefer that the less said about the Japanese Garden, the better.  (If you are unfamiliar with the saga of that garden, use the search engine for this blog for past postings.)  But there is another garden on campus which is not intended to be secret but at least was a discovery for yours truly.  On the south side of the Anderson School, you will find the Nix Garden – which according…

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Campus Happenings Yesterday

Byuclafaculty

Demonstrators return to campus Yesterday, this blog noted that UC had imposed its terms on the union (AFSCME 3299) that had struck for two days recently at university med centers.  There was a demonstration yesterday the blocked traffic at Westwood and Wilshire Boulevards.  Yours truly happened to be in a coffee shop at Lindbrook and Westwood as the demonstration ended.  Photo above. You can find a news account at http://centurycity.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/protest-rally-near-ucla-leads-to-arrests. In a totally different vein, there was some kind of children’s program at the campus Fowler Museum which produced the two figures below. Fowler fare     Yours truly noted…

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Looking Under the Egg

Byuclafaculty

The latest “Our University” newsletter from UCOP has an article about the increase in pension contributions recently enacted by the Regents.  When you look at the newsletter, there is a illustrative “nest egg” illustration – shown above – which you click on to read the article.  Now it’s not clear what the chart below the egg shows.  But let’s hope the downward falling line on the chart under the egg isn’t the future funded status of the pension plan.  As readers of this blog will know, while back in the day, the plan was (more than) fully funded, the long…

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UC Hospital Dispute Seems to Have Ended

Byuclafaculty

Although UC and AFSCME 3299 – the union that called the recent 2-day hospital strike (including at UCLA) – seem to have gone their separate ways, it appears the dispute is over for now.  The Daily Bruin carries a report that UC has unilaterally implemented its last offer. Under state labor law, an employer can implement its offer unilaterally if negotiations have reached an “impasse.”  In such instances, the union might challenge the implementation before PERB on grounds that an impasse had not been reached.  Or it could threaten or undertake a strike.  However, the media release by the union…