News

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No Wonder the Regents Wanted the New UC Prez to Have Washington Connections!

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed alerted me today to this chart from the National Journal showing the university degrees of the top 250 Obama administration officials.  UC is not – shall we say? – prominent.  See: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/07/22/obama-administrations-private-university-background andhttp://www.nationaljournal.com/decision-makers/more-top-obama-officials-have-graduate-degrees-from-oxford-than-any-public-university-in-the-united-states-20130719  [Includes link to methodology] But don’t worry about the apparent lack of a link between California and DC.  With the telegraph replacing the Pony Express, coast-to-coast communication will soon be easier.  Right, Janet?

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Pro and Con

Byuclafaculty

In a TV interview airing today, Assembly Speaker John Pérez managed to be both pro and con the appointment of Janet Napolitano as the new president of UC.  He was against the search process which he said was not open enough.  On the other hand, due to what he said was luck despite the bad process, UC has ended up with an “incredibly talented” executive.  The fact that she has a political background, Pérez said, didn’t have anything to do with regental concerns about interventions by the governor and legislature in UC affairs.  He said he had had concerns about…

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The Medium is the Message at the Site of the UCLA Grand Hotel

Byuclafaculty

We noted in an earlier post that after blocking off the Ackerman bus turnaround and parking structure 6 – the site of the planned UCLA Grand Hotel – not much had been done other than messing up some landscaping in the area.  It appeared that the intent was really to mark the territory in the face of pending litigation.In any case, yours truly went by the site late last Thursday to see if anything visible had been accomplished on the site.  As the photos below indicate, it’s still much as it was earlier.  Messed up landscaping at some locations but…

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Timing is Everything

Byuclafaculty

The official UC announcement of the Napolitano appointment as president this coming September makes the following point:…By virtue of her appointment beginning after July 1, 2013, she will be included under the new tier of the UC Retirement Program.  Full release at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/29782. What is there to say?  Timing is everything and she’s too late:

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Listen to the Afternoon Regents Meeting of July 18, 2013 [UC prez appointment]

Byuclafaculty

We continue to provide alternative audio archiving of Regents meetings due to the regental policy of maintaining archives for only one year.  As noted in the earlier post of the morning session, you can find this policy at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/videos.html.  The statement there reads: Video Archives of Regents Meetings: 2013Video files for past open session meetings of The University of California Regents and its Committees are available for one year after the dates of the meetings. Below is the official agenda for the afternoon session: Agenda, Thursday afternoon, July 18 [Approval of Janet Napolitano as new UC president] 1:00 pm Special…

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Listen to the Morning Regents Session of July 18, 2013

Byuclafaculty

We continue to provide alternative archiving of Regents meetings due to the regental policy of maintaining archives for only one year.  For the record, you can find this policy at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/videos.html.  The statement there currently reads: Video Archives of Regents Meetings: 2013Video files for past open session meetings of The University of California Regents and its Committees are available for one year after the dates of the meetings. Below is the official agenda for the morning session: 8:30 am Committee of the Whole – Public Comment (open session) 8:50 am Committee on Compensation (open session) 9:00 am Committee on Educational…

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Pay for the New UC Prez: Mellowing Newsom Likes It

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown is out of the country and missed yesterday’s Regents meeting and won’t be at the meeting today.  At the meeting scheduled for later today, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom might well attend.  In the past, he has been against high pay for UC executives.  But now he seems to have mellowed in the case of Janet Napolitano, the nominee for UC president.  The Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert blog indicates that Newsom thinks the pay in store for Napolitano is OK: …UC has not yet revealed how much Napolitano will be paid. That information will be made public tomorrow after…

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Listen to the Regents Afternoon Meeting of July 17, 2013

Byuclafaculty

Most of the afternoon activity of the Regents on Wednesday, July 17, was in closed sessions for which no audio is available.  The main item of interest in the open period was the privacy initiative, noted in an earlier post, which is a work in progress. Afternoon Agenda: July 17, 2013 1:00 pm Committee on Compliance and Audit (open session – includes privacy initiative) 1:30 pm Committee on Compensation (closed session) 1:45 pm Committee on Compensation (Regents only session) 2:00 pm Committee on Governance (Regents only session) 2:10 pm Committee on Compliance and Audit (Regents only session) 2:30 pm Committee…

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Positive Spin for UC Prez Nominee

Byuclafaculty

As prior posts have noted, there is a lot in the news media about questions being raised about the nominee for UC president, Janet Napolitano.  Now, with the nomination coming up in tomorrow’s meeting, there is spin in the news media to put the nomination in a positive light.  From the San Jose Mercury-News: If Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is appointed UC president on Thursday, Californians will be getting more than just a big-name politician who has wrangled unwieldy bureaucracies and responded to natural disasters, supporters say.Those who have known Napolitano since her undergraduate days at Santa Clara University…

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Listen to the UC Regents Morning Meeting of 7-17-2013

Byuclafaculty

University of California Regents: July 17, 2013 – morning session Agenda: Wednesday, July 17 8:30 am Committee of the Whole (open session – includes public comment session)9:30 am Board (open session)9:40 am Committee on Finance (open session)12:00 Lunch(Note: Appointment of the student regent was moved from the 9:30 am session to after the Committee on Finance due to airplane delays that affected some regents.) Highlights: Outgoing UC President Yudof delivered observations that could be considered advice to the incoming president.  He included a skeptical off-hand remark on the MOOC industry, noted that UCOP bureaucracy will tend to grow unless checked,…