News

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Can’t say enough

Byuclafaculty

While the governor held his tongue (see our prior post) yesterday, the new Berkeley chancellor just couldn’t find enough words of praise for state politicos in an LA Times op ed:…I applaud the California Legislature and the leadership of Speaker John A. Pérez for the bold effort to make UC and California State University attendance far more affordable through the new Middle Class Scholarship Plan. The plan will reduce tuition costs by 10% to 40% for students from families with household earnings between $100,000 and $150,000…Full op ed at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dirks-uc-tuition-20130712,0,2189269.story Flattery will get you somewhere (presumably):[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dvA-wmVPrM?feature=player_detailpage]

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Brief Welcome

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown, who sometimes has much to say about UC matters, seems short on words concerning the appointment of the new UC president – a former governor and fellow Democrat:Governor Brown Issues Statement on Nomination of New UC President7-12-2013 SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued the following statement on the nomination of Secretary Janet Napolitano as president of the University of California: “Secretary Napolitano has the strength of character and an outsider’s mind that will well serve the students and faculty. It will be exciting to work with her.” Source: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18140 Everyone else had a lot to say: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/rapid-response-homeland-security-secretary-to-head-uc-system.html…

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New UC President (political expertise rather than academic)

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times has a report on its website this morning on the new UC president nominee: Janet Napolitano, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, the Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.  Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders…

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Marking Territory for the UCLA Grand Hotel

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly went past the Ackerman bus turnaround that UCLA closed on July 8 to make way for the grand hotel.  He expected to find lots of demolition work going on.  Instead he found a few construction cones blocking the area and some dug up landscaping.  No one was working in mid-afternoon.  So what we appear to have here so far is a marking of the territory rather than actual work.  Seems like it’s the “facts-on-the-ground” approach. Of course, marking the territory is a natural tendency and there are many ways to do it:

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Mini-Controversy Over the UC Seal

Byuclafaculty

An alternative seal? There seems to be a controversy simmering in the Daily Bruin about the UC seal.  No, it’s not quite as hot a controversy as the one that arose over the attempt to create a modern replacement for the seal last year. Blog readers may recall that the proposal back then, when inverted, looked like the hindquarters of an elephant and was eventually dropped. A graduating student complained that the seal, with “let there be light” from Genesis, was insufficiently secular.  He also objected to the star and the book on similar, too-religious grounds. See http://dailybruin.com/2013/06/24/seal-does-not-reflect-academia-the-student-body/ To the defense…

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Reconcile Yourself to the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

You might as well reconcile yourself because you won’t find a reconciliation from any official source between the governor’s accrual budget (released in late June) and the state controller’s cash budget (released today). In theory, there are advantages to accrual accounting over cash accounting in judging performance, whether of a state budget or a corporation.  Accidents of timing of receipts and expenditures can distort the results for any given period.  For example, there really is no difference in a check arriving on June 30 or July 1.  But if you are on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year and look…

Waiting for the MOOCows to Come Home

Byuclafaculty

From the Chronicle of Higher Education comes the sad tale of a MOOC in waiting: It was big news last fall when Colorado State University-Global Campus became the first college in the United States to grant credit to students who passed a MOOC, or massive open online course. For students, it meant a chance to get college credit on the cheap: $89…  Yet almost a year after Global Campus made the announcement, officials are still waiting for their first credit bargain-hunters… Full story at http://chronicle.com/article/A-Universitys-Offer-of-Credit/140131/ Our advice is to be patient and wait for a student.  Someday he will come: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0niwn2pOEno?feature=player_embedded]

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UC Egypt Programs Suspended

Byuclafaculty

UCLA student at the Sphinx From the LA Times: Worried about student safety amid the political violence in Egypt, the University of California has suspended its fall semester program in Cairo, officials said Monday. The move affects 22 students who had signed up to study advanced Arabic and other classes at the American University in Cairo… Those students can enroll instead in UC programs in Jordan, Turkey, Morocco and Israel that also offer Arabic classes… The move comes a few days after the safe evacuation of 10 UC students from a UC Davis-sponsored summer program in Egypt and the worsening…

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Acountability Report to Regents: Data Source

Byuclafaculty

At the July Regents meeting, there will be consideration of the “Accountability Report.”  While this report tends to be a booster publication, it contains interesting information on budgets, enrollment, etc.  For example, the impact of the Great Recession and its budgetary aftermath can be seen on the chart above from the report.  Nonresident undergrads – who pay full tuition – were increased as a percent of total enrollees.  (Clicking on the chart will enlarge it and show more detail.) The Accountability Report is at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jul13/l1attach.pdf.

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Regents to Consider Modifying Code of Faculty Conduct to Protect Academic Freedom

Byuclafaculty

In an earlier post, before the full Regents’ agenda for July was posted, we noted there was an item involving a modification of the faculty code of conduct.  It appears that the main modification to be proposed is explicit protection for faculty to comment on institutional UC policies.  Specifically, there is proposed explicit recognition of the “freedom to address any matter of institutional policy or action when acting as a member of the faculty whether or not as a member of an agency of institutional governance.” The report on this matter can be found at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jul13/e3.pdf.