News

Getting More Moody(‘s)

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we noted how a lawsuit by a former UCLA basketball player had led Moody’s to lower the credit outlook for the NCAA.  More generally, Moody’s seems to be all over higher ed and now getting into the MOOC business.  According to Moody’s, big-name universities should be happy with MOOCs and lesser ones should be sad.  From the Chronicle of Higher Education: The spread of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, is “credit positive” for universities that offer them but “credit negative” for a majority of lesser-known institutions that lack a prominent brand name, according to a report published on…

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The State Budget Will Be Signed Tomorrow

Byuclafaculty

From the governor’s office: Governor Brown to Sign State Budget Tomorrow 6-26-2013 SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. will be joined tomorrow by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Pérez as he signs the Budget Act of 2013 (AB 110) in Sacramento.The Governor will also sign ABX1 1 (Pérez) and SBX1 1 (Hernandez-Steinberg), which, in accordance with the federal Affordable Care Act, will help ensure health care coverage for Californians.When: Tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 11:00 a.m.Where: California State Capitol, Governor’s Council Room, Sacramento, CA 95814NOTE: Immediately after the signing event, Department of Finance…

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UCLA MBA Goes Self-Sufficient

Byuclafaculty

From UCOP:* UC president approves UCLA Anderson’s proposal for self-supporting M.B.A. program By Ricardo Vazquez, June 26, 2013   University of California President Mark G. Yudof has approved a proposal by the UCLA Anderson School of Management to convert its full-time, state-supported M.B.A. program to self-supporting status. Yudof’s decision — outlined in a June 24 letter** — applies to the financing of the school’s flagship M.B.A. program, where the full costs will now be covered solely by student tuition rather than a combination of state funds and student tuition and fees. In other respects, including issues related to academic content…

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UC Sues the Banks

Byuclafaculty

From Bloomberg: Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc (BARC) are among more than a dozen banks sued by the Regents of the University of California over claims they manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate.  The university system filed an antitrust complaint in federal court in San Francisco. It accuses the banks of fraud, deceit and unjust enrichment, among other claims, and it seeks unspecified damages for either paying inflated interest rates or receiving deflated interest rates on its Libor-linked investments. “The defendant Libor banks in this case engaged in illegal and improper conduct and engaged in a criminal conspiracy that caused harm to…

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The Gay Marriage Decisions: What Do They Mean for UC?

Byuclafaculty

As the preliminary reports and analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage appear, you may be wondering what effect it might have on U.C., particularly with regard to benefits.  Or maybe you are not wondering since you know that U.C. has provided dependent benefits for domestic partners.  There is actually an effect through the federal tax system.  The now-defunct Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) meant that the IRS did not recognize gay marriages, even in states where such marriages were permitted.  Thus a spouse/dependent in such a relationship, even if eligible for, say, coverage under his or…

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Someone Noticed Newco

Byuclafaculty

Some readers may recall coverage on this blog of the most recent Regents meeting (May) in which an entity at UCLA to be known as Newco was created to license university-developed technology.  One small newspaper – the East Bay Express – has now given the new entity some (negative) attention and points out that there was little coverage of the issue in the news media. In a unanimous vote last month, the Regents of the University of California created a corporate entity that, if spread to all UC campuses as some regents envision, promises to further privatize scientific research produced…

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Change in Mood(y’s)

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed and other news media are reporting that the credit rating agency Moody’s is downgrading the outlook for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) because of a lawsuit filed by Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA basketball player (photo). From the absolutely 100% reliable Wikipedia: Edward Charles O’Bannon, Jr. (born August 14, 1972 in Los Angeles, California) is a retired American basketball player, who was a power forward for the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team on their 1995 NCAA championship team, where he was known as “Ed-O”. He was selected by the New Jersey Nets with the ninth overall…

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Follow Up on Affirmative Action

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we posted an entry about Prop 209 admissions data in preparation for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action in university admissions.  Now that the decision is out, the media reports generally say it will have little effect.  Since California has Prop 209 restrictions in place already, it is assumed that there will be zero effect in California.  Your non-legal expert is unsure that zero is the right number.  As noted yesterday, the decision had the potential to affect private universities – due to their acceptance of federal funding – and public ones outside California.  Suppose it turns…

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Berkeley’s Grand Project Seems Similar to UCLA’s

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley’s plan to sell special football seats to pay off nearly half a billion dollars in stadium debt has long inspired skepticism, as if Cal were setting up a lemonade stand to finance a home mortgage. True, each of those chairs at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium costs $40,000 to $250,000 and is yours for 40 or 50 years. But even Cal officials, who had said they would sell all 2,902 pricey seats by this month, grew skeptical of their own claims last fall. The latest figures show sales have stagnated at 1,857 seats. Declined,…

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Prop 209 Data

Byuclafaculty

Prop 209, approved by voters in 1996, banned affirmative action in university admissions and public contracting.  It followed an earlier move in 1995 by the Regents to ban affirmative action and, in fact, made their decision redundant.  (They later revoked the decision, an action that had no effect once Prop 209 was enacted.)  The Contra Costa Times has a retrospective article on the subject because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on affirmative action that could extend to private as well as public universities since the former accept federal funding.  The chart above comes from that article and focuses…