News

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Those Empty Westwood Stores

Byuclafaculty

Despite efforts to revitalize Westwood, there remain all of those empty storefronts up and down Westwood Boulevard between campus and Wilshire. Yet there is lots of foot traffic related to the university in Westwood and the proximity of a large student community. So why the empty stores despite all of those students? The LA Weekly thinks it has the answer: Living in Westwood is like being trapped in Footloose’s Bomont, Georgia.* There are no clubs, no open mics, no student centers, no anything. It’s bad. They’re even shutting down one of the only two bars students go to with much…

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Harvard Was Shocked and Appalled that Emails Weren’t Private: Now Comes the Aftershock

Byuclafaculty

In an earlier post, we noted a brouhaha at Harvard in which a dean authorized a search of other deans’ emails to determine if any of them had leaked some information about a cheating scandal. Faculty at Harvard were shocked and appalled that such a search could occur. We noted that at public universities, emails you may think of as private really aren’t.  Apparently even at private institutions, the same cautionary note applies, although for other reasons. Even if you use a private email account such as gmail to send messages to recipients at UCLA or any public university, the…

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Udacity’s MOOC Contract Details: Lesson in Audacity? (And then there is GlaxoSmithKline’s invitation to UCLA faculty)

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today is running a feature on a contract between MOOC supplier Udacity and Georgia Tech to run a master’s program in computer science.  The essence of the story is that the contract calls for some of the folks actually running the course to be company employees: …Georgia Tech this month announced its plans to offer a $6,630 online master’s degree to 10,000 new students over the next three years without hiring much more than a handful of new instructors. Georgia Tech and Udacity, a Silicon Valley-based startup, will work with AT&T, which is putting up $2 million to…

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UCLA Pre-History: Cemetery

Byuclafaculty

The veterans’ cemetery in Westwood long predates UCLA’s presence in the area.  The cemetery dates back to 1889 and originally was meant for Civil War veterans.  However, the statue at the Wilshire Blvd. entrance (see photo) refers to the Spanish-American War of 1898: “The United Spanish War Veterans monument, also known as the Spirit of ’98, is a bright white marble composition of three figures completed in 1950 by sculptor Roger Noble Burnham. The memorial crumbled after a 1971 earthquake. In 1973, sculptor David Wilkens re-created the monument out of concrete and plaster, reinforcing it with rebar. The plaque from…

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Movie Delay

Byuclafaculty

The old AVCO movie theater on Wilshire a block or so east of Westwood Blvd. was supposed to be reopened by now after reconstruction as a high-end, upscale affair with prices that seem beyond student budgets. According to LAObserved, the reopening has been delayed until maybe Thanksgiving due to discovery of asbestos issues in the theater.  That is, the revamped theater will be open again around Thanksgiving or beyond as-best-as we can tell. Full story at http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2013/05/delay_in_opening_wes.php.

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Food Gift for Thought

Byuclafaculty

From the Westwood-Century City Patch: A $4 million gift to the UCLA School of Law will go toward establishing a program to study and improve food law and policy, it was announced Friday. The Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy, said to be the first program of its kind at a major law school, will explore ways to hasten improvements in food safety, distribution and access, according to UCLA. The gift from the Resnick Family Foundation provides for as much as another $3 million in matching endowment funds. Lynda and Stewart Resnick ,who own such companies as POM Wonderful,…

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At Harvard, Apparently, Many Faculty Feel that the Oversight of Online Courses Was Overlooked

Byuclafaculty

From the Harvard Crimson: Fifty-eight professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences requested in a letter Thursday to FAS Dean Michael D. Smith that he appoint a faculty committee to draft “ethical and educational principles” that would provide a framework for FAS engagement with HarvardX, the University’s curricular contributions to edX. The letter, shared with The Crimson by one of its signatories, asks that those principles be brought to a faculty vote in the 2013-2014 academic year. “It is our responsibility to ensure that HarvardX is consistent with our commitment to our students on campus, and with our academic…

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Hope for UCLA Commuters?

Byuclafaculty

A new northbound lane of the 405 Freeway was opened Friday between the 10 Freeway and Santa Monica Boulevard… The additional lane stretches for 1.7 miles and opened at 5 a.m. It’s the latest mark of progress for the $1-billion, multiyear 405 Freeway widening project that has been inundated with delays and cost overruns, frustrating commuters and residents alike for years… Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-new-lane-405-freeway-20130524,0,4779451.story A new dawn? Let’s manage our expectations:

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New Tax Graveyard

Byuclafaculty

The governor and the legislative leaders have been tamping down expectations that the Democrats – with a 2/3 “supermajority” in the legislature would be enacting new taxes.  For one thing, the supermajority is shaky at best.  One Democratic seat in the Senate recently became a GOP seat in a special election.  Some of the Democrats were elected in swing districts under the new top-2 primary system and might not vote with the majority on a tax increase. Today’s Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee reports: Measures aimed at creating new taxes on Californians were held by the Senate Appropriations…