News

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    Follow Up on Affirmative Action

    Byadmin

    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

    Byadmin

    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

    Byadmin

    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…

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    Something to look up

    Byadmin

    In May 2012, the Daily Bruin ran this photo of Prof. David Paige holding a model of the Moon in connection with discovery of lunar ice.* Now comes word that tonight, the Moon will appear oversized in the skies. See http://bit.ly/131yxTA for details.  So look up.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsGcat_dJVE?feature=player_detailpage] *http://dailybruin.com/2012/05/08/ucla_professor_and_his_team_discover_ice_below_the_surface_of_mercury039s_poles/

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    405: The Drama Continues

    Byadmin

    From LA County Supervisor Yaroslavsky: Work this week on two overpasses across the 405 Freeway is prompting night closures of both bridges and the freeway. The Skirball Bridge is being closed nightly from 10 p.m. through 6 a.m. so that girders can be installed to form the bridge’s deck. That work continues tonight and Friday night, and is set to conclude by Saturday morning. Because of the size of the girders—the largest weighs 128,000 pounds—the northbound freeway running from Getty Center Drive to the 101 Freeway will be closed as well so that motorists aren’t endangered. Ramps in the area start…

  • On Second Thought

    Byadmin

    According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, major universities are have second thoughts about having commercial MOOC providers handle their online courses. Colleges looking to expand their online course offerings have often enlisted help from education-technology companies. A college might buy a learning-management system from Blackboard, e-tutoring software from Pearson, and so on. Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based company that specializes in massive open online courses, recently became the latest technology firm to offer services aimed at credit-bearing online programs at large universities. Now the provosts in a consortium of major research universities are considering whether their group should build its…

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    In a family way

    Byadmin

    Families may not be what they once were, back in the day.  But Inside Higher Ed today carries a story about an effort by the American Council on Education (ACE) to deal with worklife-family balance for faculty.  Readers will know of such changes in the faculty promotion system such as “stopping the tenure clock” for child birth.  However, the effort described in the article notes that ten university presidents or chancellors have signed on.  Curiously, only one is from the UC system – Linda Katehi of UC-Davis. As it happens, one of the issues the revamped UCLA Faculty Assn. hopes…

  • MOOP – A Modest Open Online Proposal

    Byadmin

    In prior posts, we have blogged about MOOCs – massive open online courses (MOOCs).  But now comes a proposal for a MOOA: As colleges begin using massive open online courses (MOOC) to reduce faculty costs, a Johns Hopkins University professor has announced plans for MOOA (massive open online administrations). Dr. Benjamin Ginsberg, author of The Fall of the Faculty, says that many colleges and universities face the same administrative issues every day. By having one experienced group of administrators make decisions for hundreds of campuses simultaneously, MOOA would help address these problems expeditiously and economically. Since MOOA would allow colleges…

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    It Ain’t What it Was

    Byadmin

    Westwood in 1929 wasn’t very exciting, either. The LA Times reviews attempts to revitalize Westwood and notes at one time it was a commercial center.  For decades, Westwood Village was the heartbeat of Los Angeles nightlife while downtown languished in solitude. Westwood had the movie theaters, fancy restaurants and bustling street traffic, and downtown was known as a quiet and intimidating place to be after dark. These days, a humbled Westwood finds itself in the unexpected position of turning to a resurgent downtown for ideas. Of the more than a dozen movie theaters that once stood in the village, all…