News

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Verily, verily, Harvard seems to be in the news these days

Byuclafaculty

First there was the Ferguson apology: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-be-really-famous-at-harvard.html. And now there is the Richwine PhD.  From Inside Higher Ed today: Veritas: Goddess of Truth Debate over a new Heritage Foundation report critical of proposed change in immigration laws has set off scrutiny and criticism of Harvard University for approving a dissertation in 2009 by one of the report’s authors. Some critics say that the dissertation’s suggestion of a long-term gap in the IQs of Hispanic immigrants and their descendants and the IQs of other groups is based on discredited theories that have been used to justify many forms of discrimination over…

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May Revise Tomorrow

Byuclafaculty

Word has it that the governor will release his “May Revise” proposal for the state budget tomorrow (on Tuesday).  It is a tradition that the governor presents a revision of his constitutionally-mandated January state budget proposal about this time of the year.  The revised budget typically reflects both updated economic, revenue, and expenditure information and a political reading of what is feasible.  Tradition also has it that outlines of the budget are leaked in advance.  The leaks, as far as UC is concerned, is that there will be a contingent budget for UC linked to performance of various goals.  Note…

We have a winner!

Byuclafaculty

Jerry’s Mom Earlier today – Mothers’ Day – we had a contest to identify the woman in the photo.  She was the mother of someone famous, but the question was who she was.  Our winner correctly identified her as Bernice Brown, mother of Governor Jerry Brown and wife of former Governor Pat Brown. For information on Bernice Brown, go to: http://firstladies.library.ca.gov/30-brown.html And since we promised acclaim on this blog to the person who identified the woman in the photo, click below for the appropriate fanfare:

Fired With Enthusiasm on Gray Day?

Byuclafaculty

From the Contra Costa Times: The public-private partnership that runs Lawrence Livermore Laboratory must pay five former employees $2.7 million for wrongfully terminating them during a 430-employee reduction in May 2009, an Alameda County jury decided. Ending a trial that lasted more than two months, a jury found that Lawrence Livermore National Security wrongfully discriminated against the five employees because of their age and terminated their employment without good cause. In making the finding, the jury decided that the company, a public-private partnership between the University of California and Bechtel Corp., must pay the plaintiffs a total of $2.7 million…

Mothers’ Day Contest

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we posted a story related to Mothers’ Day.  Today, we have a contest.  Let us know the whose mother is shown in the photograph and who she is.  The first to do so will win acclaim on this blog.  Answers can be sent to daniel.j.b.mitchell@anderson.ucla.edu. While you are working on the contest – and with Memorial Day just two weeks away – here is some World War I music aimed at cheering up mother.

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For Mothers’ Day: A complicated story of two mothers involving a UCLA student in 1957 and a TV star

Byuclafaculty

For a time, the LA Times had a blog which recounted old stories from the newspaper.  On Oct. 16, 2007, the blog provided background on a complicated story from 1957 involving an unmarried UCLA student who became pregnant and initially gave up her baby for adoption.  At the time, being an unwed mother was something of a scandal and a quiet adoption was the standard solution.  In this case, however, the student had second thoughts after a few months.  She didn’t sign the papers that would have finalized the adoption and demanded the baby back from the adoptive parents.  Perhaps…

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Some things are so obvious they need to be said

Byuclafaculty

UC faculty leader warns of more exits if research loses ground The systemwide leader of the University of California’s faculty said Friday that he hoped that the announced move of prominent neuroscience researchers from UCLA to USC reminds government leaders in Sacramento of the importance of research at UC. Robert Powell, chairman of the system Academic Senate, said that much of recent proposed legislation and rules from state lawmakers and the governor stress undergraduate graduation rates, online education and upping teaching loads without recognizing UC’s strong international role in scientific and academic research. While it is important to improve undergraduate…

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Possible strike at UC hospitals (including UCLA)

Byuclafaculty

2008 strike at UCLA hospital From the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee: The University of California said today that it will ask a judge to keep hospital workers from striking later this month. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 says its members will walk off the job at the university system’s five hospitals May 21 and May 22. UC officials and the union have been in negotiations since last summer for a new contract covering some 13,000 patient care workers. The contract expired Oct. 1, and the contentious talks deadlocked earlier this year. AFSCME…

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Lessons to be Learned

Byuclafaculty

Today’s LA Times carries the story of two neuroscientists recruited by USC from UCLA: Arthur Toga and Paul Thompson will move to the USC Keck School of Medicine campus next fall, along with scores of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staffers who now work at UCLA’s Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, known as LONI. In establishing a new institute at the USC campus in Boyle Heights, they will also move substantial government and private grants that fund the lab’s $12-million annual budget as well as some of the highly sophisticated equipment used to investigate the brain’s inner workings.  (The move)…raises concerns…

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Compare and Contrast

Byuclafaculty

Blog readers might be interested in comparing the generous program of free Big Blue Bus service offered by Santa Monica College (Any Line – Any Time) with the more restrictive and more costly UCLA program (BruinGo). Santa Monica College: http://www2.smc.edu/swipe/ UCLA: http://map.ais.ucla.edu/go/1000521 Note that Santa Monica College is about to have its arrangement with the City of Santa Monica renewed:http://www.smgov.net/departments/council/agendas/2013/20130514/s2013051403-C.htm