News

UC Seems to Be Opting Out (for now)

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has a lengthy article on attempts to measure the “value added” of college education.  It notes that a group of public universities to which UC belongs has been promoting various forms of testing to measure student value added – under pressure from state legislatures from around the country.  (Value added testing involves giving tests to incoming freshmen and again when they graduate to see if their scores have risen.)  Other forms of testing are also being promoted.  UC has – so far – opted out of following the herd and participating, according to the article.  Will…

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How to be really famous at Harvard

Byuclafaculty

If you are wondering what he said, it had to do with Prof. Ferguson’s recent “contribution” to the advance of macroeconomic analysis: Well-known Harvard professor Niall Ferguson apologized Saturday for what he called “stupid and tactless remarks” suggesting sexual orientation influenced the polices of famed economist John Maynard Keynes.On Thursday, Ferguson suggested that the British economist lacked foresight about future generations because he was childless, and that he was childless because he was gay. Ferguson made the comments during a conference in Carlsbad, Calif., during a discussion on Keynes’ famous line, “The long run is a misleading guide to current…

More So Than Ever

Byuclafaculty

Last week, we noted that you can enhance your reputation for erudition by starting your answers to any question with “So…”  http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-answer-any-question-with.html It turns out that was only half the story.  You can double the impression by starting all your questions with “So…” Correction: Actually, it was the program of 5-5-2013, not 5-4-2013, although the title on the video says otherwise.  But, so what?

Technical Frustrations With Missing Links

Byuclafaculty

There are occasional technical frustrations involved in blogging.  Some are inherent in the process.  We often provide links to articles or other items.  If those links change, or if the items are taken down, the links will no longer operate.  So if you go back to past postings, you may encounter such missing links and we cannot in general remedy that situation. Where is it? In some cases, however, we have posted audios or videos of public meetings such as Regents sessions.  Some of those postings were originally put on a Facebook page maintained by yours truly.  It appears that…

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May Regents Meeting: Preliminary Agenda Posted

Byuclafaculty

The Regents’ May 15-16 meeting agenda has been posted in preliminary format.  It lists the days and times.  (Apparently May 14 – which had been listed earlier – was dropped as a meeting day.)  Below is the agenda as of today.  The attachments are not yet posted.  Yours truly has highlighted a few items of potential special interest in italics that may be listed in more detail in the days to come. Agenda: Wednesday, May 15 8:30 am Committee of the Whole (open session – includes Public Comment session) 9:30 am Committee on Oversight of the DOE Laboratories (open session)…

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Cap Removed

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog have noted the controversy surrounding the lifetime cap on UC student health insurance.  Most students are healthy and never hit the cap.  But if a major illness occurs, the insurance, which students must have unless they have some other coverage, could run out. The new federal healthcare law generally forbids such caps but UC was able to continue it as a self-insured plan.  It appears, however, that after complaints about the limit, the cap will be removed. (We also noted in a recent post that UC-Berkeley was planning to pull out of the UC-wide plan…

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Notes on Yesterday’s Session on Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age

Byuclafaculty

A program on Teaching and Learning in a Digital Agewas held at the Young Research Library on May 2.  Various faculty members attended and some emailed their notes and reactions.  Below are edited versions of those responses.  The agenda for the program is at the bottom of this posting. (Scroll down.) = = = From: Prof. Toby Higbie I was only able to attend the Senate event on and off due to teaching duties. I arrived in the afternoon, and so missed the session with the deans.  From what I saw, there was quite a bit of critical engagement with…

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The Block Bill: The Other Online Higher Ed Mandate

Byuclafaculty

Although the online higher ed bill by Senate president Darrell Steinberg (SB 520) has been receiving much attention – as well as opposition from UC – there is another bill on the subject that is also pending in the legislature.*  That bill, by Senator Marty Block (D-San Diego), has received a much softer response from UC, essentially that it might be OK with more faculty control and funding.  The bill, as introduced, requires the UC Academic Senate to undertake certain actions with language for UC indicating that the Regents should first endorse the requirement. Below is the text of the…

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I’m Outta Here

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on this blog noted that there were concerns about caps on total payouts under the health insurance plan for students at UC.*  Now, apparently, there are also big premium jumps coming. UC-Berkeley has announced it will pull out of the UC-wide plan and run its own.  From the San Francisco Business Times: Following intense pressure from students, UC Berkeley is pulling the plug on participation in a controversial, deficit-plagued student health plan run by the University of California system, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Thursday. Birgeneau said the system’s flagship Berkeley campus will jump ship effective Aug. 15, when it…

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It’s always good to hit the target but…

Byuclafaculty

We’ll let William Tell us about hitting targets. As we have noted in prior postings, the state received what seemed to be a windfall of $4+ billion in income tax revenue early in 2013 which seemed possibly related to taxpayer concerns about fiscal cliffs, etc.  But the receipts did not reverse later and a key indicator is what happened to income tax receipts in April, the big month for that tax. According to the state controller, April income tax receipts came in as expected under the governor’s budget estimate for the current fiscal year.  See below: So it appears the…