News

| | |

The Next ObamaJam Will be June 7

Byuclafaculty

The President has not been doing any local fundraisers recently.  But when he does, they inevitably tie up traffic on the Westside.  The hiatus will end on Friday, June 7, when he comes for a lunchtime event in Santa Monica.  Yours truly will be in St. Louis on that day.  For those readers who remain in town and plan to come to UCLA on June 7, however, it would be best to arrive early and leave late. (Or you can attend the fundraiser for a mere $10,000 and up.) Source of these tidings:http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Obama-To-Attend-Fundraiser-June-7-At-Peter-Chernins-Santa-Monica-Home/37450

| |

Needs Improvement

Byuclafaculty

For many years, California had an agency known as CPEC, the California Postsecondary Education Commission.  CPEC was supposed to coordinate the three public segments of higher ed with the private higher ed institutions.  It was a successor to an earlier agency connected with the 1960 Master Plan.  CPEC basically gathered data on higher ed, wrote reports, etc.  However, in 2011, Governor Brown zeroed out the CPEC budget with a line-item veto.  All that remains is a website:http://www.cpec.ca.gov/ CPEC was run by a commission consisting of political appointees and members of public higher ed governing boards – for UC, the Regents…

| |

Slow Growth

Byuclafaculty

Replacement for the Grizzly Bear on the state flag? The California Dept. of Finance regularly estimates population of the state and its local jurisdictions.  It estimates that the state’s population grew at a 0.8% rate in 2012.  Not surprisingly, the faster growing areas within the state are generally those around the Silicon Valley. It’s not an accident that the making of demographic estimates is assigned to the Dept. of Finance because population growth has a variety of effects on the state budget.  California actually has been growing at roughly the national rate since the end of the Cold War when…

| | | |

Follow Up on the Steinberg Platform

Byuclafaculty

A prior post on this blog referred to the recent legislative hearing on California Senate president Darrell Steinberg’s bill that would create a “platform” for various online courses that could be taken for college credit.  At the hearing, he offered amendments to the original bill (SB 520) and was asked to come back with the written versions. The amended bill can be read below: But are you ready for the platform? Update: Don’t tell Steinberg:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/02/survey-finds-presidents-are-skeptical-moocs Update: Anyway, don’t tell Steinberg unless you are sure it is him:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-online-cheating-20130502,0,795806,full.story

| | | | |

Boulware at the Regents?

Byuclafaculty

Lemuel Ricketts Boulware Today is May Day – often viewed as a labor holiday.  That happenstance brings to mind the role the governor has been playing as an ex officio regent. Governor Brown likes to show his scope of knowledge through quotations, Latin phrases, and historical references.  Earlier this year, when asked about his collective bargaining policy with state unions, he referred to “Boulwarism” as something that he wouldn’t want to do. So what is Boulwarism?  Lemuel Ricketts Boulware was General Electric’s chief bargainer with its unions in the 1950s and early 1960s.  He developed a take-it-or-leave-it style of negotiating,…

| |

Hiking

Byuclafaculty

Earlier blog posts have noted that CalPERS‘ premiums for long-term care are going nowhere but up.  Another rate hike is being announced with an option instead to move to a lesser-value plan. UC employees and faculty are normally not covered by CalPERS’ pension and health care plans.  However, as state workers, they were offered the chance to enroll in CalPERS’ long-term care program when CalPERS got into that business.  Unfortunately, there was no guarantee concerning what the premiums would be over time.  From the Sacramento Bee‘s State Worker blog: The California Public Employees’ Retirement System today is mailing some 150,000…

|

Duked Out

Byuclafaculty

Put up your dukes! According to today’s Inside Higher Ed, faculty at Duke have blocked a program of online undergraduate courses: Duke University faculty members, frustrated with their administration and skeptical of the degrees to be awarded, have forced the institution to back out of a deal with nine other universities and 2U to create a pool of for-credit online classes for undergraduates… The courses were to be offered by Duke and other top-tier universities in a partnership organized by 2U, formerly known as 2tor. Unlike massive open online courses, or MOOCs, only a few hundred students were expected to enroll…

|

The Taxman Looketh

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today reports that the IRS has been studying the tax payments (or nonpayments) of colleges and universities for their semi-commercial activities.  As we have noted in prior posts,  a couple of lawsuits have been filed against UCLA’s grand hotel plan, one of which challenges the University’s claim of tax exemption for the hotel and other activities.  You can find the Inside Higher Ed report at:http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/04/29/irs-publishes-report-wide-review-colleges The article has links to the IRS report and earlier preliminary reports by the IRS.  You can also find the IRS report at:http://issuu.com/danieljbmitchell/docs/cucp_finalrpt_042513 It can be hard to get away from the…

How to answer any question with appropriate erudition

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly first noticed that truly smart people – particularly those who make presentations at UCLA seminars – began a year or two ago starting the answer to any question with “So…”  Then it spread to public radio.*Now radio commentator Harry Shearer has a new feature on his “Le Show” program called the “So’s of the Week.” Here are the last two weeks of so’s: So…  What do you think? *http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2011/12/02/so-it-turns-out-that-everyones-starting-sentences-with-so/

|

UCLA History: Mortality – Then and Now

Byuclafaculty

This December 1954 photo shows a mock funeral held in protest of a decision by the university administration to change the selection process of the editor of the Daily Bruin. There isn’t much about this issue on the web other than Wikipedia.  Apparently, the administration considered the newspaper to be controlled by left-wingers and demanded that editors be elected.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Bruin On a more contemporary – but somewhat related – note, many faculty are users of Gmail and other Google services (Picassa, YouTube, etc.).  In some cases, faculty forward their UCLA email automatically to Gmail or they use Gmail as a…