News

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    Slow Growth

    Byadmin

    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…

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    Follow Up on the Steinberg Platform

    Byadmin

    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

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    Boulware at the Regents?

    Byadmin

    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 Governor Brown likes to show his scope of knowledge through quotations, Latin phrases, and historical references.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,…

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    Hiking

    Byadmin

    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…

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    Duked Out

    Byadmin

    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…

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    The Taxman Looketh

    Byadmin

    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

    Byadmin

    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/

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    UCLA History: Mortality – Then and Now

    Byadmin

    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…

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    Audio of Steinberg & Powell on Online Higher Ed at State Senate Committee Hearing 4-24-13

    Byadmin

    An earlier post dealt with the state senate hearing on online higher ed this past week and provided a link to a video of the hearing.  Embedding the official video of the hearing into the posting did not work well so a link was provided instead.  However, that link also doesn’t work especially well.  Below is a link to two excerpts from that hearing.  They are audio tracks with a still picture, first of Senate president Darrell Steinberg and then of UC Academic Chair Robert Powell.  Steinberg is the proposer of a bill which in its original form mandated 50…

  • We still have the extra dough, but…

    Byadmin

    Prior posts have noted the fact that around the beginning of this calendar year, an unanticipated $4+ billion arrived in personal income tax (PIT) receipts.  The reason is unclear but may have to do with high-end taxpayers anticipating some bump up in tax rates in 2013.  The issue then became whether the extra money was simply an advance that would dissipate or whether it would stick.  So far, it seems to be sticking.  However, the Legislature Analyst in a posting as of yesterday is cautious as you an see below.  The Analyst also notes that much of the extra funding…