News

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Divergent Views (and that’s all we know)

Byuclafaculty

Apparently, a meeting on the legislative proposal to create some kind of commission for approving online courses at UC, CSU, and the community colleges took place Tuesday.  Exactly what transpired at that meeting, however, is unclear.  The only comment so far has come from the legislative side.  Excerpt from the Contra Costa Times: …(State Senate President Darrell) Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the first-of-its-kind legislation is aimed at relieving classroom bottlenecks that are making it more difficult to graduate. Faculty leaders counter that course access is not an acute issue within the UC system, which has some of the highest graduation rates…

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LAO on Cost of College and Cost to State of Cal Grants

Byuclafaculty

The chart above is self-explanatory.  The chart below shows that budget cuts produce tuition increases which then increase the cost of the state’s Cal Grant program. The LAO’s full report is at:http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/education/2013/Financial-Aid-and-the-State-Budget031313.pdf

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Timberrr!!!

Byuclafaculty

Awhile back, we posted about a plan by the Westwood Business Improvement District to remove eighteen trees.  The proposal had sparked controversy. Now LAObserved has posted a photo showing that the trees in question have indeed been cut down. No additional information is given with the photo. So it looks as if that’s it for the lumber: The earlier posts can be found at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-westwood-tree-issue-continues.htmlandhttp://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-tree-may-or-may-not-grow-in-westwood.html

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The Never-Ending Story of the UC-Riverside Med School

Byuclafaculty

UC-Riverside’s quest for $15 million from the state budget – not supported by the governor – seems unending.  From the Desert Sun: An Inland Empire lawmaker’s bill to secure $15 million in annual state funding for the UC Riverside School of Medicine cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday. AB 27, sponsored by Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, was approved by the Assembly Higher Education Committee and is now bound for the Assembly Appropriations Committee… Much of the school’s start-up funding has come from philanthropic and other non-state sources, though the county committed $20 million over the last two years. Full story…

Your collapsing privacy rights…

Byuclafaculty

Prior posts on this blog have noted that public universities such as UC are subject to public records requests under state law.  Such requests can include emails you have sent or received. Some faculty members may be under the impression that if they use personal accounts (such as gmail, etc.) or a home computer, their emails are not subject to such requests.  Note, however, that emails sent from personal accounts to public ones would clearly be subject to public records requests.  Moreover, a recent court decision suggests that emails sent from personal (non-public) accounts can be requested as long as…

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Bad PR on MOOcs – But Don’t Be Cowed

Byuclafaculty

We noted yesterday that an article in the San Francisco Chronicle indicated that faculty leaders from UC would be meeting today with state senate president Darrell Steinberg to discuss his bill on online higher ed. As the headline/extract below from the conservative news aggregator Flashreport suggests, it is easy to portray faculty objections as obstruction.  In fact, the objection is that the bill creates an external mechanism for course approval. The challenge, therefore, is a) to make the faculty objection clear and b) to try to persuade the relevant politcos (and the Regents?) that there is an established mechanism for…

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Who Owns the Course?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today carries a story about concerns at UC-Santa Cruz about the ownership of MOOCs.  UC-Santa Cruz is the one UC campus at which the local faculty association has collective bargaining rights: Faculty union officials in California worry professors who agree to teach free online classes could undermine faculty intellectual property rights and collective bargaining agreements. The union for faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz said earlier this month it could seek a new round of collective bargaining after several professors agreed to teach classes on Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based provider of popular massive open…

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Survey Suggests It’s Time to Take a Deep Breath on MOOCs

Byuclafaculty

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a survey of 103 of 184 faculty members who have taught MOOCs.  The article that accompanies the survey is at: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/#id=overview But the summary below should suggest anyone proposing rushing into this area on the grounds that it will save large amounts of money or even provide a route to credit at the institutions at which these faculty are based should take a deep breath before proceeding. The results are decidedly mixed and they come from a group of folks who are evidently enthused about the endeavor.  [Clicking on the images above will provide…

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For the Record

Byuclafaculty

Back in mid-December, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) produced a report saying all was well with UC faculty compensation, despite concerns about pay lags.  No one seems to have paid much attention to the LAO report so far, which is a Good Thing, since the report was poorly done. It is unclear what suddenly motivated the LAO to issue the report just when UC was entering intersession and the ability to respond was limited. In any event, the University Committee on Faculty Welfare (UCFW) prepared a response which was recently posted on the Academic Senate website.  For the record –…