News

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

    Byadmin

    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…

    Byadmin

    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

    Byadmin

    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?

    Byadmin

    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

    Byadmin

    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

    Byadmin

    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 –…

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    A little online education for the folks in Sacramento

    Byadmin

    From the LA Times: In a crossing of swords between academics and politicians, the University of California’s top two faculty leaders on Friday strongly criticized legislation that would allow students bumped from overcrowded core courses at state schools to instead take online courses from other colleges or private companies. The bill, authored by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), “raises grave concerns,” Robert L. Powell and Bill Jacob, the chairman and vice chairman of the UC system’s faculty Senate, wrote in a letter to colleagues. Among other things, “the clear self-interest of for-profit corporations in promoting the privatization…

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    With One Question on Funding, Regents Approve UCLA New Med Center Building

    Byadmin

    As predicted, the UC Regents approved the architectural and CEQA review for the planned new UCLA Teaching and Learning Center for the Health Sciences with a virtual rubber stamp.  There was one question on funding from a regent and the answer was that $120 million (!) would be raised from gifts.  No follow up on funding or costs was part of the approval.  By the way, if you raise $120 million by tapping donors, that means there will be less money from gifts that could be tapped for some other purpose.  In past regental reviews of this project, the issue…

  • Laptop Danger

    Byadmin

    No, we’re not warning about computer viruses.  Inside Higher Ed yesterday had a brief note about a study indicating that students who are using laptops in class for non-class purposes – email, browsing of websites, etc. – not only are distracting themselves but also the neighboring students. Some instructors forbid laptop use in class but the reason has typically been to avoid the negative effect on the direct user.  Now it appears there is a negative externality involved for non-users. The Inside Higher Ed piece is at:http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/03/14/danger-secondhand-laptop-browsing-students A news release on the study is at:http://news.yorku.ca/2013/03/13/multitasking-on-laptop-impedes-classroom-learning-york-u-study-shows/ The release refers to some…