News

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Waiting Anxiously for the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

Under the state constitution, the governor’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2013-14 is due on Thursday, January 10.  As prior posts have noted, the leaks so far seem to indicate a focus on K-12 budgetary reforms rather than higher ed.  We will see.  Last year, as I recall, the budget was accidentally unveiled early when someone put it on the web prematurely.  Presumably, given that misstep, this time precautions are being taken to prevent such early disclosure. So what will the UC budget be?  Let’s hope it isn’t the wrong number.  Until Thursday, we’ll just have to be in suspense:[youtube…

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It does no good but we’ll say it again…

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, we have complained about newspapers that feel compelled to print public payrolls – pay and names – on the grounds that the information is available.  We have noted that with some exceptions for top executives, such publication is an invasion of privacy and invites identity theft.  The newspaper answer is always some combination of a constitutional right – freedom of the press, etc. – plus the fact that the info is public.  Yes, the info has been public all along but before the internet came along, it was de facto private in that you had to…

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UCLA History: Davies

Byuclafaculty

Actress Marion Davies writes a check to establish the UCLA Children’s Health Center in 1952 – still there and named after her.  Davies was famously portrayed in the highly fictionalized film classic “Citizen Kane” as a no-talent, alcoholic floozy/mistress of the William Randolph Hearst character.  That was but one of the elements of the film that infuriated the real Hearst and led to his attempts to suppress the film. Apart from the mistress element, however, there was no similarity between the film character and the actual person.  As it happens, the City of Santa Monica now operates the Marion Davies…

The Powers that Be (in Assembly)

Byuclafaculty

The state assembly’s Higher Education Committee membership has been announced.  The chair is Das Williams from the Santa Barbara area who has a degree from UC-Santa Barbara.  His interests seem to be mainly in the environmental area. Full membership of the committee: Assemblymember Das Williams, ChairAssemblymember Rocky J. Chávez, Vice ChairAssemblymember Richard BloomAssemblymember Paul FongAssemblymember Steve FoxAssemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr.Assemblymember Marc LevineAssemblymember Eric LinderAssemblymember Jose MedinaAssemblymember Kristin OlsenAssemblymember Sharon Quirk-SilvaAssemblymember Shirley N. WeberAssemblymember Scott Wilk Williams’ personal website is at http://www.daswilliams.org/ Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/01/assembly-speaker-perez-announces-full-committee-line-ups.html#storylink=cpy

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More Budget Leaks

Byuclafaculty

As we have noted in prior posts, at this time of year there are leaks that appear in the news media about the forthcoming budget proposal of the governor.  We noted also that he seems to be particularly concerned with education, but at the K-12 level.  Basically, policy wonks have long supported the idea that school payments should reflect in some way the kind of student being served rather than a simple body count.  Disadvantaged students would in effect get more dollars per capita. Of course, there are winners and losers in such weighted formulas among school districts compared to…

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Promises, Promises on UC Retiree Health

Byuclafaculty

Jim Chalfant pointed me to the item below about retirees at one of the labs (Livermore) suing UC for not providing what they view as promised retiree health care benefits.  They were given a right to sue – which is not the same thing as obtaining a final favorable decision – on appeal.  UC has generally taken the position that while earned pension benefits are a vested right, retiree health care is essentially something nice UC does but doesn’t have to do.    There may be special circumstances in terms of what was said specifically to this group of employees. …

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Understanding California

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) from time to time issues out a publication called “CalFacts” which, as the name suggests, contains a variety of data on California – including the chart above.  It’s available at:http://lao.ca.gov/reports/2013/calfacts/calfacts_010213.pdf And for those who have forgotten our state song (previously posted):

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Don’t Miz This

Byuclafaculty

A group of college students – reported by Inside Higher Ed to be from Boston University – produced a YouTube commentary on the state of the job market faced by graduating seniors.  You can see it embedded in the Inside Higher Ed article at http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/01/02/les-mis%C3%A9rables-college-parody or below:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkGuKcuczKM?feature=player_detailpage]

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It’ll Be a Long Time Before Any of These Ideas Come to Pass

Byuclafaculty

Sepulveda Pass Tunnel: 1935 An earlier post (Dec. 27) on this blog noted that the MTA has various long-range plans for dealing with the traffic bottleneck through the Sepulveda Pass, just north and slightly west of UCLA.  Readers will not have to be reminded of the fact that the current project of widening the 405 and replacing bridges has been the source of major traffic headaches. The LA Daily News carries an updated story about the MTA’s plans which range from modest to a very expensive tunnel which would carry both rail and cars.  You can read about these plans…