News

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The New UC Logo Is Gone; We’ll Miss It

Byuclafaculty

From the Capitol Alert blog of the Sacramento Bee this morning:  The University of California system announced this morning it has suspended its controversial new logo in the wake of complaints from students and alumni, some of whom derisively compared it to a “toilet bowl.” Daniel M. Dooley, senior vice president for external relations at the UC Office of the President, said in a statement that a replacement monogram “could require a measure of time to complete.” Dooley seemed a bit defensive, however, suggesting people misunderstood the logo’s purpose and that it was only intended for use on “systemwide communications…

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Cautionary Tales for the Regents

Byuclafaculty

The New York Times today runs cautionary tales today about universities that go on building booms, build up debt, and get into trouble.  The opening lines give you the flavor:  Some call it the Edifice Complex. Others have named it the Law of More, or the Taj Mahal syndrome. A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill. Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011…

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Radio Interview About David Geffen

Byuclafaculty

Susan Lacy and David Geffen PBS recently ran an “American Masters” episode about David Geffen who just donated $100 million to the UCLA med school.  [See yesterday’s post.]  Yours truly did not see the PBS program but there was a radio interview with the program’s director, Susan Lacy, aired on KPCC on Nov. 20.  One amusing anecdote is that Geffen got his first (mailroom) job by stating (apparently falsely) that he was a UCLA grad.  I’m sure he could have an honorary UCLA degree at this point if he wanted one.  The interview can be heard at the link below.

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Legislative Analyst Says Everything’s OK With UC Faculty Pay

Byuclafaculty

Legislative Analyst’s summary: In this report, we assess UC’s ability to recruit and retain tenured and tenure-track faculty. We find that (1) UC has been hiring candidates who have received their highest degree from some of the most selective universities in the nation, (2) UC has a long history of hiring its top choice faculty candidates, (3) most new entry-level faculty stay at UC long enough to earn tenure, (4) less than 2 percent of faculty resign from UC each year, and (5) UC’s faculty compensation is competitive with other top universities. These findings indicate that UC generally has been…

California has a “529” Tax-Favored College Savings Program

Byuclafaculty

In case you didn’t know it, California maintains a tax-favored “529” savings program for college tuition (and related college expenses) that works something like an IRA.  It can be used for any qualified institution nationwide, not just UC. Details are at https://www.scholarshare.com/home.shtml Excerpt: Contributions and Any Earnings Used to Pay for Qualified Higher Education Expenses are Federal and California Income Tax-free. The earnings portion of any distributions used to pay for qualified higher education expenses will be free from federal and California income tax. Federal Estate and Gift Tax BenefitsContributions to ScholarShare may reduce the taxable value of your estate. For…

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The Gift of Human Capital is Good News for UCLA and for the Donor

Byuclafaculty

The Good News By the time you read this posting, you will likely have heard or read about David Geffen’s gift of human capital – in the form of scholarships – to the UCLA med school. From the official UCLA media release: Entertainment executive and philanthropist David Geffen has established an unprecedented $100 million scholarship fund that will cover the entire cost of education for the very best medical students attending the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM). The school was named in his honor after his $200 million unrestricted gift in 2002. With this recent gift, Geffen’s total philanthropic support…

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Missing the Point on the UC Logo

Byuclafaculty

I thought we could put the UC redesigned logo story to bed – at least for awhile.  (See the previous and earlier posts.)  But, alas, KPCC this morning aired an interview with a “brand developer” who totally missed the point.  She rattled on and on in a British accent (so who could doubt what she said?) about how the whole problem was the “process” by which the new design was introduced.  If only there had been more participation in the logo design.  Etc. Etc.Here are the problems and they have zero to do with process.1) UC has bigger issues to…

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The New UC Logo is Just Part of a Fad

Byuclafaculty

OK. Enough fun with the new UC logo.  But let’s forget the rationale about how it was done to look nice on the Internet.  What we have is a general fad about simplifying old logos to make them look “cool” and “modern.”  UC got swept up in the fad. Take a look at the old and new city logo for Santa Monica above.  The old one was, well, old fashioned with its Latin phrase (even though it does have little helicopters).  So someone did to the Santa Monica logo what UC has done to its logo.  The difference was that…

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Trivial Pursuit?

Byuclafaculty

The California State Auditor examines the accounts of state agencies including UC.  Chapter 8 of its latest report focuses on an unnamed administrator who came from CSU and apparently misspent travel funds there to the tune of over $150,000 before arriving at UC.  When this problem at CSU became known, UC tightened up the oversight of the administrator’s UC travel.  Nevertheless, the auditor found a few thousand dollars in improperly charged UC travel expenses. From Chapter 8: …In October 2012 the university reported that it intends to seek reimbursement from the official for the wasteful expenses identified in this report….

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Given the Sacramento Bee’s editorial on the UC logo, could there be a movie deal in the works?

Byuclafaculty

Sacramento Bee Editorial: Was UC’s new logo fully flushed out? …The trouble is, the image reminds many people of what happens when they hit the commode lever… … (C)ouldn’t UC have come up with a better name for this symbol than “the lock-up”? As the university says on its website, under a category called Brand Guidelines, “the UC lock-up reinterprets the classic elements of the seal into a vibrant, visually energetic, engaging and relevant identifier.” The website goes onto to remind readers, “It’s more than a logo … It’s a system.” Perhaps so, but at this point, we are not…