athletics

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UCLA Drops Opposition to Athletes’ Bill of Rights After Amendments

Byuclafaculty

After amendment, UCLA has dropped its opposition to a bill pending in the legislature containing a “bill of rights” for student athletes.  UC-Berkeley and USC have also dropped opposition.  Stanford is still opposed. …Sen. Alex Padilla, of Los Angeles, agreed to amend Senate Bill 1525 amid opposition from Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA and the University of Southern California.  This bill now requires the four schools to continue scholarships for injured athletes and athletes who have exhausted their athletic eligibility, but have not finished their degree. The schools would also have to pay for health insurance for low-income individuals and tell a student athlete within seven days whether…

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A Different Bill of Rights Pending in the Legislature

Byuclafaculty

From the Sacramento Bee: Four California universities with big-time sports programs are fighting a legislative effort that could radically change the way schools recruit, educate and retain student athletes. The schools are opposing the “Student Athlete Bill of Rights,” they say, because it would be too expensive, put their programs at a competitive disadvantage and may go against NCAA rules. Senate Bill 1525, by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, would require schools earning more than $10 million a year in media revenue from athletic programs to continue an athlete’s scholarship if he or she is no longer able to participate in…

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Moguls

Byuclafaculty

The historically minded might have looked at the headline above in the LA Times today and thought it had to do with increased admissions of international students: http://www.asianartmall.com/mogulempire.htmBut no, it was a different kind of mogul’s kid. Not clear there is a story here.  The mogul in question is hip-hop singer Sean Diddy Combs, sometimes known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy. At one time, he performed with a rap group known as “Diddy-Dirty Money” that recorded on a label called “Bad Boy Records.”  (The Times did not make an issue of that.) Anyway, his son got a football scholarship to…

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Lawsuit: Urban Wildlands Group Takes Aim at UCLA Over Proposed Archery Facility

Byuclafaculty

Readers of this blog may recall an earlier post about a proposed UCLA archery facility to be located  south of the Child Care Center along Veteran Avenue. Concerns have been raised about the proposal on ecological and other grounds. Readers who have been following the UCLA hotel issue will know that UCLA was not forthcoming in response to Public Records Act requests by the Faculty Association and other groups and did not provide the requested information on a timely basis. The original post regarding the archery facility is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/01/shooting-arrows.html The Urban Wildlands Group has filed a lawsuit against the Regents regarding…

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Hotel/Conference Center Lesson from Our Berkeley Colleagues: What happens when university business plans don’t pan out?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today pointed me to the article below about the UC-Berkeley stadium that appeared in the Wall St. Journal: (excerpt) As state legislators shrink its appropriations, it’s hard enough for the University of California-Berkeley to maintain the nation’s highest academic ranking among public colleges.  But there now looms a financial threat from another, somewhat unlikely quarter: the university’s football program. Until now, the years-old effort to renovate the school’s football stadium, which sits on an earthquake fault line, never raised many alarms. Although its $321 million price tag would make it one of the most expensive renovations in college…

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Shooting Arrows

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin carries a story today about possible construction of an archery range on campus as a component of a large donation which is raising some ecology concerns.  Apparently, the area currently contains California native plants and is used in some coursework and has raised some faculty objections.  As pressures for fundraising ramp up – reflective of the larger university/state budget situation – these kinds of conflicts over university property and land use seem to keep cropping up.  Earlier – and still-current – examples involve the hotel/conference center project and the proposed sale of the Japanese Garden. Excerpt: Just…

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Credit Where It’s Due?

Byuclafaculty

CaliforniaWatch has an article today about deals between credit card companies and universities which give the card offerers exclusive rights to mailing lists. The article is based on data released annually by the Federal Reserve. It appears that in the case of UCLA, the deal is with the UCLA Alumni Association and not UCLA itself. In 2010, the Association received $733,318 based on 26,505. The contract indicates that the card issuer has access to “members” defined as follows: “Member” means alumni, fans, ticket holders or supporters of the University of California, Los Angeles Athletic Department (“UCLA Athletic Department”) and/or other…

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State Budget (Whenever There Is One) to Ban Funding UC Athletics

Byuclafaculty

The story below somehow got away yours truly on Sunday. But Inside Higher Ed alerted me so here it is belatedly: Budget plan bans taxpayer funds for UC athletics (Excerpt) Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 2011 With a few words in the new state budget, lawmakers will ban spending taxpayer money on intercollegiate athletics – and end a controversy that started when a sharp-eyed UC Berkeley professor found that university officials had changed details of the law. University of California officials acknowledge asking the state to remove athletics from the list of programs required to be “self-supporting and…

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Be a Good Sport (at Berkeley)

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today points to the story below: Men’s gymnastics program to continue at UC Berkeley Herb Benenson, Intercollegiate Athletics, May 2, 2011 As a result of fundraising efforts that have raised in excess of $2.5 million, the men’s gymnastics program at the University of California, Berkeley, will be preserved as an Intercollegiate Athletics sport, campus officials announced today (Monday, May 2). The total, though short of the $4 million necessary to fund the team’s current direct and indirect costs, will support the program for at least 7-10 years in combination with steps to reduce annual operating expenses. Specifically,…

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UC-Berkeley Chancellor Cuts Back on Athletics

Byuclafaculty

UC-Berkeley’s chancellor announced cutbacks yesterday in the athletics program, which has been subsidized by the campus. In doing so, he followed UC-Davis in a similar move (which has brought controversy). Excerpt from the official press release: Chancellor announces new plan for Cal Athletics’ future 28 September 2010 BERKELEY — University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau announced today… a comprehensive plan for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics that will result in a broad-based yet sustainable program that continues to support the campus’s commitment to excellence. At the end of this academic year, baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and women’s…