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Lawsuit filed against a CSU campus over promotion of Prop 30

Byuclafaculty

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. has filed a lawsuit claiming that an email by a campus administrator improperly used public resources (the email system) to promote Prop 30, the governor’s tax initiative which has been endorsed by the UC Regents.  The Regents live streamed their endorsement during a regular meeting using UC facilities.  So why a particular CSU campus is the target of the lawsuit is unclear. The offending email is not reproduced in its entirety in the lawsuit but is summarized as follows: The communication expresses and solicits support for Proposition 30.  The email is addressed “Dear Students,” and solicits…

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Listen to Regents Investment Committee: 9-25-12

Byuclafaculty

The Regents Committee on Investments met on Sept. 25, 2012 to review investment strategies regarding the general UC endowment and the pension fund.  There was also a review of campus foundation investment policies and results.  Generally, the staff presentations involved requests to lift various constraints on investments.  Much of the explanation was that if we had more flexibility, we could have higher returns.  At one point, the presentation seemed to say that if we are constrained to emulate the benchmarks, we can’t out-perform the benchmarks.  That proposition is true, of course.  But you can’t underperform either.  If you listen to…

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Listen to Regents Approve Everything in Afternoon of 9-13-12 (partial recording)

Byuclafaculty

The Regents were in closed session most of the morning.  A prior entry on this blog gives you the audio of that part of the morning session which was open.  The Regents came back into session early so I missed an item.  Thus, the link below is only a partial recording of the afternoon session during which they approved everything including the UCLA hotel and the UCLA med school teaching center.  (See earlier posts on those projects.)  Indeed, they approved all executive compensation recommendations of the compensation committee and all projects endorsed by Building and Grounds in toto, i.e., no…

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Listen to Audio of Regents Morning Session of 9-13-12

Byuclafaculty

Below is the morning agenda of the Regents.  The audio link at the bottom of this entry is provided only for the open sessions. Agenda, Thursday, September 13, 2012, Morning 8:30 am Committee of the Whole – Public Comment (open session) Concerns were expressed by speakers over the discussion at the retreat the day before about taking more out-of-state and international students for budgetary reasons.  Also, a group of law students expressed concern about rising law school tuition. The Academic Council representatives made in clear they would recommend a tuition increase if Prop 30 – the governor’s tax initiative –…

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Listen to Regents Afternoon Session of 9-12-12 Retreat

Byuclafaculty

In the afternoon, the Regents retreat got into the topic of differential tuition between campuses mainly, but some mention of majors as well. There didn’t seem to be much sentiment in favor of that approach.  Note that at the professional school level, there is some differentiation already but that matter was not brought up. Oddly, after all the talk of uniformity of tuition, there seemed to be a more favorable attitude toward differential offerings by campus, i.e., every program didn’t have to be offered on every campus.  This theme was really a follow-on to what was said about med schools…

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Listen to Regents Retreat on Health & Pension Benefits

Byuclafaculty

In the discussion on health and pension costs at the Sept. 12 Regents retreat, there were a number of disturbing elements.  Some regents seemed to have forgotten their own 2010 decision to go to a two tier pension but retain the basic defined benefits format.  The whole defined benefit vs. defined contribution debate seemed to start up again as if it had not occurred earlier. Erroneous statements were made by one Regent that Stanford and Harvard had no pension plan, when – as was pointed out – what they have is a generous defined contribution plan (although not a defined…

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Listen to the Full Morning Session of the Regents’ Retreat of 9-12-12

Byuclafaculty

The Regents had a retreat on September 12, 2012 following a public comment period.  Below is an audio link to the morning sessions.  Public comments dealt with various issues including concerns about the search for a new chancellor at UC-Berkeley. The retreat discussion after the public comments was budget-centered as was most of the morning and afternoon segments.  The first items dealt with various financial options for improving UC cash flow and cutting certain costs related to finance.  Some of the proposals involved shifting repayment of principal on debt further into the future.  There was also some shifting of very…

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Listen to Parking to Pension at the Regents Retreat

Byuclafaculty

At the Regents retreat today, everything connected to the budget was “on the table.”  One unusual option presented by UCOP’s financial staff was a proposal to raise campus parking fees (thus making the parking services more valuable) and then give the UC parking system to the pension fund as a portfolio asset.  Doing so would reduce the need for pension employer and employee pension contributions. The idea is a variant of a plan some cities have implemented or considered to sell their parking meters and parking lots to a private firm for an upfront payment.  It was pointed out that…

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Listen to Regents Meeting of Sept. 11, 2012 in Two Parts

Byuclafaculty

We have previously posted audio excerpts from the Sept. 11, 2012 session of the Regents dealing with the UCLA hotel and the UCLA teaching center.  The web source on which we park audio from the Regents is again operational so here is the full meeting, divided into two parts as per the agenda below. Tuesday, September 11, 2012 Meeting Agenda, University of California Regents Part 1 1:00 pm Committee on Compliance and Audit (Regents only session) 1:10 pm Committee of the Whole – Public Comment (open session) – includes public testimony on UCLA hotel project 1:30 pm Committee on Compliance…

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Listen to Hotel Echoes in Regents Reluctant Go-Ahead for UCLA Medical Facility

Byuclafaculty

We noted yesterday that the website where we usually park audio for Regents meetings, archives.org, is having a tech heart attack.  Recovery is promised, maybe by the end of today.  In the meanwhile, we will continue to post excerpts. After the Regents Building and Grounds Committee rubber stamped the hotel (except for bathrooms and loading docks!), it went on to consider a proposal for a new Teaching and Learning Center for the Health Sciences.  The presentation was by Steve Olsen and Dean Eugene Washington of the Med School.  In this case, we came close to a repeat of the March…