governor

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Do as the governor says online; but not as he does

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown has been pushing online education as the key to closing the gap between what he proposes to give UC in his budget and what UC requests.  Various prior posts on this blog have dealt with that issue.  He also wants to foreclose tuition increases as a way to close the gap.  So let’s take a look at the governor’s use of online communications: Above is a screenshot of the governor’s multimedia element of his website: http://gov.ca.gov/home.php [click on multimedia].  It was taken at around 6 AM this morning. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]  If you are…

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Student Regent Asks Why Students Weren’t Consulted About Online Education (and no one quite answers)

Byuclafaculty

At the Jan. 16 session of the UC Regents dealing with online education, student regent Jonathan Stein asked why UC students were not consulted.  Various regents spoke in response.  Notably, Gov. Brown responded with the admonition to “get real” about the budget, but he did not address why students were not consulted.  In addition, UC-Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley – who has been active in UC online efforts – was asked to respond.  His response dealt with potential access by non-UC students.  But he also did not address the question of why UC students were not consulted. Stein’s remarks refer…

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Jerry Brown on Higher Ed Funding in the State of the State

Byuclafaculty

In case you missed it, Gov. Brown’s State of the State message yesterday contained only a brief paragraph on public higher education.  Most of his education remarks were directed at K-12.  Below is what he said about higher ed: “With respect to higher education, cost pressures are relentless and many students cannot get the classes they need. A half million fewer students this year enrolled in the community colleges than in 2008. Graduation in four years is the exception and transition from one segment to the other is difficult. The University of California, the Cal State system and the community…

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California Assembly Speaker John Pérez on the UC Budget, Tuition, Access, and Other Matters

Byuclafaculty

At the January 17, 2013 UC Regents meeting John Pérez spoke about the state budget and other issues. Pérez is an ex officio regent.  A summary follows and there is a link to an audio of his remarks at the bottom of this post: Summary: UC is unrealistic about increased funding from the state, backfilling of past budget cuts, or predictability for the university.  It is not addressing predictability for students.  UC was good at protecting the neediest students but not so good at protecting the middle class.  There are legislative concerns about graduate and professional school students, not just…

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Gov. Jerry Brown on Executive Pay at the University of California & Many Other Topics

Byuclafaculty

At the University of California (UC) Regents meeting of Jan. 17, 2013, Regent Leslie Tang Schilling asked Gov. Brown not to protest about UC executive pay.  The state portion of executive pay can be capped, she seemed to agree, but the Regents should then be free to raise private donations for increments of pay above the state portion.  She argues that UC will need high-quality leadership and must be free to compete for talent.  She expresses skepticism about psychic income. Brown responds at length with a learned discourse ranging from his one-time vow of Jesuit poverty to the history of…

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Why the Resignation?

Byuclafaculty

They don’t seem to be looking in the same direction. President Yudof resigned shortly after last week’s Regents meeting.  Undoubtedly, the resignation was planned earlier so nothing that specifically happened at the meeting could have been the triggering event.  The official press release mentioned health, family, etc., obliquely. While the Regents meeting was not the trigger, I would guess that what happened at the meeting was no surprise and could have been anticipated by anyone who heard or attended prior meetings.  The governor wants to take a bigger role than have prior governors.  That’s fine by itself, but the question…

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It’s Your Legacy Choice Governor Brown: Chinese Emperor or Dad?

Byuclafaculty

Kowtowing to the Chinese emperor This past week, Governor Jerry Brown – as he promised – came to yet another Regents meeting with a message of online education and various not-well-defined demands for more efficiency in higher education.  With a few exceptions, what the governor got was kowtowing.  The Regents sung his praise as they did at prior meetings.  Shortly after the meeting, UC President Mark Yudof quit – although he, too, did what is perceived as the requisite degree of kowtowing in announcing he was leaving office. As is well known, Chinese emperors expected those who approached them to…

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Regent Theater

Byuclafaculty

There is the Regent Theater in Westwood and there is theater at the Regents.  Yesterday, Gov. Brown continued his push for more online education from UC.  As far as I can tell from news accounts, the Regents, other than the student regent, are not resisting. We will eventually have the audio of the meeting and post it.  In the meantime, here is a TV news account. UPDATE: The Regents now are providing video and audio live and – perhaps – archived.  Is this the result of our putting the audios online and asking why the Regents don’t do it?  We’ll…

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Cosmetic Adjustments to the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

At the governor’s media conference last Thursday where he presented his budget proposal for 2013-14, some reporters asked about the discrepancy between the proposal – which said that at the end of this year we would have a positive reserve in the general fund – and an earlier estimate by the Legislative Analyst that there would still be a negative reserve.  Basically, the answer – from the budget director (Brown begged off on answering) – was that the governor’s budget involved different assumptions. Actually, the difference between slightly positive ($785 million) and the Leg Analyst’s negative (-$1.9 billion) isn’t all…

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No “mandate” but maybe some arm twisting

Byuclafaculty

We have been posting about Governor Brown’s interest in UC as expressed at Regents meetings lately and in the proposed state budget.  From the Sacramento Bee on what the governor wants from UC: …It is unclear how receptive UC regents will be to Brown’s involvement in their affairs. The university system is administered independently by the regents and subject to only limited legislative oversight. “You can’t, and we wouldn’t want to, impose some sort of mandates on them,” the state Department of Finance’s Nick Schweizer told reporters in a conference call after the budget’s release. “But at the same time…