governor

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How to Have a Major Conference Without a Campus Hotel

Byuclafaculty

As a follow up, readers of this blog will recall an earlier entry about the 2-day Governor’s Conference on Local Renewable Energy Resources which was held at UCLA recently without the need for a new hotel/conference center. If you don’t recall it, check out http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/07/rooms-at-inns.html The first day of the governor’s conference was held at Covel and the second at the Faculty Center, the very Faculty Center that was slated to be demolished for the hotel/conference center. For a more complete photo montage, below is a full collection of pictures of the event. Click on the arrow to start the…

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Confusing Signs on Prospects for a Pension Initiative (& Everything Else)

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog have outlined the possibility that some pension initiative could end up on the 2012 ballot that would override the Regents’ December 2010 decision on the UC pension. There are two “legacy” organizations that descend from the Prop 13 property tax initiative of 1978. In a previous post, we noted that one of them – Peoples Advocate – has filed a pension initiative and seems to be fishing for someone or some group to provide financial backing for a signature and election campaign. But now the other group, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, has said it…

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Pension Initiative Drive Might Become More Difficult

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog have pointed out that a pension initiative could appear on the California ballot that would override the changes made by the Regents last December in the UC pension plan. It was noted that initiatives – once qualified – go on the next statewide ballot. For 2012, that might have been February when the state presidential primary was originally scheduled. The mix of voters in a February primary might have tilted toward passage of such an initiative. Now, however, the governor has signed a bill moving the presidential primary back to June when the regular primary…

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No More Hired Guns?

Byuclafaculty

Governor blasts California universities’ hiring of pricey presidents:Jerry Brown criticizes the trend of paying high salaries to ‘hired guns’ from out of state instead of seeking Californians who might take less Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday criticized leaders of California’s public universities for recruiting highly paid “hired guns” from across the country to run campuses instead of looking for home-grown talent that might be willing to work for lower salaries. The governor said officials at California State University and the University of California appeared in recent salary decisions to have adopted a…

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Higher Ed Dream Act (One of Them) Signed by Governor

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown signed AB 130 by Assemblymember Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) – Student financial aid: eligibility: California Dream Act of 2011. The new law allows illegal alien children who have been raised in California to receive financial aid in public higher education institutions (UC, CSU, community colleges). However, the aid to which the law refers is private scholarship money. The issue of such aid has arisen in the controversy over tuition increases at UC. Although the university provides assistance to lower-income students, it cannot do so with public monies including tuition money to illegal alien students. Protests over UC tuition…

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Governor Brown, meet MIT President Susan Hockfield

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown did not attend the National Governors Association conference last week. Had he gone, he would have heard MIT President Susan Hockfield speaking on job creation and innovation related to higher ed and research. Of course, Brown hears from time to time about such matters from UC officials. But what they say can always be put aside as just pleading from another state agency. MIT is not a state agency, not even a public university, and is on the other side of the country. Here is the audio of Hockfield’s remarks:

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Will the Governor Begin Asking for a Limit on UC Administrative Pay? (He Just Did – Unsuccessfully – at CSU)

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown, an ex officio UC Regent, recently complained about a $400,000 salary slated for an incoming president of San Diego State. Inside Higher Ed today provided a link to the governor’s letter to the Trustees: You can read his letter to the CSU Board of Trustees at http://gov.ca.gov/docs/SKMBT_C45011071120240.pdf However, the Board approved the salary, nonetheless. We actually have some video of what the CSU Board said on the subject and it did not seem to be receptive to the governor’s complaint: Update: No one loves administrators. See http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/14/new_book_argues_bloated_administration_is_what_ails_higher_education in which you can read the opinion that “a million-dollar president…

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LAO State Budget Estimates

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst has produced a preliminary state budget analysis. The full publication is at http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/Econ/2011/Summary_Tables.pdf but the table above is a summary. If you look at “revenue & transfers” (keeping in mind that “transfers” can hide mischief) vs. expenditures, you can see that the budget year that ended June 30 was estimated to be in surplus ($94.781 billion – $91.480 billion = a surplus of +$3.301 billion). The new budget year – assuming sufficient revenue – runs another surplus ($$88.456 billion – $85.937 billion = a surplus of +$2.519 billion). Running these estimated and assumed surpluses restores the general…

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Gone: The End of CPEC

Byuclafaculty

From the LA Times today: …Brown completely eliminated the California Postsecondary Education Commission, saving $1.9 million. For nearly four decades, the panel has coordinated planning between California’s three branches of higher education — the California State University and University of California systems and the community colleges. In his veto message, Brown called the commission ineffective… Full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110701,0,1204898.story It was swell while it lasted:

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State Budget Deal Retains Additional Cut to UC and May Trigger More Cuts

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post today included an update reporting that the legislative Democrats have reached a deal with Gov. Brown on the state budget that can be passed by majority vote (without Republican votes) because no new taxes or extensions are involved. The deal is leaking out but contains the additional $150 million in cuts to higher ed that was in the budget Brown vetoed. It also has a trigger feature so that if assumed revenue does not appear, there will be midyear cuts including more to UC. Here is a summary: Democratic aides provided details this afternoon on the handshake…