miscellaneous

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Golden Rule Not So Golden, Judge?

Byuclafaculty

From time to time, yours truly has protested in this blog and elsewhere about the willy-nilly online publication of pay and pensions of public workers by various newspapers by name, including those at UC. It is quite possible to provide public information by job title and through charts and graphics summarizing averages and other descriptors without naming names. The state controller, for example, has a database that just gives pay by job title at the local level. Publication by name is an invasion of privacy and invites ID theft. So far, no newspaper has been willing to put their own…

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UCLA History: Angela Davis

Byuclafaculty

A report in today’s LA Times on the Occupy protests at several CSU and UC campuses (including one at UCLA) reported the following: …Turnout was small at UCLA. Occupy protesters set up eight or so tents on Wilson Plaza, which the demonstrators said they renamed after Angela Davis, the politically radical professor who taught at UCLA. The group said they intended to keep the tents up through the night, and campus authorities said they were undecided if that would be allowed… Full story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-student-protests-20120302,0,3924235.story Why Angela Davis?   A newscast from October 1969 deals with the Angela Davis controversy at UCLA…

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DA Overreaching?

Byuclafaculty

In 2008, a fire resulted from a chemical reaction and a student lab assistant was killed.  Some time later, a UCLA chemistry professor was indicted, along with the Regents, by the Los Angeles District Attorney.  UCLA asserts that there was no willful crime committed and is providing for the defense of the professor. In that case, there was substantial outside publicity and investigations by workplace safety authorities.  The matter was widely reported in the Los Angeles Times and other sources. You may have seen yesterday’s Daily Bruin which carried a front page headline about the indictment by the DA of…

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China Care Bruins Program

Byuclafaculty

There is an interesting story today in the Daily Bruin about the UCLA China Care Bruins Program.  Excerpt: Six-year-old Ruby Knowlton held her arms up to Kim Tran, asking to be picked up. Smiling fondly, Tran, a second-year biochemistry student, picked the young girl up, swinging her around in a circle. From the way they interacted with one another at a mentorship event at UCLA last Sunday, Ruby and Tran could almost be mistaken for sisters. As Ruby’s “Big Buddy,” Tran has watched her grow for the past year and a half.   The two were paired together through UCLA’s China…