UC Berkeley

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Various UC Campuses Cleared of Anti-Semitism Charges

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed reported yesterday that UC campuses at Berkeley and Santa Cruz had been cleared of charges of allowing an anti-Semitic atmosphere due to anti-Israel student activities.  The campuses received letters from the US Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) clearing them on free speech grounds.  An article appeared later in the LA Times indicating the same conclusion was reached for UC-Irvine. The Inside Higher Ed article is at http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/08/28/education-dept-rejects-charges-anti-jewish-bias-u-calif-campuses The LA Times article is at http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-uc-fed-probe-20130829,0,936811.story You can find an official letter to one of the campuses from OCR through the first link.  But the unofficial…

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Alternative Rankings

Byuclafaculty

The Washington Monthly publishes a “social” ranking of universities on the basis of affordability, access by lower-income students, “service” to the society, as well as research.  UC comes in very well in that ranking with UC-San Diego on top and Riverside is second.  Berkeley is fifth and UCLA is tenth.  The introductory article to the ranking concludes with the following statement: …State lawmakers, meanwhile, must be told that the free ride of college budget cutting is over. The U.S. Department of Education should establish new standards of state support for higher learning, and set deadlines for states that don’t meet them….

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Audit coming to Berkeley and one other UC campus

Byuclafaculty

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, after a hearing at the legislature on complaints that UC-Berkeley failed to follow up adequately on student allegations of sexual assault, there will be an audit there and one other yet-to-be-named UC campus.  Excerpt: …The audit will take up to seven months and will look at practices at UC Berkeley and three other campuses to be determined: one at UC and two at CSU. Representatives of UC and CSU at the hearing were clearly moved by the testimony and said they would cooperate with the audit. “As a woman, as a mother who has a daughter…

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Can’t say enough

Byuclafaculty

While the governor held his tongue (see our prior post) yesterday, the new Berkeley chancellor just couldn’t find enough words of praise for state politicos in an LA Times op ed:…I applaud the California Legislature and the leadership of Speaker John A. Pérez for the bold effort to make UC and California State University attendance far more affordable through the new Middle Class Scholarship Plan. The plan will reduce tuition costs by 10% to 40% for students from families with household earnings between $100,000 and $150,000…Full op ed at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dirks-uc-tuition-20130712,0,2189269.story Flattery will get you somewhere (presumably):[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dvA-wmVPrM?feature=player_detailpage]

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There are at least two ways to skin the business school self-sufficiency cat

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has a lengthy article about the Anderson School’s self-sufficiency MBA program.  The theme, however, is that the UC-Berkeley Haas School is doing the same thing in different ways that haven’t caused a ruckus with the Academic Senate.  Both schools say the object is to put more money in the kitty and gain more “flexibility.” You can read about it at:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/02/uc-business-schools-see-different-levels-resistance-innovation-plans

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Changing Demographics

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee today carries this demographic chart showing the Latino and white/non-Latino populations are roughly equal in California at present and the relative growth in the Latino population is projected to continue.  Due to citizenship and voting propensities, the white/non-Latino group still predominates in elections.  However, the times, they are a’changing – as the song goes – with implications for UC and higher ed in California more generally. The article that accompanies the chart can be found at:http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/01/5536254/latinos-poised-to-catch-up-with.html In a related article on the impact of Prop 209, the LA Times notes: …Latinos’ presence, after a temporary dip, has…

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Berkeley’s Grand Project Seems Similar to UCLA’s

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley’s plan to sell special football seats to pay off nearly half a billion dollars in stadium debt has long inspired skepticism, as if Cal were setting up a lemonade stand to finance a home mortgage. True, each of those chairs at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium costs $40,000 to $250,000 and is yours for 40 or 50 years. But even Cal officials, who had said they would sell all 2,902 pricey seats by this month, grew skeptical of their own claims last fall. The latest figures show sales have stagnated at 1,857 seats. Declined,…

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Bumps in Road for Academic Mothers Found at UC

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today summarizes findings in a new book based on UC and other data arguing that female academics with children face both career and marital bumps in the road. …Written by long-term collaborators Mary Anne Mason, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; Nicholas Wolfinger, associate professor of sociology at the University of Utah; and Marc Goulden, director of data initiatives at Berkeley, the work also looks at the effects of successful careers in academe on professors’ personal lives… Concerns about time demands in relation to caretaking, and worries that advisers, future employers and peers…

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I’m Outta Here

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on this blog noted that there were concerns about caps on total payouts under the health insurance plan for students at UC.*  Now, apparently, there are also big premium jumps coming. UC-Berkeley has announced it will pull out of the UC-wide plan and run its own.  From the San Francisco Business Times: Following intense pressure from students, UC Berkeley is pulling the plug on participation in a controversial, deficit-plagued student health plan run by the University of California system, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Thursday. Birgeneau said the system’s flagship Berkeley campus will jump ship effective Aug. 15, when it…

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What Happened to LA Law?

Byuclafaculty

Some readers of this blog may recall the popular TV series from the late 1980s and early 1990s: LA Law.  Folk wisdom at the time was that applications to the UCLA law school went up during the show’s run and dropped when it was cancelled.  In any case, things are not what they were according to some data – shown below – that appear today in the LA Times in connection with a story on the jobs problems of recent law school grads. Here are percentages of California law school graduates in 2011 who had found full-time, long-term jobs as…