UC Berkeley

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Dirks’ Perks Irk

Byuclafaculty

Much of the news media coverage of the appointment of the new UC-Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks involved the fact that his salary would be $50,000 more than that of his predecessor (albeit an increment paid by private funds).   You can find the salary comparison used to justify the pay level to the Regents at: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov12/c1.pdf The governor, the lieutenant governor, and one regent was unhappy with the salary and the news media picked up the complaints.  See, for example: http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_22074232/uc-berkeleys-new-chancellor-under-consideration-by-regents http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2012/11/cost-cutting-wont-come-easy-to-uc/ Probably, however, if there was to be controversy, it might have been over an item in the footnotes…

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Follow-Up on Today’s Special Regents Meeting

Byuclafaculty

  We noted yesterday that there would be a special Regents meeting today to approve pay packages for the new chancellor of Berkeley and the new acting chancellor at Riverside. Also noted was the fact that yours truly could not record the live-stream of the meeting and so the posting of the audio would have to await our usual public documents request.  However, I am told there were three votes against the Berkeley salary of $486,800: the governor, the lieutenant governor, and Regent Zettel.  We will post updates.  And we again ask why the Regents’ office, since it has recordings…

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Special Regents Meeting Tomorrow

Byuclafaculty

The Regents are having a special meeting tomorrow, apparently to approve pay packages for the new chancellor at Berkeley and the acting chancellor at Riverside.  Yours truly cannot record the meeting due to other commitments.  However, as usual, we will request the audio and post it when it becomes available.  The agenda is at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov27.html New Berkeley chancellor bio at:http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28634 New Riverside acting chancellor bio at:http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28698

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You can guess what grade Peter Taylor gave the Berkeley students for their swap report

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle op ed by Peter Taylor, UC chief financial officer: The University of California has come under criticism for its finance decisions – specifically three interest rate “swaps” made on funds borrowed over the past 10 years to expand university medical centers. Swaps exist to insulate borrowers such as UC from volatile interest rates. They work like this: The university borrowed money at a variable interest rate, with the payments rising and falling with interest rates. It then swapped those payments for payments at a fixed rate. Thus, if the interest rate rises, then the university pays…

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Making Choices: Berkeley vs. UCLA – Human Capital vs. Physical Capital

Byuclafaculty

While UCLA, with eventual regental blessing, chooses physical capital – a grand hotel – Berkeley chooses human capital.   Media release from UC-Berkeley below: === Campus completes landmark Hewlett Challenge — more than two years ahead of schedule By José Rodríguez, University Relations | November 5, 2012 In the last five years, UC Berkeley has created 100 new endowed faculty chairs as part of an unprecedented challenge begun in 2007 when it received $113 million, the largest private gift in its history, from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.  Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau announced today that the campus has exceeded its…

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MOOC, MOOC

Byuclafaculty

The NY Times has a feature article on MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses. There are some problems: …The MOOC certainly presents challenges. Can learning be scaled up this much? Grading is imperfect, especially for nontechnical subjects. Cheating is a reality. “We found groups of 20 people in a course submitting identical homework,” says David Patterson, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who teaches software engineering, in a tone of disbelief at such blatant copying; Udacity and edX now offer proctored exams. Some students are also ill prepared for the university-level work. And few stick with it. “Signing up…

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Maybe the Regents Need to Consult With This Former Regent

Byuclafaculty

Former speaker of the state assembly (and thus former Regent) and former mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle.  The column is never on a single issue but jumps around from topic to topic.  Today’s column has a paragraph related to a grand construction project at UC-Berkeley: Cal’s newly redone Memorial Stadium makes no sense to me. Why spend all those millions fixing up a stadium that is in one of the least-accessible spots in the Bay Area? Don’t get me wrong – the stadium is beautiful. But now, Cal is trying…

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Settling Pepper

Byuclafaculty

Among the various items on the Regents agenda in September is a review of litigation affecting UC. Included is a tentative settlement of the UC-Davis pepper spray incident. Another bit of litigation from the “occupy” demonstrations at Davis involving a bank branch there is also up for discussion. The Japanese Garden litigation is on the list as is the UCLA lab fire incident involving a faculty member being prosecuted by the local DA (and defended by the university).  And there is a lawsuit arising from demonstrations at Berkeley. The full list is at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/sept12/finx.pdf but note that all of this discussion will…

Who Will Santa Monica Catch With Its UC-Berkeley DUI Grant?

Byuclafaculty

According to the agenda for the Santa Monica city council meeting for next week, the City is about to get a small research grant to set up more drunk driving checkpoints from UC-Berkeley. Just as a check of my own, I Googled “DUI” and “Santa Monica” on the image setting to see who gets caught. Seems like inebriated celebrity types get into trouble in Santa Monica, as this sampling of pictures from that web search illustrates.  So it should be an interesting study. For more on the grant, you can find the Santa Monica city council agenda item athttp://www.smgov.net/departments/council/agendas/2012/20120828/s2012082803-J.htm Apparently,…