UC Regents

|

UC Sues the Banks

Byuclafaculty

From Bloomberg: Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc (BARC) are among more than a dozen banks sued by the Regents of the University of California over claims they manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate.  The university system filed an antitrust complaint in federal court in San Francisco. It accuses the banks of fraud, deceit and unjust enrichment, among other claims, and it seeks unspecified damages for either paying inflated interest rates or receiving deflated interest rates on its Libor-linked investments. “The defendant Libor banks in this case engaged in illegal and improper conduct and engaged in a criminal conspiracy that caused harm to…

| |

Prop 209 Data

Byuclafaculty

Prop 209, approved by voters in 1996, banned affirmative action in university admissions and public contracting.  It followed an earlier move in 1995 by the Regents to ban affirmative action and, in fact, made their decision redundant.  (They later revoked the decision, an action that had no effect once Prop 209 was enacted.)  The Contra Costa Times has a retrospective article on the subject because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on affirmative action that could extend to private as well as public universities since the former accept federal funding.  The chart above comes from that article and focuses…

|

New Student Regent-Designate

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times has a profile of the likely new student regent for 2014-15 (shown in the campaign poster).  As the article notes, there is both a student regent and a student regent-designate at regents meetings.  The latter doesn’t vote but becomes the student regent the following year.  Excerpts: Sadia Saifuddin, who is studying social welfare at UC Berkeley, is believed to be the first Muslim who would represent students on the Board of RegentsA UC Berkeley senior who majors in social welfare and has been active in student government and Mideast issues is expected to become the next University…

|

Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

Byuclafaculty

Something for the Regents to consider:Gov. Jerry Brown, whose public remarks occasionally include a phrase or two in Latin, explained Wednesday two reasons he liked learning it. “It’s obscure and makes you smarter than everybody,” he told about 1,000 people at a California Chamber of Commerce breakfast… Full article at http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-says-latin-makes-you-smarter-than-everybody.html Ipse dixit. Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/05/jerry-brown-says-latin-makes-you-smarter-than-everybody.html#storylink=cpy [And, for those who would critique the Latin phrases above, I learned them online so they must be correct.  Right?  Prima facie evidence!]

| |

The Complete Regents Meeting for Your Listening Enjoyment AND a Note About the Governor’s Legitimate Question and the Absurd UC Response

Byuclafaculty

We have given you sections of last week’s Regents meeting in various postings.  And we have noted that the archiving policy of the Regents is a problem.  According to the Regents website, “Video files for past open session meetings of The University of California Regents and its Committees are available for one year after the dates of the meetings.”  So the files apparently vanish.  Prior to 2013, the Regents provided no archiving at all, just a live stream of the audio.  We would then request the audio files and archive them elsewhere.  Since it appears that files will eventually vanish,…

| |

Appy days are here again

Byuclafaculty

From an article in today’s Sacramento Bee describing Governor Brown’s visit to the Regents yesterday afternoon: …UC President Mark Yudof said many factors influence the time it takes for students to graduate, including how much pressure their parents put on them, how much they have to work to afford tuition and how complex the requirements are for their majors of study. Brown suggested that perhaps technology – “a little app,” he said – could help students by alerting them of their progress toward graduation… Source: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/16/5424543/uc-regents-cool-to-gov-browns.html Clearly, an app’t suggestion from the governor with no l’apps of his sound judgment….

| | |

Listen to (Part of) Morning Session of UC Regents

Byuclafaculty

I had some trouble with recording this morning’s meeting of the Regents.  It began with a statement by UC President Yudof which included reference to the impending strike at UC hospitals (which UC is trying to enjoin).  During the public comment period, however, various union spokespersons said a strike would take place next week and the public comment session ended in a demonstration which led to a halt in the meeting (and transmission) while the room was cleared.  I did record the later meeting of the Committee on Finance.  Below is a summary and a link to a recording. Before…

| | | |

May Revise Tomorrow

Byuclafaculty

Word has it that the governor will release his “May Revise” proposal for the state budget tomorrow (on Tuesday).  It is a tradition that the governor presents a revision of his constitutionally-mandated January state budget proposal about this time of the year.  The revised budget typically reflects both updated economic, revenue, and expenditure information and a political reading of what is feasible.  Tradition also has it that outlines of the budget are leaked in advance.  The leaks, as far as UC is concerned, is that there will be a contingent budget for UC linked to performance of various goals.  Note…

| | | |

Lessons to be Learned

Byuclafaculty

Today’s LA Times carries the story of two neuroscientists recruited by USC from UCLA: Arthur Toga and Paul Thompson will move to the USC Keck School of Medicine campus next fall, along with scores of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staffers who now work at UCLA’s Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, known as LONI. In establishing a new institute at the USC campus in Boyle Heights, they will also move substantial government and private grants that fund the lab’s $12-million annual budget as well as some of the highly sophisticated equipment used to investigate the brain’s inner workings.  (The move)…raises concerns…