UC Regents

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Change in Direction: Prop 38 Supporter Stops Anti-Prop 30 TV Ads

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog will know, Prop 38 (the Molly Munger school tax) and Prop 30 (the governor’s tax – endorsed by the UC Regents) are in somewhat of a face-off. Although if both passed, the one with the most votes would probably go into effect, that outcome seems unlikely. Prop 38 has polled poorly whereas Prop 30 has been marginally ahead. So the more likely outcomes are 1) Prop 30 passes and Prop 38 fails or 2) both fail.  If we get #2, there will be trigger cuts including $250 million for UC and tuition increases.  If we…

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Who Will Vote in November? Do Voters Dislike Voting on Ballot Propositions?

Byuclafaculty

There are eleven state propositions on the November ballot as well as the national, state, and local candidates and local propositions. Among those state propositions is Prop 30, the governor’s tax plan endorsed by the Regents.  As a new PPIC publication notes, voters in California are not a random sample of the population.  See the table above.  And despite complaints about all those propositions on the ballot (there are eleven this time), they like direct democracy as the chart below indicates. The PPIC publication from which the table and chart are drawn is at: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/atissue/AI_1012MBAI.pdf

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Parking Revenue: Cash Cow for Higher Ed?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has a short story about a controversy over a proposed long-term lease of parking facilities at Indiana University to a private operator in exchange for a lump sum payment.  The story links to a longer AP article on the issue which notes that Ohio State U has gone in that direction. Readers of this blog will know that at the Regents’ retreat last month, the Regents discussed a proposal to transfer campus parking services – after a rate increase – to the UC pension fund.  With the higher rate, the parking services would have higher value…

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One Bill That Got Away (from our attention last month)

Byuclafaculty

As Governor Brown was signing or vetoing bills last month, we tried on this blog to point to those affecting UC.  However, one – AB 1955 – got away from us and escaped our attention.  It deals with the aftermath of the UC-Davis pepper spray incident.  As is often the case, while the bill mandates CSU to do something, it just “requests” the Regents to do the same because of UC’s constitutional status.  Gov. Brown signed this bill which you can read below: AB 1955, as introduced, Block. Public postsecondary education: campus law enforcement agency and student liaison. Existing law…

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That Feels Sooo Good

Byuclafaculty

The governor has signed legislation that does everything about tuition other than allocate money to stop it from rising.  It is (sort of) voluntary for the Regents and UC. And it feels so good. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST AB 970, Fong. University of California and California State University: systemwide student fees. Existing law, known as the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth the missions and functions of the segments of public postsecondary education in the state. The California State University, which is governed by the Trustees of the California State University (trustees), and the University of California, which is governed by…

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How Jerry Brown Views Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

If you are wondering what Governor Brown thinks about higher ed, you might be interested in the excerpt below from the transcript of an interview with the LA Times which appeared on the web on 9-24-12: …So here’s an interesting point. This is Page Smith. He was in the history department in Santa Cruz. You went to Santa Cruz. Do you remember Page Smith? Well, he was one of the original guys. He kind of left in disgust when they started going more conventional. His wife I made the first head of the arts council and I got to know…

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Will Prop 30 Pass the Voters’ Test?

Byuclafaculty

As prior posts on this blog have noted, Proposition 30, the governor’s tax initiative endorsed by the Regents, is polling marginally ahead. But it does not have a comfortable lead and the campaign is really just starting.  So will it lose its marginal lead, thus causing trigger cuts to UC? Ethan Rarick, California Fellow at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC-Berkeley, does some analysis of past initiatives and concludes that the answer is – TA TA! – maybe yes/ maybe no.  Non-tax initiatives at this point in the campaign with poll numbers in the range of Prop 30’s do…

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Listen to Regents Investment Committee: 9-25-12

Byuclafaculty

The Regents Committee on Investments met on Sept. 25, 2012 to review investment strategies regarding the general UC endowment and the pension fund.  There was also a review of campus foundation investment policies and results.  Generally, the staff presentations involved requests to lift various constraints on investments.  Much of the explanation was that if we had more flexibility, we could have higher returns.  At one point, the presentation seemed to say that if we are constrained to emulate the benchmarks, we can’t out-perform the benchmarks.  That proposition is true, of course.  But you can’t underperform either.  If you listen to…

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Rival Initiative Campaign

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog will know, although there are three tax propositions on the ballot, two are essentially rivals.  The governor put Prop 30 on the ballot, a combination of income and sales taxes, which has been endorsed by the Regents.  Prop 38, which is an income tax increase earmarked more directly for local schools, is supported by a wealthy backer, Molly Munger.  Prop 38 hasn’t polled well but Munger is putting money into its campaign. Prop 30 has been showing a marginal majority in recent polls.  The concern among Prop 30 supporters is that the campaign for 38…

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UCLA Is Well Endowed But Seems to Have Problems of Performance

Byuclafaculty

The Regents’ Investment Committee is meeting on September 25 and one of the items on the agenda is a look at what the various campus foundations are doing with their endowment investments.  Above is a chart showing the asset mix of the different campuses as of March.  [Click on the chart to enlarge and make clearer.]  UCLA seems to be lower than the typical for the campuses in what might be viewed as conventional investments, i.e., equities and fixed income (and cash).  It seems higher in such categories such as real estate, private equity, commodities, and absolute return (which a…