UC

Fired With Enthusiasm on Gray Day?

Byuclafaculty

From the Contra Costa Times: The public-private partnership that runs Lawrence Livermore Laboratory must pay five former employees $2.7 million for wrongfully terminating them during a 430-employee reduction in May 2009, an Alameda County jury decided. Ending a trial that lasted more than two months, a jury found that Lawrence Livermore National Security wrongfully discriminated against the five employees because of their age and terminated their employment without good cause. In making the finding, the jury decided that the company, a public-private partnership between the University of California and Bechtel Corp., must pay the plaintiffs a total of $2.7 million…

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Some things are so obvious they need to be said

Byuclafaculty

UC faculty leader warns of more exits if research loses ground The systemwide leader of the University of California’s faculty said Friday that he hoped that the announced move of prominent neuroscience researchers from UCLA to USC reminds government leaders in Sacramento of the importance of research at UC. Robert Powell, chairman of the system Academic Senate, said that much of recent proposed legislation and rules from state lawmakers and the governor stress undergraduate graduation rates, online education and upping teaching loads without recognizing UC’s strong international role in scientific and academic research. While it is important to improve undergraduate…

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Possible strike at UC hospitals (including UCLA)

Byuclafaculty

2008 strike at UCLA hospital From the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee: The University of California said today that it will ask a judge to keep hospital workers from striking later this month. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 says its members will walk off the job at the university system’s five hospitals May 21 and May 22. UC officials and the union have been in negotiations since last summer for a new contract covering some 13,000 patient care workers. The contract expired Oct. 1, and the contentious talks deadlocked earlier this year. AFSCME…

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Once Burned – Something Learned?

Byuclafaculty

Like higher education institutions everywhere, the University of California is moving to expand its online course offerings, albeit slowly. The UC may be cautious for a reason: An earlier digital foray didn’t work out so well.UC Online Education launched as a pilot in 2010 with the expectation it would attract thousands of non-UC students willing to pay $1,400 to $2,100 per class. But the development and approval of courses were slow and the timing of the effort coincided with the growing enrollment in free online courses offered by elite universities, known as massive open online courses, or MOOCs. While more…

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Trends

Byuclafaculty

A report to the Regents’ Committee on Educational Policy for the May 15 meeting highlights the growth in the student/faculty ratio at UC.  [Click on the images above and below to enlarge them.] The report – entitled “Academic Performance Indicators at the University of California – more generally appears to be an attempt to respond to the governor’s push to make the UC budget contingent on meeting various performance measures such as graduation rates.  You can find it at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may13/e1.pdf Note: An earlier post at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-regents-meeting-preliminary-agenda.html provided the general agenda for the upcoming Regents meeting.  Apart from the item in…

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More on the UCLA-Wake Forest University Monkey Dispute

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post noted that there is a dispute between UCLA and Wake Forest U over joint operation of a primate research center.  You can find the earlier post – and a note that yours truly really doesn’t have the story on what led to the conflict – at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/03/complicated-monkey-business-involving.html The parties have been told that if they don’t agree to avoid a jury trial and allow a judge to decide the case, it will be a long time before a trial can be scheduled.  The report can be found at:http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_326729b0-b741-11e2-9eca-001a4bcf6878.html

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Cap Removed

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog have noted the controversy surrounding the lifetime cap on UC student health insurance.  Most students are healthy and never hit the cap.  But if a major illness occurs, the insurance, which students must have unless they have some other coverage, could run out. The new federal healthcare law generally forbids such caps but UC was able to continue it as a self-insured plan.  It appears, however, that after complaints about the limit, the cap will be removed. (We also noted in a recent post that UC-Berkeley was planning to pull out of the UC-wide plan…

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The Block Bill: The Other Online Higher Ed Mandate

Byuclafaculty

Although the online higher ed bill by Senate president Darrell Steinberg (SB 520) has been receiving much attention – as well as opposition from UC – there is another bill on the subject that is also pending in the legislature.*  That bill, by Senator Marty Block (D-San Diego), has received a much softer response from UC, essentially that it might be OK with more faculty control and funding.  The bill, as introduced, requires the UC Academic Senate to undertake certain actions with language for UC indicating that the Regents should first endorse the requirement. Below is the text of the…

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Needs Improvement

Byuclafaculty

For many years, California had an agency known as CPEC, the California Postsecondary Education Commission.  CPEC was supposed to coordinate the three public segments of higher ed with the private higher ed institutions.  It was a successor to an earlier agency connected with the 1960 Master Plan.  CPEC basically gathered data on higher ed, wrote reports, etc.  However, in 2011, Governor Brown zeroed out the CPEC budget with a line-item veto.  All that remains is a website:http://www.cpec.ca.gov/ CPEC was run by a commission consisting of political appointees and members of public higher ed governing boards – for UC, the Regents…

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Follow Up on the Steinberg Platform

Byuclafaculty

A prior post on this blog referred to the recent legislative hearing on California Senate president Darrell Steinberg’s bill that would create a “platform” for various online courses that could be taken for college credit.  At the hearing, he offered amendments to the original bill (SB 520) and was asked to come back with the written versions. The amended bill can be read below: But are you ready for the platform? Update: Don’t tell Steinberg:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/02/survey-finds-presidents-are-skeptical-moocs Update: Anyway, don’t tell Steinberg unless you are sure it is him:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-online-cheating-20130502,0,795806,full.story