UC

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Swaps as Flops?

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Passing Proposition 30 prevented hundreds of millions of dollars in near-term cuts to the University of California, a laboratory of innovation that fuels our state’s economy. But now a large part of that lifeline might be squandered in payments to Wall Street banks, according to a report released Tuesday by researchers at UC Berkeley. Over the last decade, the UC Board of Regents has engaged in risky deals with Wall Street banks called interest rate swaps. Banks sold swaps to the university and other public institutions as insurance against rising interest rates on variable rate bonds. Under a swap agreement, borrowers…

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UC and Affirmative Action

Byuclafaculty

The U.S. Supreme Court will be making decisions on affirmative action in higher ed admissions soon.  UC – despite Prop 209 which bans such affirmative action – seems to be caught up in the case indirectly due to research papers and court submissions dealing with the impact of Prop 209.  Inside Higher Ed today points to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper on the impact of 209 on graduation rates of minorities from UC.  It has been contended that affirmative action programs create a kind of mismatch between students and institutions.  The working paper finds that 209, by…

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Veterans’ Day and some UC/UCLA History UCOP might not want raised

Byuclafaculty

ROTC at UCLA’s old Vermont Avenue campus: 1928 Note that UCLA is closed tomorrow although Veterans’ Day is today.  There is a bit of history here.  UC did not always close on Veterans’ Day.  When Gray Davis was governor, however, someone complained about UC being open.  The governor couldn’t order UC to close but the powers-that-be went along with his request to do so.    As yours truly recalls it, the Faculty Welfare committee at UCLA – and possibly others in the Academic Senate – noted that with a ten-week fall quarter, cutting a day out of the term would…

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If X = amount of algebra you learned in high school and 2X = 0, how much algebra did you learn?

Byuclafaculty

A complaint about UC’s view on remedial math as taught in community colleges appeared today in the Sacramento Bee: (excerpt) Community colleges are struggling to address a huge problem: remedial mathematics. In fall 2009, 143,587 California community college students enrolled in remedial math to become eligible for college math, but only 18 percent went on to complete a college math course within three years. Given these results, policymakers are questioning the use of scarce public dollars to “pay for the same education twice.” If students didn’t learn algebra in high school, why are we paying for it again in college?…

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Mitchell Presentation with Slides from Nov. 7 Forum on the Future of UC Funding

Byuclafaculty

Mitchell A post of Nov. 7 on this blog carried the audio (only) of the forum sponsored by the Faculty Association at UCLA on the Future of University of California Funding held that day at the UCLA Faculty Center.Each of the three presenters used slides as part of their talks.  Below you will find two (alternative) links to the slides used by Prof. Daniel J.B. Mitchell along with the coordinated audio for his presentation.  Use whichever works best for your connection.Note: The Anderson presentation is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/11/robert-andersons-presentation-on-future.htmlThe audio of the entire event is at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/11/audio-available-for-todays-ucla-faculty.html

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Audio Available for Today’s UCLA Faculty Assn. Forum on the Future of UC Funding

Byuclafaculty

At today’s noontime forum on the Future Funding of UC, Steve Lippman (upper left) opened the event.  Karen Orren (center top) was the moderator.  Christopher Newfield (upper right) made the opening  presentation.  Robert Anderson (lower left) followed Newfield.  Daniel Mitchell (center bottom) followed Anderson.  The discussant was Sylvia Hurtado (lower right).  After the discussant, there was a period of questions and answers from the audience.  In order to make the event accessible to those who could not attend, an audio recording of the event (about one hour and 34 minutes) can be heard at the link below: We will provide…

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Times are changing and so is the outlook for UC’s future funding. Attend the Nov. 7 Forum!

Byuclafaculty

UCLA in 1939   SPEAKERS’ FORUM ON ALTERNATIVE FUNDING MODELS FOR UC DATE: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012TIME: Noon-1:30 pm LOCATION: Faculty Center, California RoomLUNCH: Complimentary Sandwiches and Beverages will be served.RSVP: ucfa@earthlink.net so we can get an accurate food count.  (Cut and paste this address into your email.  You can’t do it from here.)APRIL 1982: ANCIENT CALIFORNIA HISTORY “The interconnected complications surrounding the upcoming state budget for 1982-83 defy comprehension by most state legislators let alone the public at large… Governor Jerry Brown is projecting a $3 to $4 Billion shortfall in revenues for 1982-83. This is against the Governor’s $2.1 Billion estimate in his January…

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Everyone loves recycling except maybe not for tuition

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has a lengthy piece about an apparent revolt in Iowa against the idea of recycling tuition at public universities from higher income students to lower income. As readers of this blog are likely to know, UC has followed such a policy.  Excerpt: Last month, the Board of Regents of the State of Iowa, which oversees the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa, eliminated their policy of earmarking 20 percent of in-state tuition revenue for financial aid purposes…  …(I)t’s easy to see why so many families think they are paying for…

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Some qualifications needed

Byuclafaculty

In an opinion piece today in the Sacramento Bee, columnist Dan Walters slams CSU for its political activities.  An earlier posting on this blog noted that CSU had an official political scorecard that rated members of the state legislature available online indicating how well or poorly they supported CSU goals.  You can find it at:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/10/lawsuit-filed-against-csu-campus-over.html UC gets dragged into his column at various points so some comments are in order. Below are some excerpts in italics:==The California State University system has traditionally been the steady workhorse of California higher education, generating the engineers, teachers, accountants and middle-managers that any society…

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Campus Climate Survey is Coming

Byuclafaculty

Some readers may remember that after a series of incidents aimed at minority students on various campuses, including UCLA, the UC president was pressed by the Regents to “do something.” (Some readers will recall the “Asians in the library” incident at UCLA.)  What emerged was an elaborate all-campus survey of “campus climate.” In late December and early January, it will be coming to UCLA. There have been reservations raised about the participation rate and biases in participation caused by what appears to be a rather lengthy survey. The campus faculty welfare committee at UCLA, for example, raised such issues.  Apparently,…