UC

| | |

A Political Factoid for Today

Byuclafaculty

Question: Can a UC campus foundation give money to ballot campaigns? If so, has it happened? Answer: The UCLA Foundation has twice given money to campaigns for ballot propositions in the past decade. Both propositions involved money for higher ed, including UC. In 2004, the Foundation gave $57,087 to support Prop 55 – a bond measure for education which narrowly passed. In 2006, it gave $87,550 in support of Prop 1D – also an education bond measure but which passed by a respectable 56.9%. Other UC and CSU foundations have made similar contributions. You can find the contribution information by…

| |

Changing Admissions Standards?

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on the UC-Berkeley affirmative action “bake sale” controversy noted that the issue that sparked that controversy was a bill – now on Gov. Brown’s desk – that would possibly relax the ban on affirmative action in UC student admissions enacted by voters in Prop 209. However, there are other changes in admissions standards underway that have received less attention in the news media. And another bill on the governor’s desk is involved. See below: UC turns career tech ed-friendly (excerpt) 9/30/11, John Fensterwald – Educated Guess A decade ago, 258 career technical education courses counted toward satisfying…

|

NCES: Shrinkage Coming in California High School Grad Pool

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly made the chart above from data contained in a report by the National Center for Educational Statistics. (I was pointed to the report by Inside Higher Ed.) The chart comes from Table 15 of the report. For California, it suggests that the pool of [public school] high school grads in California will shrink in the coming years. I found some anomalies in the data projections elsewhere in the report for California and am not an expert in this area. Of course, for UC, the pool of potential undergrad admits is not limited to California or to public schools….

|

Attention to Pay

Byuclafaculty

There is a proposal for a new negotiated pay system for faculty. Yours truly suggests you pay close attention since it is your pay that is involved. The cover letter indicates that employees (presumably faculty) should be consulted. The proposal is at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/underreview/APM-668SystemwideReviewRequestandmaterials.pdf

|

Report on UC’s Economic Impact on State

Byuclafaculty

At the recent Regents meeting, there was a report on the economic impact of UC on the California economy. Yours truly has some reservations about the regional multiplier approach which is emphasized in the report. The short-term real multiplier to be emphasized, which I thought was not adequately highlighted in the report, is that the state puts about $2.5 billion into UC and gets an enterprise with a budget of around $20 billion. A lot of that budget comes from outside the state, i.e., federal research and other funds. And in the long term, the impact on California’s growth can…

|

Digital Lawsuit Includes UC

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed reports that UC is among various universities being sued for digitizing “orphan books” (books whose copyrights appear to have expired). It provides a link to the plaintiff’s press release: Authors Guild, Australian Society of Authors, Quebec Writers Union Sue Five U.S. Universities: Suit seeks impoundment of unauthorized scans of 7 million books September 12, 2011. This afternoon, we filed suit against HathiTrust, the University of Michigan and four other universities over their storage and use of millions of copyright-protected books. The press release follows: AUTHORS AND AUTHORS’ GROUPS FROM AUSTRALIA, QUEBEC, THE U.K., AND U.S. SUE HATHITRUST,…

|

Getting China Money for Online Ed at UC?

Byuclafaculty

UC investing millions in new cyber studies program Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, September 12, 2011 The University of California will unveil its first top-tier cyber courses in January – 26 online offerings, from global climate change to game theory. At the same time, it’s eyeing China and even American soldiers as potential sources of cash to pay for them… Economically, the online venture is equally experimental. Its most vigorous proponent, UC Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley, expected to raise $6 million for the pilot program, but attracted just $748,000 in private funds. Rather than abandon the effort, UC…

| | |

CPEC Says Goodbye

Byuclafaculty

CPEC – the California Postsecondary Education Commission – is in the process of going out of business, since it was zeroed out in the most recent state budget. As the webshot immediately above indicates, the CPEC website will go dark sometime this month. In the meantime, however, you can still find data on higher ed, such as the chart at the top comparing UC and U of Texas tuition. (You could probably have guessed – without the chart – which has become more expensive in recent years.) Since the website is soon to be toast, some info on CPEC’s closure…

| |

Bad PR for UC

Byuclafaculty

Velma Montoya passed the story below to me. Not the best PR for UC at this point in the budget cycle. Are Professors Picking the Public’s Pockets? Rex Dalton, 8/25/11, Miller-McCune From his arrival in the U.S. some 25 years ago, Tatsuya Suda deftly cut a path to the upper echelons of academic computer research. Fresh from prestigious Kyoto University, he steadily rose to become a tenured professor at the University of California, Irvine, earning a reputation for dynamic theories in computer networking at the dawn of the cell-phone age. He even wed Grammy-winning singer Rita Coolidge. But along this…

| |

LAO Report on Infrastructure Includes Higher Ed and UC

Byuclafaculty

UCLA’s Westwood Campus under construction in 1927 —————————————————— The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued a report on state spending on infrastructure. Most infrastructure spending goes for programs other than higher ed such as K-12 and transportation. However, the higher ed segment of the report is reproduced below. Some portions of the text are in bold indicating they are of special interest. Note: There are some charts in the original that are not reproduced below. Go to the link at the bottom of this item to see the whole report including the charts. Higher Education California’s public higher education system…