UC

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Good Idea: Take a Risk

Byuclafaculty

The website of the San Francisco Chronicle today is running a story today about a Silicon Valley forum in which California first lady Anne Gust Brown and new UC president Janet Napolitano argued that women should take more risks in public life. In earlier posts, we noted that a recent speech – billed in advance as a major address – by the new prez was largely a dud with no sense of priorities for UC or even key questions that she thinks need further investigation.  So we agree about risk taking.  Our new prez should take a risk at the…

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Possible UC strike

Byuclafaculty

Demonstration in Westwood after previous strike From the LA Times: Members of the union that represents 22,000 service workers and patient care employees at UC campuses and hospitals have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a possible strike in the future if a contract agreement is not reached, officials said Friday. Ninety-six percent of the members of AFSCME 3299 voted to allow union leaders to call a strike if they decide it is necessary. If a strike happens, it would be the second this year and a potentially wider one, possibly affecting the 10 campuses and the five medical centers. In late…

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We’re not the only ones to think the Napolitano speech was a dud

Byuclafaculty

The thing it lacked The Sacramento Bee runs an editorial lamenting the lack of vision in the speech: University of California’s newest president, Janet Napolitano, in her first major speech to Californians had the opportunity to show, in the words of the search committee that selected her, that she could bring “fresh eyes and a new sensibility – not only to UC, but to all of California.”  She fell far short. With no record as a scholar or in campus administration, she had to show that she would bring more than her background as a politician and political appointee to…

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We got a boost. Now we need some answers.

Byuclafaculty

I’ve got the booster.  But what’s for dinner? We noted in past postings that new UC president Janet Napolitano was to give an important address yesterday about her vision of UC.  The address happened.  But her remarks were mainly boosterism.  (So far, UCOP hasn’t put the transcript of the remarks on the web, but yours truly has seen them.)  Greatest public university,  The California dream.  Nobel prize.  Diversity.  The Master Plan.  Etc.  And, yes, there was reference in the speech to DREAM students – that’s what seems to have been the focus of morning news stories.  She said she would…

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UC Brand: Language Lessons to Come?

Byuclafaculty

Here is an oddity.  On the UCOP website, there is a webpage on the “UC Brand.”  You can find it athttp://brand.universityofcalifornia.edu/index.html.  The text is below: The University of Transformation Pioneering. Curious. Vibrant. Thoughtful. Even beautiful. The University of California is located wherever a UC mind is at work. At any given moment, people in the UC community are exploring, creating and advancing our shared experience of life in California and beyond. These guidelines ensure we express these shared values with every communication. In short, this site helps us all “Speak UC.” But as of 6 pm today on that webpage, there…

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You’ll have to wait for Wednesday

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: For her first major public appearance as University of California president, Janet Napolitano will outline her plan for the UC system at a public event in San Francisco on Oct. 30 (Wednesday). Napolitano has said she dedicated the beginning of her term, which started on Sept. 30, to listening and learning. So far in her term, she has largely kept to hosting private meetings with students, administrators and other members of the UC during her quiet and unpublicized visits to UC campuses. She has also given few and brief comments to the media. At the upcoming…

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Disclosure Decision Will Make It More Difficult to Hide Funding for Anti-Pension Initiative

Byuclafaculty

You may recall the brouhaha that developed around secret funding by a group that opposed Proposition 30 (the governor’s tax initiative) and supported Prop 32 (an anti-union initiative).  It became an issue late in that election.  Large fines have now been levied by the California Fair Political Practices Commission.  While this development may seem like old political news, it will be relevant for whatever groups are pushing the anti-pension initiative about which we have been posting and which covers UC.  It will be more difficult – but not impossible – to continue to hide behind the friendly faces of a…

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The Anti-Pension Initiative: What Can UC Do?

Byuclafaculty

The State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee carries a piece on what the political campaign against the anti-pension/anti-retiree health care initiative will likely look like.  Excerpt: Chuck Reed’s public-employee pension initiative is a long way from making it to a statewide vote – money being the biggest hurdle – but labor unions have already started blasting the proposal. The San Jose mayor’s measure would, among other things, change the California Constitution to explicitly allow state and local governments in a fiscal emergency to cut future retirement costs by lowering current employees’ benefits prospectively but leave accrued benefits untouched. Right…

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More on the pension initiative “coordination”

Byuclafaculty

Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker, founders of Campaigns, Inc. You probably have never heard of the couple above, Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, who founded what some regard as the first modern political advertising firm – Campaigns, Inc. – right here in California in the early 1930s.  You may not have heard of the great “EPIC” campaign of 1934 – their first big target.  (They ran the opposition.)  I will leave it to you to read up on the history of all of that which you can find in http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/24/120924fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all  However, a key tactic they developed was distributing information favoring…