UCLA

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No Parking (On the Sidewalk) Around UCLA

Byuclafaculty

From the LA Times today: After years of warnings, debate and delays, Los Angeles officials this week began ticketing the cars of drivers who “apron park” on the streets of Westwood, a move critics say will create a parking crisis around the UCLA campus. For decades, Westwood residents — many of them UCLA students — have packed their cars into driveways in such a way that they block sidewalks and spill out into the street. They argue that the makeshift, but illegal, practice is the only way to deal with a critical lack of parking around the campus and in…

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Better Learning Through Chemistry?

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly is not sure this is exactly what those pushing for more online education at UC envisioned. The Daily Bruin today carries a story about Chemistry 14D. Students receive credits for putting together videos that communicate principles of the course. Full story at http://www.dailybruin.com/index.php/article/2011/06/extra_credit_music_videos_make_chemistry_14d_more_basic An example is below. Click on cc (closed captions) to see the words.

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UCLA History: Moving Bonds

Byuclafaculty

From the UCLA History Project comes this tale of an LA City bond measure approved by voters in 1925 that enabled UCLA to move from its Vermont Avenue campus to Westwood. New media, record voter turnout and engaged young voters – these were the stories that riveted citizens on May 5, 1925. The biggest issue for Bruins was Proposition 2, a city bond measure that would raise about 70% of the funds needed to purchase a 200-acre parcel for the Southern Branch of the University of California. Students and young alumni joined together to conduct a colorful and noisy campaign….

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UCLA Extension and Steve Poizner (Remember Him?) Offer Online Ed

Byuclafaculty

For those whose memory is a bit shaky, Poizner was the state insurance commissioner who lost to Meg Whitman in the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2010. UCLA Extension to offer online courses aimed at boomers (excerpt) Walter Hamilton, LA Times, June 23, 2011 UCLA Extension… is teaming with Encore Career Institute Inc. in Los Gatos, Calif., to teach baby boomers how to reinvent themselves in today’s rapidly evolving job market… The Silicon Valley start-up will offer online coursework based on UCLA Extension classes. It will also give career assessment and job-placement assistance designed for baby boomers, who range in age…

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UCLA to Charge Credit Card Fee to Students

Byuclafaculty

An earlier blog noted that budget pressures are pushing the University to add fees for things that were not previously charged. From California Watch yesterday comes: UCLA students who use credit cards to pay their university bills better brace themselves: The university will start charging a 2.75 percent credit card processing fee this fall. It’s an example of how universities are passing certain costs along to students amid a statewide budget crunch. Administrators say the move allows the university to stop absorbing the cost of processing credit card transactions – fees that credit card companies charge. Transferring that cost to…

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Faculty Center Election Results

Byuclafaculty

The Faculty Center just emailed the results of its recent election. If you did not receive the email, the results are listed below, along with the campaign statements of the winning candidates. These are the individuals that will have to deal with the UCLA administration with regard to the hotel/conference center issue. The Election Committee has completed the task of counting the ballots and the following candidates have been elected to served on the 2011-12 Faculty Center Board of Governors President-elect: Joseph NagyTreasurer: Lawrence Kruger Members-at-large: Charles Berst, Laura Lake, R. Michael Rich Candidate Statements:President-electJoseph Nagy, Professor of English I’ve…

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Straws in the Fiscal Winds: State and Campus

Byuclafaculty

Various straws in the state and UCLA budgetary winds today. The controversy over whether legislators will get paid after having passed a budget by the constitutional deadline which was then vetoed remains. Politicos are waiting state controller John Chiang’s decision on whether the vetoed budget was “balance” by some definition. Whatever he decides seems likely to be litigated. No one who has been state controller has ever said that his/her sole political ambition since age 4 has been to be state controller. I would venture to say that all of them would like to “advance” to some other office eventually….