UCLA

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The Economist Takes On California

Byuclafaculty

The Economist magazine – from which the photo on the left derives – offers its solution to California’s governance and budgetary woes this week. Basically, it says there is too much direct democracy – ballot initiatives, etc. A conference this evening at UCLA – on which yours truly is a panelist – is devoted to the Economist’s proposition (pun definitely intended!). See our earlier post for details at: http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/04/andreas-kluth-of-economist-leads-ucla.html Links to the Economist’s California report are at http://www.economist.com/node/18586520 and http://www.economist.com/node/18563638

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Time Warp

Byuclafaculty

This is odd. UCLA produced a strategic plan dated January 6, 2010. In that report on page 10, it refers to a conference center. The word “residential” is not used and, of course, “hotel” is not used. The text on page 10 reads: Conference Center: A conference center at UCLA could serve three purposes: support academic programs by offering a convenient venue for scholarly programs and interaction, serve as a gateway for the Los Angeles Community into UCLA, and establish UCLA as a meeting point for international academic conferences and programs. We should conduct a feasibility study for a conference…

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Andreas Kluth of The Economist Leads UCLA Roundtable Discussion on California Dysfunction: April 26

Byuclafaculty

The event below coming up on Tuesday may be of interest to those concerned with the California budget crisis and general Sacramento dysfunction: Andreas Kluth of The Economist Leads UCLA Roundtable Discussion California—few regions in the world have caught the popular imagination of so many. From the glitz of Hollywood to the energy and innovation of Silicon Valley, from the weather to the wine, California is envied around the globe. Yet despite the state’s immense advantages, its finances are in deep trouble. For the past few years California has been in a budget and governance crisis, reaching its nadir in…

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Empires

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly doubts that most faculty are aware of the scale of the business enterprises that operate at UCLA. Below you can take a look at the 2008 strategic plan for UCLA Housing and Hospitality. Among other things, on page 9 you will find that the hotel/conference center that was slated to replace the Faculty Center is not so recent. It was first surfaced to faculty about a year ago. But it goes back at least to 2008-09. Open publication – Free publishing – More hospitality These guys are hard to resist!

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Fiefdoms

Byuclafaculty

We all know about the body parts scandal at UCLA. Then there was the scrambled eggs/fertility scandal at UC-Irvine. Now comes word that a former UC-Davis official will be sentenced in June for embezzlement and related offenses. In that case, the head of the Campus Violence Prevention Program for 16 years began to receive attention when a newspaper reported that she had apparently submitted false numbers on campus violence to the feds. That investigation turned up further info that she had a problem with travel reimbursement and had to pay back some money to the university. One would think alarm…

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Time to Admit

Byuclafaculty

Data are now out on UC freshmen admissions for fall 2011. Some interesting numbers are available, particularly regarding UCLA. UCLA had the lowest admission rate for fall 2011 (25.3%) among freshmen applicants of any UC campus. It got more applications for freshmen admission than any other campus. Of the 106,186 applicants to UC, 57.9% applied to UCLA. (Applicants can apply to more than one campus.) The number admitted to UCLA in percentage terms over the past one or two years grew faster than any other campus (19.5%; 28.7%). Berkeley had the lowest proportion of California admits of any UC campus…

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Careless Words: An Internet Reminder

Byuclafaculty

In yet another lesson in being-careful-about-what-you-say-on-the-Internet, UCLA Law School Prof. Stephen Bainbridge’s blog complaint about service he didn’t get from FedEx produced the following from the Daily Bruin last Friday: UCLA law students are reacting with frustration to the law school dean’s response to a professor’s xenophobic blog posts, according to a student law organization. The post, made by Stephen Bainbridge, professor of corporate law, began with complaints about FedEx Express Office online services. Bainbridge described the customer service representative he spoke with as a “moron with an impenetrable accent,” and asked, “What third world shithole do they have him…