UCOP

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Pro and Con

Byuclafaculty

In a TV interview airing today, Assembly Speaker John Pérez managed to be both pro and con the appointment of Janet Napolitano as the new president of UC.  He was against the search process which he said was not open enough.  On the other hand, due to what he said was luck despite the bad process, UC has ended up with an “incredibly talented” executive.  The fact that she has a political background, Pérez said, didn’t have anything to do with regental concerns about interventions by the governor and legislature in UC affairs.  He said he had had concerns about…

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Listen to the Afternoon Regents Meeting of July 18, 2013 [UC prez appointment]

Byuclafaculty

We continue to provide alternative audio archiving of Regents meetings due to the regental policy of maintaining archives for only one year.  As noted in the earlier post of the morning session, you can find this policy at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/videos.html.  The statement there reads: Video Archives of Regents Meetings: 2013Video files for past open session meetings of The University of California Regents and its Committees are available for one year after the dates of the meetings. Below is the official agenda for the afternoon session: Agenda, Thursday afternoon, July 18 [Approval of Janet Napolitano as new UC president] 1:00 pm Special…

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Positive Spin for UC Prez Nominee

Byuclafaculty

As prior posts have noted, there is a lot in the news media about questions being raised about the nominee for UC president, Janet Napolitano.  Now, with the nomination coming up in tomorrow’s meeting, there is spin in the news media to put the nomination in a positive light.  From the San Jose Mercury-News: If Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is appointed UC president on Thursday, Californians will be getting more than just a big-name politician who has wrangled unwieldy bureaucracies and responded to natural disasters, supporters say.Those who have known Napolitano since her undergraduate days at Santa Clara University…

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Bad Timing for UC Prez Nominee?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today is running a lengthy story about how former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels – now president of Purdue – intervened to block use of a history book in public higher ed institutions in his state.  Excerpt below: Mitch Daniels, as an unconventional choice to become Purdue University’s president, has repeatedly pledged his strong commitment to academic freedom. And many professors — including some who had questioned the wisdom of appointing a governor as university president — have given him high marks for the start of his work at Purdue. But on Monday, the Associated Press published an article based on…

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One columnist wants the new UC prez to give the state’s politicos a tough going over

Byuclafaculty

Most of the commentary about the nomination of Janet Napolitano as the new UC president has been about the candidate or the selection process.  Joe Mathews in contrast thinks she should use her homeland security background to be tough with the state’s political establishment and has this advice for her: …Your focus needs to be changing the reality that the UC has a very minority partner – the state government, which provides only a fraction of its resources – that has majority authority over the system. You need to present the legislature with a stark choice. Either ramp up public…

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More Scanning of Napolitano’s Appointment

Byuclafaculty

The nomination of Janet Napolitano – former head of Homeland Security and thus TSA and immigration – to be the new UC president will probably get a reasonably full going over at the Regents this week – although yours truly thinks the fix is in as far as confirming the appointment goes.  Chancellor Block evidently agrees with that assessment.  From the Daily Bruin today: …Several public figures such as President Barack Obama, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Jerry Brown and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block expressed their congratulations and support Friday following Napolitano’s nomination……

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The Views Expressed

Byuclafaculty

The story of the new UC prez continues to attract national attention: Christian Science Monitorquotes Bob Powell who makes a bit more of a qualified statement than reported elsewhere: Robert Powell, a chemical engineering professor at UC Davis who heads the system-wide academic senate, said Napolitano will … need to spend time getting to know the university by meeting with students and professors and touring campuses. “She needs to get out to the campuses – meet with faculty, meet with staff, look and see what these places are like and how students live here,” Powell said. Full story at http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0713/Can-Janet-Napolitano-staunch-University-of-California-s-financial-struggles  …

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Brief Welcome

Byuclafaculty

Governor Brown, who sometimes has much to say about UC matters, seems short on words concerning the appointment of the new UC president – a former governor and fellow Democrat:Governor Brown Issues Statement on Nomination of New UC President7-12-2013 SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued the following statement on the nomination of Secretary Janet Napolitano as president of the University of California: “Secretary Napolitano has the strength of character and an outsider’s mind that will well serve the students and faculty. It will be exciting to work with her.” Source: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18140 Everyone else had a lot to say: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/rapid-response-homeland-security-secretary-to-head-uc-system.html…

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New UC President (political expertise rather than academic)

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times has a report on its website this morning on the new UC president nominee: Janet Napolitano, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic, the Times has learned. Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history.  Napolitano’s nomination by a committee of UC regents came after a secretive process that insiders…

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The Trail from Riverside to Oregon

Byuclafaculty

Earlier posts on this blog have noted an idea developed by some UC-Riverside students to make tuition free in exchange for a percentage of future student earnings.  (Actually, the idea has been around for a long time.)  In any event, although UCOP is supposedly studying the proposal, it seems to have found its way to Oregon where it is being considered in the legislature.  From Inside Higher Ed today:  …The Oregon plan is similar to, and has its origins in, one proposed by students at the University of California at [sic] Riverside that made headlines last year. Since last winter,…