UCOP

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What Ever Happened to the Campus Climate Survey?

Byuclafaculty

The Chronicle of Higher Ed published the chart above back in January based on national freshmen reports about the neighborhoods from which they came. [http://chronicle.com/article/BackgroundsBeliefs-of/136771] The data were gathered by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute (HERI).  [Click on the chart to enlarge and clarify.]  It was around that time that UCOP sponsored a “campus climate” survey of all the campuses.  The survey had been announced with great fanfare after various racial incidents: http://www.ucop.edu/newsroom/newswire/img/16/16489629294e7b6333135a8.pdf.  As we have pointed out on this blog from time to time, there is no sign of any results from that survey as yet despite the considerable…

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Less of a There in Oakland?

Byuclafaculty

You may have missed the op ed by Prof. David Myers, chair of the UCLA History Dept. in yesterday’s LA Times.  In it, he took note of the imminent departure of UC president Yudof to call for a substantial scaling back of UC’s headquarters operation in Oakland and more campus-level autonomy.  He also called for local boards of oversight for the resulting more-autonomous campuses.  Excerpt: As the University of California regents get down to the hard work of recruiting a new president before Mark G. Yudof retires in August, they might consider an even bolder move: a dramatic downsizing of…

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The official response

Byuclafaculty

If you are wondering about the official UC response to the governor’s May Revise budget proposal, here it is:  Patrick Lenz, the University of California system’s vice president for budget and capital resources:   With this proposal, the governor is continuing his multi-year funding commitment to increase the University of California by 5 percent in the 2013-14 fiscal year and then 5 percent, 4 percent, and 4 percent in the subsequent fiscal years. In addition, the administration is continuing its support for UC restructuring debt to achieve $80 million in annual savings. Those savings will provide not only the additional…

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The Candidate

Byuclafaculty

As readers of this blog will know, UC is looking for a new president to replace Mark Yudof who is resigning in August.  What you may not know is that there is talk in university circles that the next president should be someone atypical with political skills rather than an academic. Such thinking characterizes not only the UC search but similar searches at other public universities.  An example is columnist suggestion that UC should choose Gray Davis: …(D)oesn’t this sound like a job for Gray Davis? Say what you want about California’s only recalled governor, but he knows politics and…

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Things to Come?

Byuclafaculty

Just a note to whoever is in charge that we are waiting to see the results of the campus climate survey taken last winter.  The survey was sponsored by UCOP in response to Regental concerns relating to certain campus-level incidents.  Results are supposed to be available “sometime in spring 2013” according to http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28359.  At the time the survey was under consideration, the UCLA faculty welfare committee raised some concerns about response rates and response bias so we will assume those issues will be addressed in the report on the survey results. The rumored cost of the survey informally conveyed to…

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Nobody here

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times today carries an article about the search for a new UC president to replace Mark Yudof who is resigning in August. It’s a slam on the current crop of UC campus chancellors and UCOP administrators since apparently the Regents think they have no feasible inside candidates. …The search is secretive; officials say the selection process is a confidential personnel matter. Leading the effort is a committee of 10 UC regents, including Gov. Jerry Brown and student and alumni representatives. Its members declined to comment and so did the executive search firm—Isaacson, Miller. Matthew Haney, executive director of…

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Help Wanted

Byuclafaculty

SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER THE SELECTION OF A PRESIDENT, March 14, 2013 TO THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA The Committee presents the following from its meeting of March 13, 2013 CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP The President of the University of California must be a visionary leader with the judgment, creativity, and courage to enhance the quality and reputation of the University as one of the preeminent public research universities in the world. The President represents the University in its role as an international, national, and state exemplar in the education policy arena….

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A Modest Proposal from Joe Mathews

Byuclafaculty

…The University of California badly needs a president who knows how to fight. For 25 years, the UC has been playing nice and doing the right thing. And that’s gotten the system nowhere. The UC opted to be responsible and not buy the kind of Prop 98-style protection that the K-14 system bought. The result: UC made itself easy to cut. The UC made a series of compacts with governors on cuts and spending – only to see those cuts exceed what was agreed to. And more recently, the UC has stood back, meekly, as the governor and legislators have…

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And here’s something you probably didn’t know…

Byuclafaculty

The Regents are meeting today.  Not all of them.  However, the Committee on Investments is meeting at 1:30 pm. On its agenda is possible changed guidance for investment of the UC pension plan portfolio.  My impression is that there has not been much Academic Senate involvement in the process of coming up with recommendations, although we have some well-known financial experts on the faculty.  You can find the Committee’s agenda and background documents at: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb13/invest.pdf and particularly http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb13/i2.pdf http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb13/i2attach2.pdf http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/feb13/i2attach1.pdf Yours truly particularly liked the last link just above which says the new investment policy is slated to go into…

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Rebenching: If you equalize, UCLA gets less than otherwise

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has a long piece on UC’s “rebenching” approach which would change the formula by which UC funding is allocated to the various campuses.  As the article notes, some of the disparate funding that tends to favor older campuses such as UCLA is due to the graduate/undergraduate mix.  But even if you adjust for that effect, the older campuses get more.  That fact means that if you equalize, in the end the older campuses will get less than otherwise.  You can phase it in.  But the logic is unavoidable.  Phasing it in just means that the older…