UCOP

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Why the Resignation?

Byuclafaculty

They don’t seem to be looking in the same direction. President Yudof resigned shortly after last week’s Regents meeting.  Undoubtedly, the resignation was planned earlier so nothing that specifically happened at the meeting could have been the triggering event.  The official press release mentioned health, family, etc., obliquely. While the Regents meeting was not the trigger, I would guess that what happened at the meeting was no surprise and could have been anticipated by anyone who heard or attended prior meetings.  The governor wants to take a bigger role than have prior governors.  That’s fine by itself, but the question…

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He said/she said official rebuttal misses the big issue on the Grand Hotel

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post noted an op ed in the Daily Bruin by Laura Lake on the grand hotel project slated to occupy a location roughly across from Ackerman where a parking structure now sits.  A rebuttal op ed ran yesterday by Steve Olsen, UCLA’s chief financial officer (and a very capable individual).  Here is an excerpt: The Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference and Guest Center will become a reality at UCLA in 2016 thanks to a generous gift from two alumni who share UCLA’s vision of creating a place where academics from all across the world can gather to share…

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Lessons from NYU for Murphy Hall, UCOP, and the Regents to Ponder

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has an interesting and lengthy article on a pending NYU faculty vote of no-confidence in that university’s president which relates to a construction project of the university.  We have reported in this blog about the large capital project agenda that is routinely approved by the Board of Regents for UC campuses without real independent oversight capability on the part of the Board.  Perhaps there are lessons from NYU to be learned.  The recent extended brouhaha about the UC logo – clearly a minor issue compared to the NYU matter – suggests that folks in Murphy Hall,…

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UC-R Students’ Tuition Plan: Media Coverage But Lack of UC Enthusiasm

Byuclafaculty

UC administrator?  UC Regent? Blog readers may recall that some UC-Riverside students came up with a proposal to have “free” tuition at UC in exchange for a tax on graduates’ future incomes.  This idea has actually been around for some time but more typically at the federal level, i.e., a program involving all universities.  There are a variety of issues such as the lack of a cash flow immediately until the future graduates begin being taxed.  If such a plan were done only for one university system in one state, there are enforcement issues.  How would the tax be collected…

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Swaps as Flops?

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Passing Proposition 30 prevented hundreds of millions of dollars in near-term cuts to the University of California, a laboratory of innovation that fuels our state’s economy. But now a large part of that lifeline might be squandered in payments to Wall Street banks, according to a report released Tuesday by researchers at UC Berkeley. Over the last decade, the UC Board of Regents has engaged in risky deals with Wall Street banks called interest rate swaps. Banks sold swaps to the university and other public institutions as insurance against rising interest rates on variable rate bonds. Under a swap agreement, borrowers…

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UCOP’s Equalization Plan Will Likely Have the Opposite Effect in the Long Run

Byuclafaculty

…and the folks at UCOP probably know it. The Daily Bruin is running a story about UCOP’s “rebenching” plan designed to equalize the payment per undergraduate each campus receives.  Rebenching is to be phased in over time. Ostensibly, nothing is being taken away.  UCLA currently gets more than the average.  So in the future it will get lower increments.  Of course, that is a take-away. So what will be the likely outcome?  Despite the fact that the Regents and UCOP are officially against campus-set tuition differentials, differential tuition is what is more likely to happen under the plan.  UCLA is…

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Note: Not everyone loves us

Byuclafaculty

The conservative/libertarian City Journal complains about a UC-San Diego diversity executive appointment in its latest issue (and about the Regents’ endorsement of Prop 30). Excerpts: The University of California, San Diego has done it again. Last year, it announced the creation of a new diversity sinecure: a vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion. Campus leaders established this post even as state budget cuts resulted in the loss of star scientists to competing universities, as humanities classes and degree programs were eliminated to save money, and as tuition continued its nearly 75 percent, five-year rise. The new vice chancellorship was wildly…

UCOP Report on Handling UC Protests Now Available

Byuclafaculty

Executive Summary (Scroll down for link to full report) After physical conflict erupted between police and protesters during demonstrations at UC Berkeley and UC Davis in November 2011, University President Mark G. Yudof asked Vice President and General Counsel Charles F. Robinson and Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher F. Edley, Jr. to review existing policies and practices regarding the University’s response to demonstrations and civil disobedience.  This review was not intended as a fact-finding investigation into the November 2011 protests, or into any other particular incident.  Other reviews have been tasked with that objective.  Rather, this review was aimed at…

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Talk to the Legislature

Byuclafaculty

If UCOP wants to keep its Regents-enacted pension system modifications from being overridden by some statewide legislative action, it will have to talk with the legislative leaders – very, very soon it appears – and not just the governor.  From the San Jose Mercury-News: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said Monday that legislative Democrats will deliver on “comprehensive” pension reform over the next four weeks, even if their labor allies don’t like it. “Will it cause some discomfort and unhappiness? Yes. Do you sometimes disagree with your allies and friends to do what you think is the right thing?…

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Playing Catch-Up on the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

As prior posts on this blog have noted, there are all kinds of last-minute developments going on regarding the state budget that affect UC including a tuition freeze in exchange for more funding – conditioned on voter approval in November of the governor’s tax initiative. While these developments were occurring, nothing seemed to be emanating from UCOP concerning what these changes in the budget might mean, what view UCOP had of them, etc.  As of this writing, there is still nothing on the UCOP website about the budget changes. However, a letter from President Yudof to the Regents began circulating…