UCOP seems to have mounted a PR campaign through a website at:
http://www.onwardcalifornia.com/
I noticed it as a banner ad on the LA Times website. It loads rather slowly - or at least it did when I clicked on it - so maybe some better web design might be in order. The actual message is rather vague. Included is a YouTube video featuring presumably high school seniors signing on to UC websites and finding out that they were admitted. The video was uploaded last Wednesday so I assume this campaign is relatively new. The uploader left the "comment" option open and the first comment I saw was - not surprisingly - "what about the one's [sic] who got rejected -_-." (Maybe someone should turn off the comment option.)
Under a link on the page entitled "partner," there is a message that says:
"Onward California aims to partner with California-friendly
businesses in 2012, building a five-year, multimillion dollar commitment to
support undergraduate education. With the help of community conscious partners,
the California Dream is not only alive — it is nurtured, strengthened and
advanced every day. To find out how your
organization can be part of the great California solution, contact
businesspartnerships@ucop.edu." Exactly what is involved is unclear. Advertising on the site? What?
The YouTube video noted above can be seen below:
UPDATE: A tweet by President Yudof says that the scenes of applicants seeing they were admitted are all self-made:
https://twitter.com/mark_yudof/statuses/215872951071936513
1 comment:
What UC PUniversity of California Robert J Birgeneau resignation welcome, but serious questions remain. Cal. Chancellor & Provost: recruit affluent born abroad foreign and affluent out of state $50,600 tuition applicants who displace instate Californians; pay ex-politician $300,000 for lectures; double instate tuition - on all-in-cost Cal. is the most expensive public university, more expensive than Harvard; spend $7,000,000 + (prominent East Coast university accomplishes same 0 cost) for Organization Excellence (OE) consultants but stop examination of Chancellor, senior management operations for inefficiencies; Cal. tuition to return on investment falls below top 10. Chancellor Birgeneau/Provost Breslauer fiscal track record is dismal indeed.
Breslauer/Birgeneau would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving them every dollar requested, & the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense B/B mean. Every year Birgeneau ($450,000 salary) and Provost Breslauer ($306,000) would request a budget increase, the timid UC Regents would agree to it, and the Calif. Senate, Assembly would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, & Birgeneau/Breslauer driven inefficiencies continued to piled up to $150 million +.
Cal’s senior management is either incompetent or culpable. It’s not that Birgeneau/Breslauer were unaware that waste and inefficiencies were accumulating. Faculty & staff raised issues however, when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau/Breslauer engaged expensive OE consultants to tell them what they should have known or been able to find out from the bright, engaged people.
We are sympathetic to the running of higher education with declining state money. However, Chancellor Birgeneau, Provost Breslauer leadership is badly damaging Cal. Good people are loosing their jobs. You never want a crisis to go to waste. Increasing Cal’s budget is not the solution. Birgeneau’s resignation is welcome, but not sufficient, honorably retire Provost Breslauer. Opinions to UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu (The author has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley where he observed the way Cal. senior management work)
R does not report.
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