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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Anyone responsible? Anyone accountable?

UCOP and the Regents are in conflict with the governor and the legislature over the tuition/state funding proposal approved by the Regents at their November meeting.  The essence of the proposal is that UC needs more money and either the added funding comes from tuition or a state allocation.  As a result, UC is especially vulnerable to any hint that money is not being spent appropriately.  UC, as it happens, is also under a legislative mandate to produce more detailed data on how it spends its funding.  Any slip-up in responding tends to undermine the tuition/state funding proposal. 

It appears there has been a slip-up (actually a repeat slip-up), Big Time:

Missing its own deadlines, the University of California is now more than two months behind in disclosing to the state Legislature and the Department of Finance details of its expenses.  The 10-campus university system first failed to meet an Oct. 1 deadline. It then submitted a seven-page preliminary account on Oct. 31 while requesting an additional six weeks to complete a final report. Those six weeks expired on Dec. 11... UC spokesperson Dianne Klein didn’t say whether the  report would be completed this week, but said the university is “in close contact with [the Dept. of Finance] and we’re all on the same page …  we’re doing it as quickly as we can, and of course accuracy is key here.”  State law requires California’s two public university systems, UC and the California State University, to biennially report on “the total costs of education at the university on a system-wide and campus-by-campus basis,” according to a 2013 bill, AB 94...

Full story at http://capitolweekly.net/uc-boots-deadlines-spending-details/

So, will anyone at UCOP be held accountable for the double slip-up? For undermining UC prez Napolitano's negotiation with the powers-that-be in the state?  Yours truly has doubts.  But, on the positive side, he does have a modest proposal for dance music at the UCOP Christmas party:

 

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