No Surprise: It Ain't Here

Duffy wasn't there.

The Regents will meet next Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. Yours truly will - as usual - provide audio recordings of the sessions since the Regents "archive" them only for one year.  Also as usual, there will likely be a lag since he has other obligations during those dates. 

So far, yours truly is reminded of an old radio show, Duffy's Tavern (later moved to TV when television came along), that started with a message that "Duffy ain't here."  [Link below.]  In fact, Duffy never was there, although he was always present as a background to the show so his formal absence was really no surprise to regular listeners.

At the moment, news commentary deals with the non-surprising info on what ain't on the agenda, namely some kind of repeal of the tuition/state funding budget proposal that challenges the governor's budget plans for UC. See http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_27678927/uc-tuition-hike-reversal-not-regents-agenda.  But that's no surprise.

So what is in the agenda?  The full agenda is at http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/agendas/mar15.html.  But here are two highlights:

From the agenda of the Long Range Planning Committee, 3/18/15:

At the January 2015 meeting, the Board voted to establish a Select Advisory Committee on the Cost Structure of the University, charged with developing and evaluating proposals to reduce the University’s cost structure while improving access, quality, and outcomes. The Select Advisory Committee has held two meetings , in late January and late February. These meetings included experts from both within and outside the University and produced wide-ranging discussion. President Napolitano and Governor Brown will provide an update on the select Advisory Committee’s work.

Source: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar15/lrp1.pdf

The agenda of the Committee on Educational Policy of 3/18/15 includes a lengthy dissertation on the history of undergraduate education at the request of Regent Kieffer:

The goal of the presentation is to provide broad context for current debates over how to structure undergraduate education at the University of California within the context of the California Master Plan for Higher Education.

Source: http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar15/e1.pdf

Meanwhile, you know what ain't there, but is in the background: