Thursday, April 30, 2015
In case you haven't noticed...
UCLA Now Getting Peeved
From the San Francisco Chronicle: The former head of the California Public Utilities Commission pressured two Southern California utilities last year to make donations to a school at UCLA where he then landed a post on an advisory board, documents revealed Wednesday show. The panel’s then-president, Michael Peevey, urged that Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. donate the money as part of a deal to shut down their jointly owned San Onofre nuclear power plant, which had been offline for more than a year because of steam generator problems, according to documents that Edison made public... In September 2014, when the utilities commission took up the San Onofre shutdown deal, (PUC member Mike) Florio proposed that it include $25 million from Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric for greenhouse gas research at UC Berkeley over five years. Before the panel approved the deal, commissioners amended it to give the money to UCLA.That same month, Peevey joined the the advisory board for the UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy’s Center for Innovation. E-mails released earlier this year show that in December 2013, Peevey had mentioned to a university official the possibility that utility money could be directed to UCLA’s Center for Sustainable Communities, which is part of the Luskin School...
Full story at http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/New-questions-about-ex-CPUC-president-s-deals-6232376.php?t=9120504dc400af33be&cmpid=twitter-premium
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Note: Earlier related posts on this matter:
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/04/scandals-have-way-of-evolving.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-story-with-legs.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-not-so-happy-ending-to-this-program.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/03/no-dough-dinner.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/02/gas-pains-at-berkeley-anyone-embarrassed.html
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Does someone need to take con-troll?
At this year’s graduation ceremony, the class of 2015 will get the chance to learn an important lesson: In the real world, success is measured in bills, not principles. The keynote speaker for UCLA’s commencement ceremony has just been announced as Nathan Myhrvold. He is the cofounder of Intellectual Ventures, the worlds biggest “patent troll,” a company that exploits the loopholes in the patent-granting system by collecting patents and suing other companies, both big and small, hoping to get a piece of their revenue...
Full op ed at http://dailybruin.com/2015/04/28/ara-shirinian-students-need-a-voice-in-commencement-speaker-decisions-2/
A troll? They KID you not:
We guess someone has decided that the price is right
...USC’s president, C.L. Max Nikias...takes [a] contrarian view of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, a free education movement that is taking root at many prominent colleges and universities. USC doesn’t do MOOCs. It offers plenty of online education, especially at the graduate level, but for a price. “That’s our business model,” he said. Nikias said giving away what the university provides would be counterproductive. “We’re the ones who admit students, and we’re the ones who are going to issue degrees,” he said. “At the end of the day, I feel that without our academic brand, we’re nothing. Literally nothing.”...
See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/02/no-moocs-at-usc.html
So what do we make of a new online MBA program at USC reported in Inside Higher Ed? Since they're not going to give away the courses, apparently they must figure that the price is right:
The University of Southern California's new online M.B.A.
program is the latest entry in a renaissance for such degree offerings, a
development program directors say has been made possible by advances in
technology that connect students and professors online. The USC Marshall School of Business will launch its program
this fall, marking the first time the university has offered the degree
at a distance. Students in the 21-month program, which is split into
five semesters, will tackle one course of three to four topics at a
time, covering much of the required readings and assignments at their
own pace but checking in with classmates and professors during weekly
live online sessions. Unlike programs at other universities, which
include regular campus visits, USC’s online students will only come to
campus once...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/29/technological-advances-spur-creation-new-online-mba-programs
If the price is right, it sounds like fun!
Brookings "Value Added" Data
 |
| Brookings |
The Brookings Institution has come out with a “value added”
ranking of myriad 4-year and 2-year colleges.
Essentially, it is an attempt to rank the extra pay and other attributes
graduates receive adjusted for student and college characteristics. Some of the
dependent variables related to things like loan repayment and completion rates.
There is a measure based on “mid-career” (10-year experience) earnings reported
by grads to an online source. For 4-year schools, mid-career earnings refer
only to grads who stopped their educations at the bachelor degree level. Another measure
involves how the school moved grads into particular occupations that may (or
may not) pay well. It uses national average pay by occupation (including pay due
to degrees beyond the bachelor level).
Below are the value added scores (percent above predicted)
for the various UC campuses for mid-career earnings (all alumni) and occupation,
respectively.
UC-Berkeley 42% 8%
UCLA 26% 7%
UC-Davis 32% 7%
UC-San Diego 29% 7%
UC-Irvine 27% 7%
UC-Santa Barbara 31% 5%
UC-Riverside 22%
3%
UC-Santa Cruz 22%
7%
UC-Merced na
0%
For comparison:
USC 25% 5%
Stanford 53% 12%
Cal States:
Long Beach
20% 3%
Northridge
13% 5%
Full
Brookings report: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2015/04/29-college-value-add/bmpp_collegevalueadded.pdf
Brookings
data: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2015/04/29-college-value-add/brookings-college-value-added-measures-april-21-2015.xlsx
General
background: http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/04/29-beyond-college-rankings-rothwell-kulkarni
You’ll
notice that a) the data are noisy and b) hard to interpret. That’s probably
just as well. Although the authors say the data are useful for deciding on
where to go to college, they are probably more useful for making broad
generalizations about the economics of higher education than evaluating one
school against another. The authors in fact provide such generalizations:
Five college quality factors seem to be key to how well students perform economically
in the years after college:
Curriculum
value: The amount earned by people who hold degrees in a
field offered by the college;
Alumni skills: The average labor market value of skills listed on resumes;
STEM orientation: The share of graduates prepared to work in STEM occupations;
Completion rates: The share earning their degrees within four years for a two-year college and eight years for a four-year college;
Student aid: The average financial support offered by the institution.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The more things change...
 |
| Would Boss Tweed feel at home at UCLA? |
Dozens of documents leaked on Facebook Monday allege that members of the undergraduate student government LET’S ACT! slate illegally spent student fee funds on its past two campaigns, sold alcohol and marijuana to raise campaign revenue and solicited money from student groups in return for representation in the slate. The documents, released hours after campaigning began for this year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council election, also alleged= that LET’S ACT! plotted to take control over departments in the Community Programs Office, which houses some student retention and access programs. LET’S ACT! campaign manager Kristine de los Santos denies the slate sold marijuana and alcohol and held any parties, but did not deny that some of the files originated from LET’S ACT! documents. The second-year political science student said she thinks whoever uploaded the files copied and pasted LET’S ACT! documents and then edited them...
Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2015/04/27/leaked-documents-allege-illegal-campaign-fundraising-by-lets-act/
The undergraduate student government Judicial Board ruled Monday that the Bruins United slate violated online campaigning rules last week, after the slate appealed an Election Board sanction.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council Election Board sanctioned Bruins United and LET’S ACT! candidates on April 17 for posting cover photos it considered promotional on Facebook earlier in the week. The Bruins United photos featured candidates with facts about them and included one of the slate’s commonly used slogans, “Be You,” before online campaigning was scheduled to begin. The sanction blocked the slates from online campaigning for two days...
Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2015/04/27/judicial-board-rules-against-bruins-united-for-online-campaigning-violation/
Monday, April 27, 2015
Now we're even sadder about being ignored
Data questions: Could UC-Davis really have been run by 9 people in 1993 and then over 400 people twenty years later? You can't run a big campus with 9 people. If they are really just the very top execs, it seems doubtful *by the same definition* there could be over 400 of them now. The definitions at the top of your chart show different names for the managerial occupations in 1993 and later. Are they really comparable? How many of the positions are on state money? When I clicked on "get the data" on your chart, it just gave me another view of the chart - but not data or specific sources and definitions.
--
*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/04/we-feel-really-bad-about-being-ignored.html
**http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/26/ucs-administrative-bloat-is-undeniable/
UCLA History: Janss Westwood Completed
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/04/ucla-history-janss-westwood.html
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Don't Forget! May 6 Faculty Assn. Event
As Janet Napolitano and Jerry Brown battle over tuition increases
and state funding for the UC, faculty face eroding compensation and
increasing privatization of the university. Is shared governance still
meaningful amidst the race for private donations and bond-funded
construction? Where is the common ground between tenure and non-tenure
system faculty? How does the crisis of student loan debt change our
relationship with our students? Join representatives of the Academic
Senate, the Council of UC Faculty Associations, and the UC-AFT
(lecturers' union) for a open forum on faculty and the future of public
higher education in the age of austerity.
Moderator: Toby Higbie (UCLA Faculty Association & Dept. of History)
Panelists:
Leo Estrada (UCLA Public Policy, Chair-Elect Academic Senate)
Patricia Morton (UCR, President Council of UC Faculty Associations)
Bob Samuels (UCLA, UC-AFT)
Wednesday, May 6, 12 noon to 1:30 PM
UCLA Faculty Center
Buffet lunch will be served Saturday, April 25, 2015
Your Health Insurance Dollars at Work (and Play)
Blue Shield of California fired a top executive last month after he
spent more than $100,000 on his corporate credit card, the company says,
including on trips with girlfriend and "Sharknado" actress Tara Reid. The
details surfaced in a countersuit the health insurance giant filed
Tuesday alleging fraud by Aaron Kaufman, the company's former chief
technology officer. Mr.
Kaufman went to great lengths to avoid scrutiny of his expenses,
including intentionally misrepresenting his personal activities as
corporate events. - Steve Shivinsky, a spokesman for Blue Shield. Blue
Shield cited numerous examples of Kaufman's extravagant spending, some
of which came to light after an employee event involving Reid at a San
Francisco bowling alley. Some of the expenses cited by Blue Shield
included $17,491 that Kaufman spent on a Florida vacation to see Reid. He
also spent $832 for one night at the W hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
with Reid on Jan. 21, according to the company. Three weeks later, he
ran up a corporate tab of $1,382 on drinks at the Warwick, a Hollywood
nightclub.But the night of bowling in early January drew the most attention inside Blue Shield. "At
some point during the evening, Mr. Kaufman's girlfriend acted
inappropriately, taking inappropriate photographs of herself and sharing
them," the company said in court documents. Blue Shield confirmed that
it was referring to Reid...Full story at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-blue-shield-sharknado-20150425-story.html
April Shower of Money Could Help UC's May Revise
There is an article about the April revenues in the Sacramento Bee at:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article19445535.html
You can't complain about a shower of money at this time of year:
Hillary Fundraising in Westwood May 7: Look for Traffic Issues
 |
| Sorry! This will not get you in. |
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will hold the first Southern California fundraisers for her campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination on May 7. Clinton will attend a $2,700-per-person breakfast reception at the Westwood home of Catherine Unger, a member of the Women’s Political Committee, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Clinton will then move to another $2,700-per-person event, a luncheon fundraiser at the Pacific Palisades home of television producer Steven Bochco and his wife Dayna, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported, citing sources with knowledge of the campaign’s plans. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., will attend the fundraiser. Clinton will also conduct a $2,700 per person early dinner fundraiser at the Beverly Hills-area home of billionaire media giant Haim Saban, according to the entertainment industry trade publications...
Full story at http://patch.com/california/centurycity/hillary-clinton-hold-westwood-fundraiser
Bicycle Event Sunday
When: Sunday, April 26th, 5:45-8:45am
Where: CEY Drive between Wyton Drive and Westholme Avenue
Reason: City of Angeles Fun Ride
Impacts: CEY Drive will be closed to southbound traffic. Northbound CEY will remain open. Parking will not be allowed in Lot A, Dickson Court or on CEY Drive (between Wyton and Westholme) from 5 am until 3 pm (parking will be available for customers with a Disabled Placard).
More at http://coafunride.com/ride-descriptions/
Note that the full event doesn't end until around 3 pm at UCLA and may affect traffic around the campus.
Friday, April 24, 2015
We feel really bad about being ignored
Data questions: Could UC-Davis really have been run by 9 people in 1993 and then over 400 people twenty years later? You can't run a big campus with 9 people. If they are really just the very top execs, it seems doubtful *by the same definition* there could be over 400 of them now. The definitions at the top of your chart show different names for the managerial occupations in 1993 and later. Are they really comparable? How many of the positions are on state money? When I clicked on "get the data" on your chart, it just gave me another view of the chart - but not data or specific sources and definitions.
Instead, the same article now appears in Capitol Weekly:
http://capitolweekly.net/tuition-uc-administrators-tripled-csu-data/
We continue to pose the questions above and invite a response to the questions at daniel.j.b.mitchell@anderson.ucla.edu
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/04/before-you-get-angry-at-headline-lets.html
Do the math...but which math?
For about as long as anyone can remember, most undergraduate natural science majors have been required to take at least two semesters of calculus. Lots of students -- especially those in the life sciences -- don’t end up using most of what they’ve learned later on in their studies or their careers, but the requirement has endured...
“Our principal complaint with the calculus for life sciences is that it is a horrible and hideous instrument of torture to life sciences students taught by mathematicians who want to make third-rate mathematicians out of our students and get angry when they fail,” said Alan Garfinkel, professor of medicine and physiological science at UCLA, who campaigned for and teaches the new math for life sciences course. Still offered to a limited number of students, the sequence combines two quarters of calculus and one each of probability and statistics into three quarters total, with a lab, and focuses more on biology-based problem sets. “I’m a professional mathematical biologist and I don’t use freshman calculus at all.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/24/just-how-much-math-and-what-kind-enough-life-sciences-majors
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Higher Ed Getting Pushed Out?
Crowded Out: The Outlook for State Higher Education Spending
In an effort to better understand the funding difficulties faced by public higher education institutions over the next decade, this study derives baseline state funding projections for higher education from underlying measures of economic growth. It does this by incorporating historical state government spending data with Moody’s Analytics proprietary models for state tax revenue and Medicaid spending. Over the past several decades, the growth in state funding for discretionary spending categories has declined at an alarming rate. Mandatory spending programs, specifically Medicaid, are requiring more and more state funds, which in the zero-sum world of state spending, has left fewer and fewer dollars for other programs. Medicaid spending, for example, was less than 10 percent of state sourced spending 30 years ago, but today accounts for nearly 16 percent. Taking all funding sources into account, Medicaid has grown to more than a quarter of total state spending. Higher education funding has borne the brunt of much of this crowding out, falling from around 14 percent of state sourced spending in the late 1980s to just over 12 percent today. Our baseline forecasts show that trend continuing throughout the next decade and beyond...
Full study at http://web1.millercenter.org/commissions/higher-ed/2015-higherEdFunding-Moodys.pdf
Inside Higher Ed summary at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/23/state-budget-projections-higher-education-look-bleak-thanks-medicaid-costs
It might be noted that back when the Master Plan for Higher Ed was created, there was no Medicaid (Medi-Cal). However, the projections for California in the report above don't show much change in the share of state revenue going to higher ed out to 2024. It's pretty much a flat 7%. See Appendix D.1. Moreover, the share of California state revenue going to Medicaid (Medi-Cal) doesn't show much growth and its projected values seem out of line with recent actual values. See Appendix B.1. Undoubtedly, there has been some pushing out of higher ed historically, particularly when you take the numbers back to the 1960s. It is also worth noting that the outlook for the health care system is uncertain. Baby boom retirements will put pressure on the system but the direct effects will be more on Medicare, which is not a state program, than on Medicaid (Medi-Cal).
More Regents
 |
| The 1933 Board didn't have these archiving options |
Should the Regents want to do what Santa Monica does, the contract for its live-streaming and true archiving costs under $18,000 per year. Info is available on the contract at:
http://www.smgov.net/departments/council/agendas/2015/20150428/s2015042803-D.htm
The one that got away (from us)
You can find the agenda, such as it is, at:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar15/gov4.pdf
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
LAO Remains Unhappy With Guv's Habit of Budgeting Lump Sums for UC
http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/education/2015/Enrollment-Funding-for-UC042115.pdf
It should be noted that if LAO or the legislature has a complaint about the guv's budgetary practices, the issue is with him. Indeed, the entire Committee of Two process is really a reflection of the way in which the governor does business.
Whoever is at fault, we're truly sorry the LAO is sad:
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Before you get angry at the headline, let's await the answers
Data questions: Could UC-Davis really have been run by 9 people in 1993 and then over 400 people twenty years later? You can't run a big campus with 9 people. If they are really just the very top execs, it seems doubtful *by the same definition* there could be over 400 of them now. The definitions at the top of your chart show different names for the managerial occupations in 1993 and later. Are they really comparable? How many of the positions are on state money? When I clicked on "get the data" on your chart, it just gave me another view of the chart - but not data or specific sources and definitions.
However, two attempts to send the questions above to Grizzly Bear Project produced an error message. I couldn't find an alternative option under "contact us" for communicating with the site. The article concludes with:
The Cal State system has been able to cut its administration by more than one-third from 1993-2013, while UC administration has more than tripled over the same period. This is not to say that UC administration growth is to blame for the entirety of the increases in student fees. But it does underscore one of the trends – along with increasing enrollment and declining per capita state investment – that has increased the cost of a UC education for California students...
The Cal State system has been able to cut its administration by more than one-third from 1993-2013, while UC administration has more than tripled over the same period. This is not to say that UC administration growth is to blame for the entirety of the increases in student fees. But it does underscore one of the trends – along with increasing enrollment and declining per capita state investment – that has increased the cost of a UC education for California students...
As blog readers will know, we at the UCLA Faculty Assn. are not interested on this website with defending administrative bloating at UC. But we do want accurate info to be part of the public debate, particularly as key decisions await regarding tuition and budgets at UC. So we are hoping that we can clear up any questions by posting this information. Perhaps someone at Grizzly Bear Project will respond.**
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*http://www.grizzlybearproject.com/as-uc-tuition-increases-so-does-university-administration/
**Anyone at Grizzly Bear Project can email yours truly at daniel.j.b.mitchell@anderson.ucla.edu
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UPDATE: While we await a possible response, it might be noted that the Grizzly Bear Project piece has been picked up and recirculated by at least two other websites today: The Nooner and Rough and Tumble.
More Pre-May Revise Travels with Janet
University of California President Janet Napolitano is hoping to light a fire under Fresno leaders and business people. Her cause is simple: Let’s get lawmakers to pour more dollars into the UC system. Fresno doesn’t often hear much noise about high education funding, she told a group of nearly 200 Fresno Rotary Club members and their guests on Monday. “I’d like you all to make some. And now would be a really good time,” she said. Napolitano brought the plea during the Rotary Club’s weekly meeting in downtown. The visit was part of a larger effort Napolitano is making to drum up public support for boosting state funding for the 10 UC campuses and avoiding proposed tuition hikes as high as 5% next school year...
Full story at http://www.fresnobee.com/2015/04/20/4486682_uc-president-janet-napolitano.html
It would be nice if the Committee of Two would at least be traveling together. As it is...
Monday, April 20, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Hard to get in
Full story at http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_27929852/uc-delays-release-admissions-data-amid-budget-negotiations
Saturday, April 18, 2015
News Item: Female faculty faced bias at UCLA med center
The probe upheld long-pressed complaints from three women faculty that they were discriminated against by some men in the department and faced retaliation for reporting breaches in research protocol, Jonathan Hiatt, the vice dean for faculty, said in a letter sent to staff. The result was a significantly negative effect on the center and a working environment that "compromises our research, teaching and patient care," Hiatt wrote. The March letter, which was obtained by The Times, did not identify the women who say they were discriminated against nor the people who they say violated campus rules. Hiatt could not be reached for comment Friday night. Dale Tate, a spokeswoman for the David Geffen School of Medicine, confirmed the authenticity of the letter but said she could not offer any more details about the situation...
Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-ucla-bias-20150417-story.html
Factoid of the Week: Cal Grants
 | |
| 2014-15 data |
Friday, April 17, 2015
Yet another straw in the wind that all is not well at the Committee of Two
Speaking to a group of fellow Italian American lawyers and judges, University of California President Janet Napolitano this week recounted her own family’s modest immigrant roots and urged Californians to help increase funding higher education so that subsequent and future waves of families can enter the middle class.
Napolitano's speech Wednesday evening was part of her effort to rally public support for enough additional state funds for the 10-campus UC system so that a tuition hike of as much as 5% next year can be avoided.
She and Gov. Jerry Brown have disagreed over the matter, with Brown insisting that UC must continue to freeze tuition for a fourth consecutive year with a tax funding increase that falls short of what Napolitano has sought...
Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-napolitano-italian-20150416-story.html
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/04/committee-of-one.html
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Sounds like she needs some assistance with the governor:
Thursday, April 16, 2015
May 6 Event: Which Way UCLA? Faculty and the Future of Public Higher Education
As Janet Napolitano and Jerry Brown battle over tuition increases
and state funding for the UC, faculty face eroding compensation and
increasing privatization of the university. Is shared governance still
meaningful amidst the race for private donations and bond-funded
construction? Where is the common ground between tenure and non-tenure
system faculty? How does the crisis of student loan debt change our
relationship with our students? Join representatives of the Academic
Senate, the Council of UC Faculty Associations, and the UC-AFT
(lecturers' union) for a open forum on faculty and the future of public
higher education in the age of austerity.
Moderator: Toby Higbie (UCLA Faculty Association & Dept. of History)
Panelists:
Leo Estrada (UCLA Public Policy, Chair-Elect Academic Senate)
Patricia Morton (UCR, President Council of UC Faculty Associations)
Bob Samuels (UCLA, UC-AFT)
Wednesday, May 6, 12 noon to 1:30 PM
UCLA Faculty Center
Buffet lunch will be served Water!
The University of California at Los Angeles is finishing up one of its largest water-related projects, a new filtration system that's estimated to save 17.3 million gallons a year. The enhanced water-cleaning system was created a few years ago by professors at the UCLA Water Technology Research Center, so it advanced not only research but also institutional goals to reduce water consumption...
More on UCLA at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/04/16/drought-action-plans-leading-changes-california-campuses
It's a problem:
UCLA History: Janss Westwood
.jpg)
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Committee of One?
I am writing to ask that you join me in our efforts to secure full State funding for UC... To this end, I ask that you join me in this all-important effort and contact Gov.
Brown and your legislative representatives to let them know that investing in UC must be a top priority for the State...
All this communication could be taken as a routine effort to enhance the budget for UC as the May Revise nears. But presumably within the Committee of Two - the governor and the UC prez - such communication shouldn't be hard to achieve. Unless, of course, things are not going so well after all and Napolitano finds herself as a Committee of One. We'll know by mid-May.
A Committee of One could be very lonely:
Just a reminder...
Los Angeles (April 14, 2015) — UCLA Anderson is thrilled to announce a gift of $10 million to launch a new marketing center. Donald Morrison, UCLA Anderson professor emeritus, and his wife, Sherie Morrison, UCLA distinguished professor of microbiology, immunology, & molecular genetics, provided the gift to establish the center, which will be named the Morrison Family Center for Marketing Studies and Data Analytics. Their donation is the largest single gift from a UCLA Anderson faculty member...
The Morrisons are long-time supporters and academic leaders of UCLA, providing financial support for a number of the university’s most critical areas of need that include athletics, biomedical sciences and UCLA Anderson, where both of their daughters earned their MBAs. Much of their philanthropy was made possible by Sherie Morrison’s trailblazing work developing genetically engineered antibodies. That research was lauded as a scientific breakthrough and spawned development of many therapeutics. Sherie continues her advanced research studies using antibody-based therapeutics to treat cancer...
From http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/lib/email/MARCOM/2015/pr-morrison-marketing-center.html
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Student health care docs' and dentists' strike report
Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2015/04/13/union-members-demand-meeting-with-block-regarding-health-center-funding/
Early morning fire at School of Dentistry reported
Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucla-fire-20150414-story.html
Monday, April 13, 2015
AAUP Faculty Pay Survey
https://www.insidehighered.com/aaup-compensation-survey/2014-2015?institution-name=california&professor-category=1514
Chronicle of Higher Ed Faculty Pay Survey
The Chronicle of Higher Ed has a faculty pay survey online for 2013-14. Click on the link below. UCLA is number 20 on the list. There is a methodological statement link provided:
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Another Book Review by the UC Prez
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| Lots more to read |
You can find the review at www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/books/review/the-brothers-masha-gessens-book-about-the-boston-marathon-bombers.html
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/03/she-loves-lucy-stone.html
Saturday, April 11, 2015
State Revenue: Still Reliant on the Boom/Bust Tax Sources
Personal Income Tax: Up about 12%
Sales Tax: Up about 4%
Corporate Profits: Up about 30%
All Revenues: Up about 11%
The trend inflation rate is around 2% so the real economy as experienced by most Californians - measured by sales - is growing at a two percent-ish rate. We are still heavily dependent on the boom/bust taxes (personal income and corporate profits) that could easily drop in any downturn. Keep that in mind when you think about the multi-year deal the governor wants on budget and tuition. What would happen in the outyears in such a deal if a downturn occurred? Would the governor be able to keep his end of the bargain?
You can find the cash report at:http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/fy1415_april.pdf
Diversity Vote
UCLA’s faculty approved, by a large margin, a controversial new policy that requires most future undergraduates to take a course on ethnic, cultural, religious or gender diversity. The strongly supportive vote announced Friday night was the culmination of efforts that began two decades ago and previously faced rejections. In a tally posted online, the campus-wide Faculty Senate voted 916 to 487 to begin the requirement for incoming freshmen in fall 2015 and new transfer students in 2017. It would affect students in the College of Letters and Science, which enrolls 85% of UCLA undergraduates...
Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-ucla-diversity-20150410-story.html
The official notice of the Academic Senate is at:
http://www.senate.ucla.edu/documents/4_10_15_GarretttoLgAReps-DiversityRequirement.pdf
It might be noted that the opponents' approach of involving non-College voters appears to have backfired. The original college vote was much closer: 332 approve, 303 oppose, 24 blank ballots.* Adding non-College voters substantially increased the margin in favor of the requirement.
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*http://www.senate.ucla.edu/2014-15CollegeDiversityRequirement_RelevantDocs.htm
Friday, April 10, 2015
No Docs
Unionized doctors began a rolling strike Thursday at student health clinics on UC campuses, accusing the university of unfair labor practices during negotiations for the physicians’ first contract. The walkout started early Thursday morning at five Northern and Central California campuses -- Berkeley, Davis, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Merced -- and is scheduled to last four days. On Saturday, the doctors, dentists and podiatrists are expected to begin a four-day strike at the southern UC campuses at UCLA, San Diego, Irvine, Riverside and Santa Barbara...
The 130 or so members of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists previously held a one-day strike in late January at all 10 UC campuses. The UC doctors were unionized in 2013...
Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-uc-strike-20150409-story.html
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-doctor-will-be-out.html
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Scandals have a way of evolving
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| Evolution Illustrated |
The scandal at the California Public Utilities Commission has spread from one University of California campus to another, as criminal investigators are asking questions about former commission President Michael Peevey’s contacts with UCLA… His $250-a-plate farewell soiree, attended by the kinds of industry insiders whose relationships with the commission have come under scrutiny, was to benefit the University of California, Berkeley, which ended up turning down the funds. Now investigators are asking about Peevey’s contacts with the California Center for Sustainable Communities at the University of California, Los Angeles. The center is one possible recipient of $25 million to study greenhouse gas emissions funded by utility companies, which is an element of the $4.7 billion settlement deal for premature closure costs from the failed San Onofre nuclear power plant north of Oceanside. …The grant idea first became public as a proposal in September 2014, but may have first been suggested at a secret meeting between Peevey and a Southern California Edison executive in Warsaw, Poland, in March 2013. Commission business is supposed to be conducted in public. New records obtained by U-T San Diego show Peevey established contact with Stephanie Pincetl of UCLA’s sustainable communities center as early as December 2013 — nine months before Commissioner Michel Florio publicly announced the greenhouse gas plan... Pincetl told the U-T she was interviewed by investigators about the matter three weeks ago. She was unable to explain how she knew before the public announcement that money from the San Onofre settlement was coming available. “That is a good question,” she said. “I don’t know.” ...Commission spokeswoman Terrie Prosper did not respond to questions this week about why Peevey met and spoke with UCLA about a campus energy center before he was supposed to have learned about the funding opportunity. …According to the UCLA emails, Peevey was offered and accepted a seat on an advisory board serving the university’s Luskin Center for Innovation, a think tank that works to translate research into public-policy solutions. ...The adopted settlement does not restrict the $25 million grant to the Edison and SDG&E service territory, and the money has yet to be awarded.
Full story at http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/apr/08/ucla-investigators-cpuc-peevey/all/?print
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