UCLA Faculty Association: Regental Matters: Big Ten, Strike, Death

Various things are happening at the UC Regents. They had a closed door session on collective bargaining this past Monday, as we noted in prior posts. No leaks from that session have emerged, however. It can be assumed, leaks or not, that the topic for the special meeting was the current student worker strike. We also noted that UAW Local 5810 - the local for postdocs and researchers - that did reach a tentative settlement with UC, is carrying on a ratification vote this week. No word yet on how that vote is going. There are reports from various sources that the UC payroll system has not yet cut off paychecks to strikers - at least on some campuses.* It may be that the UCPath computer system - with which the Regents are familiar thanks to its many delays and cost overruns - isn't really designed for dealing with strikes.

The LA Times carries a story of more complaints to the Regents about UCLA's move to the Big Ten which is to be discussed next Wednesday:

Ramogi Huma, a former Bruins linebacker who serves as executive director of the National College Players Assn., sent a letter to the University of California regents on Wednesday asking them to block UCLA’s planned exit from the Pac-12 Conference in August 2024. Huma described the move as a “short-sighted money grab” that would harm college athletes, citing academic, racial and mental health concerns while also contending that athletic director Martin Jarmond would top a tiny group of beneficiaries. “Not all money is good money,” Huma wrote. “The Regents should not let a handful of people sell the soul of the UCLA athletics program for TV dollars that will be spent on luxury boxes in stadiums and lavish salaries for a few.” ...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2022-12-07/ncpa-uc-regents-intervene-ucla-move-big-ten-pac-12.

Excerpt from the letter itself:

...The move to the Big Ten... reveals UCLA’s utter disregard for the academic success of Black UCLA athletes whose talents and success are at the core of UCLA’s revenue generation. Black UCLA football players’ graduation rates were 47% while Black men’s basketball players graduation rates were 50%. Graduation rates among all Black male athletes was only 50% compared to 73% among all Black male students.

UCLA’s racial exploitation is made starker by enrollment numbers that reveal that UCLA’s Black athletes comprise 28% of total Black male UCLA students while UCLA’s White male athletes comprise only 2% of total White male students. Allowing UCLA to move to the Big Ten will adversely affect 28% of the total Black male students compared to only 2% of total White male students.

In addition to poor graduation rates among football and basketball players, UCLA baseball players’ federal graduation rates were only 67%...

Full letter at https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/af/61/e209c7074568a95e2972601c910b/ncpa-letter-opposing-ucla-conference-move.pdf.

Obituaries have appeared for former UC Regent Norman Pattiz in various sources related to broadcasting. He died on December 4. From his Wikipedia page:

...Pattiz worked in the sales dept at KCOP TV 13 in Hollywood from 1970-1974. He founded Westwood One, a radio syndication company, in 1976. It became America's largest radio network and one of the world's leading media companies. In 2001, Pattiz joined the board of regents of the University of California and served as chair of the Board of the Regents Oversight Committee of the Department of Energy Laboratories. In January 2014, Governor of California Jerry Brown reappointed Pattiz to a second twelve year term on the board of regents. In November 2016, he was accused of workplace sexual harassment. The University of California Student Association called for dismissal of Pattiz from the Board of Regents in 2017 following an allegation by a podcast host. Pattiz apologized and claimed it was a joke. In December 2017, Pattiz resigned from the board of regents.

Pattiz was also chairman of the board of Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Security LLC and on the board of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He was president of the Broadcast Education Association and was on the Council of Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He was appointed by President Clinton for the United States Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees all U.S. non-military international broadcast services, in 2000, and reappointed by President Bush in 2002. He was chairman of BBG's Middle East Committee, where he helped create the U.S. government's Arabic-language radio and TV services broadcast to the 22 Middle East countries, including Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television.

In 2009, Pattiz was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Pattiz also received the Giants of Broadcasting Award from the Library of American Broadcasting...

Full entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Pattiz.

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*https://dailycal.org/2022/12/07/striking-academic-workers-still-paid-some-report.

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