Harvard Cooking

For those who, on the day after Thanksgiving, still have their minds into food - and for those interested in online education - we note the existence of the Harvard cooking class which seems to be a collaboration of cuisine and research.  One episode is below:

1959 Photo: Then-Senator John F. Kennedy Speaks at Royce Hall

Yesterday was the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.

UCLA Advertises Its Conference Facilities and Notes that the Events It Hosts Don’t Have to be Education-Based

UCLA Hospitality and Catering has a Facebook page with videos advertising its facilities for conferences.  http://www.facebook.com/uclameetings There is no mention of such conferences being required to have a UCLA connection.  For example, one video touts the attraction by UCLA Hospitality and Catering of a meeting of the Southern California Chapter of Meeting Planners International (MPI), a trade group of event planners.  The group’s website describes its mission:

MPISCC is a member centric organization focusing on professional development for the meetings and events industries. Established in 1979, MPISCC is recognized as an award-winning chapter with approximately 700 members serving the Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and greater Los Angeles areas. As a volunteer organization, MPISCC relies on its members to craft, guide, and direct the local meetings industry in support of MPI’s overall vision and mission.

Source: http://mpiscc.org/about/mission/

 

We note for the umpteenth time that the planned UCLA Hotel-Conference Center cannot take commercial business.  And we continue to note the various tax problems that arise if UCLA competes for commercial events with hotels and other private enterprises.  Of course, the Regents were advised not to worry about such matters when they approved the hotel project.  We advise the opposite.

Below is the video in which the MPI rep says they are trying to show their members different conference facilities in the LA area and that UCLA does not confine its conferences to those that are “education based”:

When You Think About the UC Budget This Thanksgiving...

...remember that things could be worse.  Happy Holiday!  And if you are driving somewhere today, drive carefully:

LAPL collection

Lawsuit against Prop 13's 2/3 requirement reported rejected

Charles Young

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) has reported this afternoon via its email service that the lawsuit filed by former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young to overturn the 2/3 tax increase requirement in Prop 13 of 1978 has been rejected by the California Supreme Court.  So far, no other news source has so reported:

The California Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to significant aspects of Proposition 13, prosecuted by former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young...  Earlier this year, the 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with attorneys representing the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association that Young’s suit challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 13 lacks merit... After the Court of Appeal affirmed HJTA's victory, Young returned to... the Supreme Court, and he has again been rejected... 

Although the email contains a link to the HJTA website, as yet the message in the email is not reprinted there. If there is a confirmation from another news source, the update will appear on this blog.

UPDATE: Here is a confirmation from another source:
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2012/conf112112.htm

Would it work for UC?

We have noted in prior posts that the Regents (with a push from Gov. Brown) are interested in promoting online education at UC.  A somewhat different model is noted today in a brief article in Inside Higher Ed.  Online education, even if aimed at a mass audience, is often (not always) a pre-recorded program.  That is, something is put online and students access it at their convenience individually.  The article in Inside Higher Ed reports that Yale, Columbia, and Cornell are using video conferencing (so it's live and at a fixed time) for small courses (capped at 12 students in less popular languages.  Languages taught or to be taught include Romanian, Dutch, Zulu, and others. You can find the article at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/11/21/columbia-cornell-yale-collaborate-languages

Yours truly regularly does an online video conference call with a systemwide Senate group roughly the size of the small classes described above.  Presumably, the participants in the language courses see each other (so up to 13 images at once).  If that is what is being done by the three universities, to be used in a class, their technology would have to be a lot better than the system used for my conference calls.

And can you see me?

The Cultural Landscape Foundation Lists UCLA Japanese Garden as Among Major Threatened Sites

The Cultural Landscape Foundation included the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden on its "Landslide 2012" listing of endangered landscapes which appeared on Nov. 14.  As readers of this blog will know, UCLA's attempt to sell the garden with no guarantee that it will be preserved has been enjoined.

There is a long history which goes back to a gift to UCLA of the garden by former Regents chair Edward Carter with the university promising to maintain the garden in perpetuity.  You can find background on this blog by searching under "Japanese Garden."  We have urged the university to sit down with garden supporters and landscape groups rather than pursue litigation.  "Mediation" (something one does to avoid court battles) and "meditation" (something one does in a garden) are separated by only a few letters of the alphabet.  Perhaps that similarity might be seen as a guide to university legal strategy.  And perhaps someone in Murphy Hall might meditate over the mediation suggestion over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Information on the Cultural Landscape Foundation can be found at http://tclf.org/.

The Landslide 2012 listing of endangered sites is at:
http://tclf.org/annual-spotlight/landslide-2012-landscape-and-patronage

The specific listing for the Japanese Garden is at:
http://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/landscape-patronage/hannah-carter-japanese-garden.html