Anti-Pension Cabal? Smells that way

We have noted in past posting on the filing of a public pension initiative that there appeared to be a good deal of "coordination" in the effort, including a Stanford-Hoover MOOC (online course) on personal investments that somehow ends with a session on public pensions.  There appeared to be more involved than a few California mayors who are the official face. The fact that UC is swept into the initiative - although it is not a city and has its own set of pension modifications adopted by the Regents in 2010 - seems to be evidence of a larger agenda.

Groups representing public employees have suggested the same:

ALEC and TIAA-CREF Join The Assault On Public Pensions

The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council has jumped into the conservative effort to dismantle public pension systems in a big way, making it one of its top 2014 legislative priorities, a public pension advocacy group has warned. The National Public Pension Coalition, which represents public sector employees, in a statement today flagged ALEC’s entry into the public pension battle as a threat to the financial security of millions of state and local public employees. It’s an escalation of the campaign against public pensions highlighted in the Institute for America’s Future Report, “The Plot Against Pensions.” That report focuses on the work of a foundation founded by John Arnold, a former Enron executive, and a public pensions project of the Pew Charitable Trusts to promote the notion that there is a public-pension “crisis” that can only be solved by substituting these pension programs for programs that shift risks to workers, eliminate benefit guarantees and create new profit streams for Wall Street money managers. “Studies” that take advantage of the Pew reputation as a reputable, unbiased source of information have encouraged several states to take actions to privatize their retirement systems that, as the report points out, leaders in some of those states have already begun to regret.

ALEC set the stage for its own intervention into the public pension debate with a report in August that encouraged states to convert their public pension (“defined benefit”) plans into 401(k) plans or other “defined contribution” plans. The report said that the “unfunded liabilities” incurred by state pension plans could range anywhere from “$750 billion to more than $4 trillion.” To address the shortfall, the report concludes, “There is ample evidence to suggest that legislators should move from defined-benefit systems to properly designed alternatives, such as defined-contribution, cash-balance, or hybrid plans.”  That report was followed by a paper issued earlier this month by TIAA-CREF Institute, the research arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association–College Retirement Equities Fund, which markets the kind of plans that ALEC wants states to move to. That paper was written by an associate of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and asserts that a defined-contribution plan is not necessarily more expensive for workers and taxpayers than a defined-benefit pension plan...

Full story at http://ourfuture.org/20131021/alec-and-tiaa-cref-join-the-assault-on-public-pensions

Now you can say that the article above comes from a "special interest" group.  But too many things are happening surrounding the initiative filing to pass a sniff test for coincidence.

UCLA History: Banding Together

Recruitment for UCLA band in 1940.

Alternative Entrance

From the Daily Bruin:

University of California student leaders are proposing a new admissions criterion that would give preference to applicants from low-income schools that have special partnerships with UC campuses. Under the criterion, UC campuses would look at whether an applicant comes from a Title I high school – a school that serves a significant number of low-income students – or a community college with low transfer rates that has a partnership with a UC campus. The partnerships would involve academic preparation and outreach programs that the UC would create for these schools. Students proposing the new factor, including UC student regent Cinthia Flores and Undergraduate Students Association Council External Vice President Maryssa Hall, say it would reinforce what they believe is the UC’s responsibility to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds make it to college. They also say it will help the UC’s focus on recruiting in-state students instead of admitting out-of-state and international students to increase revenue, a strategy the UC has utilized in the past few years since nonresidents are required to pay more in tuition...

George Johnson, chair of the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools – a committee of UC faculty that recommends admissions criteria to the UC Academic Senate – said some of the existing admissions factors may already serve the purpose that the proposed factor aims to address... Since a majority of state schools already receive Title I funding, a school’s Title I status might also not be a very distinguishing factor in finding schools to partner with, Johnson said. In the 2010-11 year, about 60 percent of public schools in California received Title I funding...

Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2013/10/22/uc-student-leaders-propose-new-admissions-criterion/ 

More Let Me Outta Here Re: Pension Initiative

I want out!

Yours truly has been posting about the recently filed public pension (and retiree health care) initiative which covers UC.  UC needs a strategy including first attempting to see if the sponsors will amend it or file a revised version that omits UC.  This is a political battle it would be best to avoid if possible.

The initiative has the potential to become a "symbol" of intergenerational conflict as a recent article in calpensions.com points out.  Once things become symbols of something that goes beyond the issue at end - think "ObamaCare" - the pros and cons get lost.

From the calpensions.com article - which starts about the pension initiative itself, but then goes on:

...Last week, the opinion pages of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal both had articles about a “legendary investor” who has been touring college campuses to urge students to mobilize against what one of the writers called “generational theft.”  Stanley Druckenmiller, 60, a retired hedge fund founder said to be worth $2.9 billion, often was joined by Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem’s Children Zone in appearances at Stanford, Berkeley, USC and other campuses...

Full article at http://calpensions.com/2013/10/21/initiative-shows-how-young-pay-pensions-of-old/

Don’t worry about us here at UCLA! Take all the time you need!

Back in December 2011, commuters on the 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass drove by an unusual sight. A retaining wall built for the new car-pool lane was collapsing, the gray concrete panels visibly buckling and falling.  Alarmed by the discovery, construction crews tore down the wall. At least 14 other walls also came down and were rebuilt. State officials moved quickly, banning the construction of similar retaining walls throughout California. Today, the 405 Freeway project is more than 15 months behind schedule, a timeline that has Angelenos bemoaning the traffic congestion caused by construction of the 10-mile car-pool lane.  A federal review quietly released in August of the massive $1 billion project identified the collapsed wall as the “single biggest factor in extending the completion date to September 2014.” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx also noted that a second major factor was an unexpected need for relocations of utility lines...

Full story at http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20131019/san-diego-405-freeway-work-delayed-by-faulty-retaining-walls

Just take your time:  

Another don't click reminder

Don't click!

Another reminder that when you get emails - such as the one above - that seem to have some official connection to UCLA and invite you to click here, download here, etc., be very cautious.  The one above may just be harmless commercial spam but the best thing to do is to delete it.  It clearly is not from a UCLA source.  Clicking and downloading may infect your computer and cause damage to it.

One report airs some dirty laundry. Another doesn't air.

The LA Times picks up story on UCLA report circulated by email to faculty:

UCLA's policies and procedures are inadequate to deal with increasing complaints of racial bias among faculty — nearly all of whom surveyed said they had experienced some level of discrimination, according to an internal report obtained by The Times.  The report also found that allegations of overt racism were not investigated and, if they were, they rarely resulted in sanctions or punishments...

The review, which was launched by Chancellor Gene D. Block in 2012 after he was approached by a group of concerned faculty, found that university policies regarding racial bias and discrimination were vague and insufficient... Block declined a request for comment through a representative.  The report was compiled by a five-member panel headed by former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and included attorney Connie Rice, former UC Davis professor Dr. Maga Jackson-Triche, UCLA professor emeritus Gary Nash and  Bob Suzuki, former president of Cal Poly Pomona. The panel interviewed 30 administrators and faculty members...

Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-ucla-discrimination-20131019,0,2297269.story

The report itself - which appears to be a public document since it was widely emailed to all faculty - is at http://ucla.in/17RxdOF

On the other hand, another UC report on LA building earthquake safety is currently not being released, according to the Times, because of fears of building owner lawsuits.  (The Times has been doing reports on vulnerable buildings in the local area.)

See http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-concrete-quake-20131019,0,1097898.story