The Regents are Coming

Regents: 1964 Edition

In fact, there will be a meeting tomorrow of the Regents Committee on Investments, primarily to review returns on the UC portfolios and those of the campus foundations.  See:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/agendas/nov5.html

Next week's meetings (Nov. 12-14) are beginning to be posted as of this morning.  Agenda items are available but not detailed attachments.  See:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/agendas/nov13.html

You might be curious to know about an item entitled "Participation in Joint Venture to Establish and Operate a Rehabilitation Hospital, Los Angeles Campus."  Too bad if you are.  It will be discussed only in a closed session:
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov13/hsx.pdf

Not the most fascinating bedtime reading but here it is...

Yours truly came across a website run by a group called "California Competes," which funded a failed lawsuit against a requirement that community colleges consult with their academic senates.  However, on the group's website were documents from the last accreditation review of UCLA back in 2009 and 2010.  They are not the most fascinating bedtime reading you can find but here are the links for the curious:

http://californiacompetes.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/UCLA%20-%20Self%20Study.pdf

http://californiacompetes.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/UCLA%20-%20Evaluation%20Report.pdf

http://californiacompetes.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/UCLA%20-%20Action%20Letter.pdf

Good Idea: Take a Risk

The website of the San Francisco Chronicle today is running a story today about a Silicon Valley forum in which California first lady Anne Gust Brown and new UC president Janet Napolitano argued that women should take more risks in public life.

In earlier posts, we noted that a recent speech - billed in advance as a major address - by the new prez was largely a dud with no sense of priorities for UC or even key questions that she thinks need further investigation.  So we agree about risk taking.  Our new prez should take a risk at the upcoming Regents meeting next week and provide some kind of direction about priorities.

You can find the article about the forum at http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Gust-Brown-Napolitano-challenge-women-to-risk-4948858.php

No silver bullet?

From the LA Times: Californians will get the first chance to comment on President Obama's proposals to make college more affordable during a public forum this week at Cal State Dominguez Hills, officials said. The Wednesday event is the first in a series of four public sessions held around the country — and the only one in California — to gather input on the president's recently announced agenda to develop a college ratings system to help students select schools with the best bang for their buck...

The ratings score card would be developed for the 2015 school year using such measures as the percentage of low-income students receiving federal Pell grants, average tuition and student debt, graduation and transfer rates, and graduate incomes. Other proposals would award more financial aid to students at higher-rated colleges and provide incentives for new cost-saving approaches such as three-year bachelor's degrees and online programs. The ratings system has elicited concern among some higher education experts who question the reliability of graduation rates and other data that would be used.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan acknowledged the difficult road ahead during a news briefing Wednesday.  "We know there is no silver bullet or easy solution," Duncan said.

Full story at www.latimes.com/local/la-me-1103-college-afford-20131103,0,6252218.story

No silver bullet?  How can he say that?:

Possible UC strike

Demonstration in Westwood after previous strike

From the LA Times:

Members of the union that represents 22,000 service workers and patient care employees at UC campuses and hospitals have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a possible strike in the future if a contract agreement is not reached, officials said Friday. Ninety-six percent of the members of AFSCME 3299 voted to allow union leaders to call a strike if they decide it is necessary. If a strike happens, it would be the second this year and a potentially wider one, possibly affecting the 10 campuses and the five medical centers. In late May, the same union conducted a two-day strike at the UC hospitals...  UC officials say that the main issue is that the union refuses to accept a new pension plan, similar to that of many other UC and state workers, that requires higher employee contributions and reduces long-term benefits for new hires...

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-strike-20131101,0,6908828.story

Trial Date for UCLA Grand Hotel Coming

In earlier posts on the UCLA Grand Hotel, we have noted that construction started off at a very leisurely pace but seemed to be picking up.  When yours truly went by earlier today (see photos), trucks were rolling in and out.  Other construction machines were wrecking the remains of parking structure #6.  Could it be that the more rapid pace has anything to do with the fact that a trial date for the lawsuit challenging the project will be set next week?  Is someone trying to get facts on the ground?  Note that the lawsuit, even if there are facts on the ground, could limit operations of the Grand Hotel, require tax payments, and impose other costs.   

 Legal types can read the plaintiffs’ complaint below:

We're not the only ones to think the Napolitano speech was a dud

The thing it lacked

The Sacramento Bee runs an editorial lamenting the lack of vision in the speech:

University of California’s newest president, Janet Napolitano, in her first major speech to Californians had the opportunity to show, in the words of the search committee that selected her, that she could bring “fresh eyes and a new sensibility – not only to UC, but to all of California.”  She fell far short.

With no record as a scholar or in campus administration, she had to show that she would bring more than her background as a politician and political appointee to the job. But in her first major speech, delivered on Wednesday to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, she sounded like she was trying inoculate herself against protests of her tenure at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, rather than offer a principled, thoughtful vision of the future of the University of California...

Napolitano said that in two weeks, she would bring “big ideas” to the UC regents for their consideration. We look forward to that. We hope Napolitano has more to offer at the regents meetings Nov. 12-14 than she did in the Commonwealth Club address.  

Full editorial at http://www.sacbee.com/2013/11/01/5870553/editorial-janet-napolitano-offers.html