Maybe It's Not Such a Riddle

As you are likely to know, under the top-2 primary system of yesterday's election, in the fall Jerry Brown - who will certainly win - will face Republican Neel Kashkari.  There was considerable interest in whether Kashkari or Tim Donnelly - a tea party candidate - would take the number two slot.  The GOP business establishment felt that Donnelly would be such an embarrassment that he would hurt Republican candidates in California and even outside the state. 

In the San Francisco Chronicle, political columnist
Carla Marinucci asks why Gov. Brown did not put resources into "selecting" his November opponent.  The article references the strategy of then-Governor Davis in 2002 who put money into TV ads in the GOP primary aimed at weakening former LA Mayor Richard Riordan.  The column treats Brown's seeming agnosticism about the fate of GOP candidates as a kind of riddle.  Of course, Brown, unlike Davis, knows he will trounce his opponent in November.  But he might care about legislative candidates.  Democrats had a 2/3 majority in the legislature on and off until various scandals brought down three state senators.  Wouldn't the governor like to have 2/3 again?  Wouldn't he like to have Donnelly turn away enough votes for GOP legislative candidates so that the 2/3 would again be achieved?

The answer to the riddle may be that the governor is happier with a strong Democratic majority but one that falls short of 2/3.  Absent 2/3, the legislature can't pass taxes or put constitutional amendments on the ballot - including those which the governor may not like (without GOP support).  Democrats can't override a gubernatorial veto (without GOP support).  On the other hand, budgets can be passed by a simple majority.  Basically, a less-than-2/3 Democratic majority in the legislature tilts authority toward the governor and away from legislative leaders.  Maybe there is no riddle.

The Chronicle's column is at http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/06/03/mystery-why-was-ca-dem-party-hands-off-in-combative-gop-govs-race/

How Not to Get Into Office: Election Saga

Today is the day after Election Day.  The Daily Bruin has a piece on how not to get into office, the chancellor's office in particular:

University police arrested a man who is running for Congress twice this week, both times for trespassing in the chancellor’s office in Murphy Hall.  Theo Milonopoulos, who is running as a write-in candidate for the 33rd Congressional District, which includes UCLA, said in a press release Monday night that he went to Chancellor Gene Block’s office to bring a complaint to the chancellor about an incident earlier that day.
In the press release, Milonopoulos urged the chancellor to intervene after a minister in Meyerhoff Park openly criticized the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and women.
Milonopoulos, 27, was first arrested about 3:30 p.m. Monday and booked an hour later. He was then released at about 6:30 p.m., according to Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department records. On Tuesday, he returned to the Chancellor’s office and allegedly made threats to office staff, said UCPD patrol lieutenant Russell McKinney.  He left the office at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, then returned several hours later and resisted when UCPD officers tried to detain him, McKinney said. Milonopoulos was arrested again, this time on a felony charge of resisting an executive officer, and was booked on $25,000 bail at about 3:15 p.m...

Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2014/06/03/ucpd-arrest-congressional-candidate-for-trespassing/

No Clue at Harvard B-School

A recent post referenced the Harvard Business School regarding its internal climate.  The NY Times recently ran an article about the "strategy" the School wants to take with regard to online education.  Although the Times article does reference ideas within the School about Internet plans, your truly's read of the article suggests that the School - despite its host of strategic experts - has no clue about what to do with regard to online education.

You can find the article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/business/business-school-disrupted.html

Seems like grounds for moving (very) cautiously.  Unless, of course, you live in a state with a governor who (thinks he) knows what to do.

It's hard to know, or even appear to know:

Greater Westwood Blvd.

We have blogged about the possibility of Westwood Blvd. becoming an official "Great Street."  Now the day seems to have arrived:

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's office has identified the first 15 areas to be targeted in his initiative to revitalize dozens of neighborhood streets.  The goal of his "Great Streets" program, the mayor has said, is to make streets  more pedestrian-friendly and attract businesses. The mayor's staff said Monday that $800,000 has been initially budgeted for the project...  The first 15 that will be formally announced Tuesday morning include one in each council district: ...

District 5: Westwood Boulevard between Le Conte Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard...

Full story at http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-great-streets-announcement-20140602-story.html

Apparently, what makes a street great - absent balls of fire - is vacant stores, the most prominent feature of that stretch of Westwood Blvd.:

That Pretty Well Sums It Up

From the Chronicle on Higher Education:

Conversations about what we need to know about higher education, both to rate college and university performance and to provide information to prospective students and their parents, leave one word largely unspoken: faculty.
A recent report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, "Mapping the Postsecondary Data Domain," mentions faculty members only once—as users, not as subjects of data. And the report is only the latest in an effusion of discussions of higher-education data needs. The same neglect occurred at a daylong Department of Education symposium on the subject in February. While pondering what we need to know to improve and reform higher education, students, administrators, and researchers were mentioned repeatedly, but the faculty members who teach those students received only rare and fleeting attention. The absence of any apparent interest in faculty members, crucial players in postsecondary education, seems remarkable if those efforts are intended to genuinely improve the quality of education for students and society...

Full story at http://chronicle.com/article/Higher-Educations-Missing/146871/

Change the Faculty or the Students?

The Daily Bruin carries a piece about an outside Academic Senate review of the Anderson School and the problems faced by women faculty.  An interesting question emerges: Change the students or the faculty?

Women faculty at the UCLA Anderson School of Management consistently experience an inhospitable work environment and fewer career advancement opportunities than their male peers, several university reports reveal.  In a University of California Academic Senate report obtained by the Daily Bruin that was conducted during the 2013 fall quarter, reviewers identified the school’s current climate for women faculty as one of the primary challenges facing the business school.  Another internal report reviewing gender inequity at the school back in 2006 likewise identified several problems for women faculty, such as negative student behavior and gendered differences in promotional decisions, and outlined steps to address it.  Eight years later, however, the same issues remain, and many female professors at the school say the reports continue to reflect reality...  One issue is some male students challenging the authority of female professors in disruptive ways.  The school’s reliance on student evaluations in the performance review process amplifies this particular issue. When the students who challenge the professors’ authority in the classroom then become responsible for evaluating them, it can sometimes hinder career advancement for female professors...

Full article at http://dailybruin.com/2014/06/02/report-reveals-gender-inequity-in-ucla-anderson-faculty/

 

Blog readers will recall our posting links to a series of articles on the Harvard Business School which also pointed to an unproductive student-led atmosphere.   Here are links to those earlier postings:

http://issuu.com/danieljbmitchell/docs/mitchellmusings_6-2-14

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-harvard-business-school-frat-house.html

http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2014/02/follow-up-harvard-b-school-says-it-is.html

 

In short, there seems to be a selection bias in student admissions that leads to misbehavior which is then tolerated or at least not discouraged.  Keep in mind that we are not talking about undergraduates or even just-out-of-college grad students.  We are talking about grad students generally in their late 20s or older.  If there is a problem of basic civility and normal adult behavior in the classroom, just tinkering with the student evaluation system or giving it less weight relative to peer review (as the Senate report apparently suggests) won’t solve the underlying problem. 

Changing the student atmosphere isn’t the whole story here.  But it seems to be an important part of the story.  And it would require a change in admissions practices.  More women students in the classroom might help.

UCLA History: Powell

This view of Powell from Royce taken in 1937 looks much as it would today.