Upcoming

It's hard to imagine that the topic below won't be part of the agenda at the Regents meeting of January 25-26. Given UC's role in the national labs, and the position taken by Gov. Brown, some discussion seems likely:

In the two decades since Ben Santer helped write a landmark international report linking global warming and human activity, he’s been criticized by politicians, accused of falsifying his data and rewarded with a dead rat on his doorstep. 

He describes it as “background noise,” and he tries to tune it out as he presses forward with his research from a dim office the size of a walk-in closet at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory east of San Francisco. But the presidential election could crank up the volume for Santer and his colleagues: As federal government scientists, their new boss will be President-elect Donald Trump, who once described global warming as a hoax.

“Imagine, if you will, that you devoted your entire career to doing one thing. Doing it as well as you possibly can,” Santer said. “And someone comes along and says everything you’ve done is worthless.” 

Trump’s victory sent shockwaves through the environmental community, but fears are particularly heightened among scientists who are employed by the federal government or rely on the data it generates. There are concerns that younger generations may avoid working for U.S. agencies or decide not to focus on climate change because they don’t see a future working in the field...

Full story at http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-climate-scientists-donald-trump-20161230-story.html

The other way

At the end of each quarter, we provide an alternative mode of reading the blog, essentially as an online book. Of course, that mode omits any trace of the audios, videos, and animated gif images that appear in the regular blog. Those elements are only available in the original format.

The book format can be read at the link below:

Going Up?

EdSource has a piece about upcoming discussions at CSU and UC about tuition increases. There may be discussion at the January Regents meeting.

Early skirmishes have begun already on tentative proposals to increase tuition at California’s two massive public university systems for the first time in six years. Serious debate and protests – likely to be bruising at points – are expected over the next few months as financial and political impacts are weighed.

With the state budget in flux, both the 23-campus California State University (CSU) and the ten-campus University of California (UC) say nothing is set in stone about ending the lengthy tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates. But administrators warn that rising costs of pay hikes and pension plans and such academic initiatives as improving graduation rates may force tuition hikes for fall 2017: as much as $270 or 5% at CSU from what is now $5,472 a year and $300 or about 2.5% at UC from the current $12,294.

Political observers predict a series of battles as the proposals proceed through the universities’ governing boards and the Legislature in hearings, votes and closed-door negotiations that are expected to start in January and possibly continue until June...

H. D. Palmer, a spokesman for Brown’s Department of Finance, said it is too early to predict what the governor will propose for higher education funding and how that will be balanced with other needs such as health care and the environment. “At this point, the governor has yet to finish all the decisions he is going to send to the Legislature,” he said.  But according to Palmer, if there are tuition hikes and new funding to the universities, the governor will insist those are linked to improved efficiency at the universities, hastening time to graduation and bolstering course availability.

Full story at https://edsource.org/2017/debate-underway-on-csu-students-protesting/574525

UCLA History: Mule

Mule-drawn cart near UCLA in 1928 as Westwood campus is constructed

UCLA History: Water View

The campus in 1929

If you can't wait to get back...

If you can't wait to get back on campus, you can, of course, go there even though it is largely closed. Or, particularly since it is a bit chilly today, you can do a virtual tour from home using:
http://www.youvisit.com/ucla

It's a bit tricky to use. Basically, you click on the tip of the arrow. Depending on your internet connection, it may be slow to respond.

George Ade Probably Got It About Right

George Ade, who wrote at the turn of the last century, got it about right: (His moral is at the end of the tale at the link below.)