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UC water archive to leave Berkeley campus, go to two campuses in south state

By Mike Taugher Contra Costa Times

Posted: 07/19/2010 04:36:49 PM PDT
Updated: 07/19/2010 05:25:01 PM PDT

The West's premier archive of historical materials about water development is being moved from UC Berkeley to two universities in Southern California.
The Water Resources Center Archives, a unique collection of technical reports, speeches, photographs and other historical materials, has been housed at the Berkeley campus for more than a half-century.
However, budget worries and concerns that the Agriculture and Natural Resources Division of the UC president's office lacked the expertise to maintain the archive led university officials to seek proposals from other schools interested in housing the collection.
Late last week, UC Senior Vice President Dan Dooley announced that the archive would be moved to libraries at UC Riverside and Cal State San Bernardino.
In making the announcement, UC officials said that UC Riverside has a record of expanding digital access to materials about agriculture and the environment.
The materials, including 200,000 technical reports and thousands of photographs, maps, newsletters speeches and other documents, are scheduled to be moved beginning this fall.
"We have a strong interest in preserving and digitizing the collection for the future "... to ensure the widest research access to all of the archive's contents," UC Riverside librarian Ruth Jackson said.

The school plans to charge for Internet access to the materials, which now are available for free.

"I think it's sad that we're going to be leaving Berkeley after 51 years, but I look forward to the water archive continuing to serve UC and the California water community from the Riverside campus," said Linda Vida, librarian and archive director for more than 17 years. She is one of four employees at the archive.
The collection is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but Vida said it was unknown whether it would remain open on the Berkeley campus after July.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_15552778

LA Times: UC gets smarter about budget cuts

LA Times Editorial

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-uc-20100720,0,4866950.story

UC gets smarter about budget cuts
Centralizing some administration and allowing more out-of-state and foreign students will help the University of California weather decreased revenue.

July 20, 2010

Dwindling state funding has presented the University of California with a menu of unappetizing options during the past few years. Its first efforts to cover the gap were clumsy, harming students as well as its prestigious reputation. This year, university officials have gotten smarter about surviving the recession intact.

With the state unable to fund the number of California students who should be accepted, according to the Master Plan for Higher Education, UC obviously couldn't continue with business as usual. It reduced class offerings. Most campuses reduced enrollment, providing fewer residents of the state with access to its premier institution of higher education. And it raised fees, putting it out of the reach of many middle-class families.

UC's reputation — Berkeley is ranked as the top public university in the nation — wobbled as more students were drawn to other schools and those who enrolled at UC hunted for seats in needed courses. And it unwisely continues to consider charging more for some majors, such as economics.

But this year, UC President Mark Yudof has pushed a smarter approach, long advocated by this page. In May, the university announced that it would centralize administrative functions such as payroll and purchasing among its 10 campuses, an efficiency measure that will ultimately save half a billion dollars a year. Last week, it released enrollment data for this fall, showing that the number of out-of-state and foreign students would increase dramatically at UCLA and especially Berkeley. Those students are top achievers who bring in money by paying out-of-state tuition. They also bring more diversity to campus.

California students still pay a price. Berkeley has been criticized for reducing the number of state residents it accepts as it doubles nonresident enrollment. But most UC campuses have been reducing admissions whether or not they enroll more out-of-state students. The schools simply cannot afford to educate, at their own expense, more students than the state has been willing to pay for. As more resources become available, UC and the state must make the admission of more California students a priority; but as a long-term strategy, enrolling more out-of-towners is a judicious decision that will preserve the state's crown jewel of higher education.

Recording Regents Meetings in Future

In a prior posting, I listed instructions for listening to part of the recent Regents meetings. The meetings are in fact streamed live. But unless you record them yourself, they disappear into the ether. The earlier posting also listed the fuss that developed when someone was prevented from videoing the meeting. Apparently, a change in UC policy is underway. See below. However, it would be nice if the Regents themselves made available a recording accessible after the fact on the web.

State senator questions UC decision to bar filmmaker
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 07/19/2010 08:29:18 AM PDT
Updated: 07/19/2010 08:29:19 AM PDT

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15541279?source=rss

SAN FRANCISCO — A state senator and an organization of journalists is calling on University of California officials to explain why they barred a filmmaker from bringing his camera into a public meeting of the school's regents in San Francisco.

In a letter sent to UC President Mark Yudof on Friday, Sen. Leland Yee says state law clearly allows any member of the public to film public meetings of state bodies.

Liz Enochs, president of the Society of Professional Journalists' Northern California chapter, sent a separate letter to UC regents expressing her concern about the decision.

Ric Chavez, who is working on a documentary, was barred from Thursday's meeting because he didn't have a news media credential.

Chavez was not aware that he had the right to film public meetings and e-mailed UC's public information office for permission in advance.

E-mails show UC officials questioned him about the documentary, and demanded his full name as a condition for being granted the right to film.

Legal experts say that was also a violation of state law.

Lynn Tierney, one of three UC spokespersons who communicated with Chavez, has said the regents have for years never allowed anyone but the news media to film or record public meetings.

Tierney told the San Francisco Chronicle she had never heard of the state's Bagley-Keene open meeting law.

Charles Robinson, UC's vice president and general counsel, said in a statement Yudof and Regents Chairman Russell Gould have asked him to review the university's policy about filming meetings and recommend any changes that are necessary. The policy was written in 1975, 8 years after Bagley-Keene became law, and only refers to the news media.

"It is our intention to ensure that going forward, this policy or any related policy or practice is fully compatible and consistent with California's open meeting laws," Robinson said in a statement.

Phishing Aimed at UCLA Folks

You may be getting emails purportedly from UCLA computer authorities telling you that your email account is about to be voided unless you click and give personal info. This is phishing aimed at identity theft. Don't respond; just delete the messages. The latest seem to come from "vc@ucla.edu". No such address exists. But because the messages seem to come from a UCLA email address, they may get past whatever spam filters you have.

Law gives fired whistle-blowers right to sue UC

Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, July 17, 2010

University of California employees who believe they have been fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on improper activities can, for the first time, sue for damages under a new law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor signed the bill into law Thursday over the objections of UC administrators.

Until now, UC employees could complain about retaliation only to the university's own administrative review panel, but could not go to court as other state employees may do. Employees of California State University and the community college system also have the right to go to court.

UC argued that employees should not be allowed to sue without first proving that the university's administrative review process was flawed. But Schwarzenegger disagreed.

"The governor believes in protecting whistle-blowers, and this legislation protects those at the University of California the same way other state employees are protected," said spokeswoman Andrea McCarthy.

The law's author, state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, said it was a conflict of interest for UC's administrators to have the last word on whether UC has to pay monetary damages in cases of workplace retaliation.
***
The new law takes effect in January.
***

Full article at:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/17/BALK1EFKLU.DTL

This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

UCLA Admissions in NY Times

July 15, 2010, NY times
In California, a University Tries to Enroll Students that Reflect a Diverse State
By RACHEL GROSS

Which college in the United States gets the most applicants? It’s not Harvard or Yale; it’s the University of California, Los Angeles.

The urban campus, the most selective in the 10-campus system, received 57,578 freshman applications for fall 2010, though less than a quarter of those got in. Systemwide, a record 100,000 students applied as freshmen this year, according to a new admissions report presented by the university this week.

Full article at:
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/in-california-a-university-tries-to-enroll-students-that-reflect-a-diverse-state/?pagemode=print

Minimum Wage Threat to State Workers Removed for 2 Months

The governor's attempt to impose the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour on state workers has been on temporary hold. The Sacramento Bee reports that the hold is effectively at least 2 months.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/17/2896268/judges-order-buys-california-state.html
The threat of paying the minimum wage did not apply to UC employees but had it actually gone into effect, it might have put UC in a difficult position. UC would be in the position of ending furloughs at the same time other state employees were at the minimum.

The minimum wage issue arises because there is no state budget in place and, hence, no authorization to pay most state employees. It has nothing to do with whether there is cash on hand to meet the payroll. There have been legal decisions that support the governor's position over a period of years, including quite recently. However, the state controller argues that the state's antiquated computers cannot be programmed to pay the minimum wage and then pay back wages owed when a budget is passed, without putting the state in violation of federal labor law.

The latest court decision will require a full hearing on this technical issue - which takes time. What the governor wanted was an immediate order pending such a hearing to pay the minimum. However, the decision noted that the requirement for an immediate order was based on "irreparable injury" to the state. However, because the state would eventually have to pay back wages to make workers whole, the court did not see such injury:

Paying prematurely what must be paid in the end anyway does not result in irreparable injury unless the premature payment causes other serious consequences.

Legal beagles can find the full opinion at:
http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/100716%20Marlette%20TRO%20ruling.pdf

UPDATE: With the minimum wage off the table for the governor as a bargaining chip on the budget, the governor announced renewed furloughs for state workers until a budget is enacted. Note that UC furloughs - which are outside this order - go through August anyway. So a disparity between UC and other state workers on furloughs would not appear until September - if the budget stalemate lasts into that month. On the furlough order, see http://bit.ly/8XEQrK