UCLA History: Beverly

The map above is reproduced from "UCLA on the Move" (1969) and was originally designed to show what would be the new location for UCLA in Westwood.  The new location was referred to as the "Beverly Site" because what is now Sunset Blvd. was Beverly Blvd. back then.  Click on the map to enlarge and see details.

Not in Service

No, it's not the bus that out of service.  It's the 405 once again:

From Metro:

Southbound 405 closures between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards planned nights of June 15 and 16

The I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project contractor is scheduled to conduct two consecutive nighttime freeway closures on the southbound I-405 between Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles the nights of Sunday, June 15 and Monday, June 16, 2014 to facilitate traffic loop installation and thermoplastic freeway striping.
Closure information is as follows:

• Midnight on Sunday, June 15 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16
• Midnight on Monday, June 16 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, June 17

Ramps will begin to close at 7 p.m. and lanes will begin to close at 11 p.m.
Ramp Closures:
Southbound on-ramp from eastbound Wilshire Boulevard
Southbound on-ramp from westbound Wilshire Boulevard
Southbound on-ramp from eastbound Sunset Boulevard
Southbound on-ramp from westbound Sunset Boulevard

Source: http://thesource.metro.net/2014/06/13/southbound-405-closures-between-sunset-and-santa-monica-boulevards-planned-nights-of-june-15-and-16/

You Can Help UC by Buying a House

We noted yesterday that while the media were featuring leaks about the new state budget deal between the governor and legislative leaders, the various items mentioned did not seem to include UC.

However, later news reports mention that UC might get $50 million beyond what the governor had originally proposed, depending on whether property taxes were above what was forecast.  Now the property tax is a local tax so it may seem surprising that it figures in what UC gets.  However, under Prop 98, K-14 gets state funding under various formulas.  But what the school districts get from the local property tax figures into the total obligation.  So if there is more property tax, there will be less of a burden on the state.  Yours truly assumes this linkage is what the deal for UC (CSU gets the same) is all about.

Of course, it may seem odd to base the UC budget on the vagaries of the real estate market.  But that would not be the only odd thing about the state budget.

Even if the $50 million arrives, it would be less than half of what the Regents requested beyond the governor's proposal for ongoing UC expenses.  However, there is also reported to be an extra $100 million for "deferred maintenance" which probably goes into the capital budget.  Again, you should keep in mind that these are news reports, not actual budget language.  In the official media release, higher ed spending is not mentioned: http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18557 The legislature has until Sunday midnight to enact the actual budget bill.  The governor has a line item veto so he could chop out the UC increment, whatever it is.

You can find mentions of the UC budget increment at:
http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20140613/10-things-to-know-about-the-california-budget
http://dailybruin.com/2014/06/13/uc-to-receive-50m-more-in-funding-if-tax-revenue-exceeds-expectations/
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/12/6480411/budget-deal-spends-cap-and-trade.html

A radio interview with senate president Steinberg on the budget deal is at:

UCLA and Hollywood Interns

A wave of lawsuits has led some of the biggest Hollywood companies to end their long-standing practice of not paying interns. But there's a high-profile holdout in this labor controversy: the popular horror and comedy studio Lionsgate. The company, known for squeezing maximum profit out of smaller genre movies such as "Saw" and "Kick-Ass," is the only major film and television studio with an unpaid internship program. It's a practice, legal experts say, that could expose Lionsgate to a potential lawsuit...

UCLA is among the universities that have guided students to Lionsgate. The school's Career Center, a resource for students seeking internships, said the company's program conforms to UCLA's standards. The Career Center staff reviews internship opportunities to make sure they comply with the federal guidelines...

Full story at www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-lionsgate-interns-20140613-story.html

UCLA FA to Rejoin CUCFA

Some years ago the UCLA Faculty Association was a member of Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA), but dropped. With new leadership at CUCFA and the UCLA FA, it seemed like a good time to revisit our membership in the Council, and recently the Executive Board voted unanimously to pursue a renewed membership with CUCFA.

What is CUCFA you ask? CUCFA (or "the Council") is a coalition of the faculty associations at University of California campuses. Each campus chapter is an independent organization with the Council serving as a coordinating and information sharing body. Each campus chapter delegates a representative to the Council, which meets as a body annually (and more regularly over email). The Council employes an executive director who also serves as an advocate in Sacramento for faculty issues before the state government. Currently, UCLA is the only campus faculty association in the UC system not affiliated with CUCFA.

In the fall, the UCLA FA Executive Board met with CUCFA president Patricia Morton (Art History, UCR) who warmly welcomed closer collaboration between campus Faculty Associations. During the winter we gathered information about CUCFA and kept in close touch with CUCFA deliberations via an Executive Board liaison to CUCFA.

Based on all of this information the Board considered the following motions:

First, "Whereas one key function of the UCLA Faculty Association listed in the By-laws is "to encourage the development of, and to cooperate with, parallel or similar organizations on other campuses of the University of California”; and whereas the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) is an organization that coordinates the activities of Faculty Associations on eight of the UC campuses, therefore the Executive Board affirms the desirability of formal affiliation with CUCFA, and authorizes the payment of affiliate fees to CUCFA."

Second, “The UCLA FA Executive Board creates and empowers a subcommittee to formalize affiliation on its behalf. The subcommittee will report back to the Executive Board and the Treasurer at its earliest convenience. In the meantime, the Executive Board directs its Chair to notify the membership of the decision to affiliate with CUCFA via electronic communication as soon as possible.”

The motions carried with 7 votes in favor and none opposed. For more information about CUCFA, see the organization's website http://cucfa.org/about.php

As with all decisions of the Executive Board, FA members who wish to comment or want more information are encouraged to contact the chair, Toby Higbie, to comment here, or to email the FA at uclafacultyassociation (at) gmail (dot) com.

In the meantime, we look forward to greater collaboration with FAs on other UC campuses in the future to address system-wide issues!

Budget leaks become a flood

As we approach the June 15th deadline for the legislature to pass a state budget, the drip-drip of leaks about the negotiations between the governor and Democratic leaders (the GOP is cut out of deal making), is becoming a flood.

Sadly, what is coming out of that flood deals with high-speed rail, social programs especially home care aides, fixing up the governor's mansion, and fees on railroad oil cars.*  So far, no substantive leak on the higher ed budget, i.e., whether it exceeds the governor's proposal, has appeared.  [An earlier post noted a brief mention of higher ed, but without any details.]

The only good news is that there are only a couple more days before we find out. 

*http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rail-oil-fee-20140613-story.html
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-pol-state-budget-20140613-story.html
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/budget-includes-25-million-to-fix-up-governors-mansion.html
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/budget-deal-rejects-home-care-overtime-restrictions.html
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/06/budget-deal-gives-25-percent-of-cap-and-trade-money-to-high-speed-rail.html

The bad news is that the last flood caused a lot of problems:

Who owns the material you prepare for courses (including digital)?

According to UC (and therefore UCLA) policy, you own such materials including digital.  But there are two catches:

1) Exceptional University Resources.University Resources (including but not limited to University Facilities and University Funds...) significantly in excess of the usual support generally available to similarly situated faculty members. Customary secretarial support, library facilities, office space, personal computers, access to computers and networks, and academic year salary are not considered exceptional university resources.

Where there are exceptional resources as above, some kind of formal agreement is expected that divides any revenue produced between the creator and the university.

Specifically: Ownership of the rights to Course Materials created, in whole or in part, by Designated Instructional Appointees with the use of Exceptional University Resources shall be governed by a written agreement entered into between the Originator(s) and the University. The agreement shall specify how rights will be owned and controlled and how any revenues will be divided if the materials are commercialized.

Ownership of the rights to Course Materials, including copyright, shall reside with the Designated Instructional Appointee who creates them.  However, the University retains a fully paid - up, royalty - free, perpetual, and non-exclusive worldwide license to any Course Approval Documents for the purpose of continuing to teach the course of instruction for which the documents were prepared, with the non-exclusive right to revise and update them as required for this purpose.

So what the policy seems to be is that you own what you create for a course unless exceptional university resources go into creation in which case some kind of deal has to be negotiated dividing the pie.  Even where you have 100% ownership (no exceptional resources), the university has the right to use or modify the materials to continue the course.

The actual policy is at http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/2100004/CourseMaterials

In short, with certain exceptions, there are things they can't take away from you: