Class Recordings

Nowadays, smartphones and other devices can make audio or video recordings. If you are an instructor, you should be aware of the following:

California Education Code Section 78907

The use by any person, including a student, of any electronic listening or recording device in any classroom without the prior consent of the instructor is prohibited, except as necessary to provide reasonable auxiliary aids and academic adjustments to disabled students. Any person, other than a student, who willfully violates this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any student violating this section shall be subject to appropriate disciplinary action. This section shall not be construed as affecting the powers, rights, and liabilities arising from the use of electronic listening or recording devices as provided for by any other provision of law.

Source: http://codes.findlaw.com/ca/education-code/edc-sect-78907.html

Of course, you can give permission for such recording. If you have no objection, you could announce in the class that recording is allowed. Or you could give permission on request. Keep in mind that such recordings will likely also pick up statements by students asking questions or answering questions in class. Note that the education code makes allowance for students with disabilities who might need to use some kind of recording device.

State court upholds UC tuition, aid for immigrants here illegally

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A state appeals court says the University of California Board of Regents acted legally in allowing unauthorized immigrants living in the state to pay the same tuition levels as other residents and to get financial aid.

State lawmakers had voted in 2001 to grant in-state tuition to all students, regardless of immigration status, at all of California’s public colleges and universities. But because of UC’s independent status under the state Constitution, the legislation applied only to fees at California State University and community college campuses. The regents, UC’s governing body, then voted to take the same step for students at their campuses who had attended high school in California and had applied to legalize their immigration status.

Fewer than 1 percent of the students at all three institutions were unauthorized immigrants eligible for those lower costs, according to a legislative staff report. At UC, students from California currently pay $12,294 in tuition and fees, while out-of-state students pay $38,976...

Full story at http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-court-says-unauthorized-immigrants-can-pay-10788226.php

Pérez was in the race, but now he's now out

Regent John Pérez had announced he was a candidate for a vacant congressional seat - which would have posed a problem for the Regents.* Other than the ex officio regents such as the governor, members of the regents have not been active candidates for office. But now Pérez says he is not a candidate after all, due to unspecified health reasons:

Citing a recent diagnosis of a serious health problem, former California Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said Saturday he is dropping out of the race to replace U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles). "I've got to focus on my health right now," Pérez said in an interview. "But it was a very hard decision." The 47-year-old Democrat declined to offer specifics about his condition, citing a desire to keep it private. But he said it was serious enough that it would keep him from waging a vigorous political campaign in 2017...

Full story at http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-john-p-rez-decides-against-running-for-1481390443-htmlstory.html
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2016/12/political-reshuffle-could-affect-regents.html

Trump Transition Probe of Energy Dept. Involves the UC-Related Labs

You may have noticed headlines and news reports of a probe by the Trump transition team into Energy Dept. employees who have been involved in climate change research. Below is an excerpt from the Washington Post:*

Donald Trump’s transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the Energy Department, asking agency officials to identify which employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation’s carbon output.

The questionnaire requests a list of those individuals who have taken part in international climate talks over the past five years and “which programs within DOE are essential to meeting the goals of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.”...

The questionnaire also appeared to take aim at the national laboratories, which operate with a high degree of independence but are part of the Energy Department. The questionnaire asked for a list of the top 20 salaried employees of the labs, the labs’ peer-reviewed publications over the past three years, a list of their professional society memberships, affiliations, and the websites they maintain or contribute to “during work hours.” Researchers at national labs focus on a range of issues, including renewable-energy development and climate analysis...

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These developments raise an important question since, as the image above illustrates, UC is involved in management of the labs, a connection that has a history in the World War II Manhattan Project. What plans do the Regents and UCOP have to protect lab employees from retaliation? There will be a Regents meeting in January. Is this item on the agenda? 

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*https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/09/trump-transition-team-for-energy-department-seeks-names-of-employees-involved-in-climate-meetings/

Nice Work If You Can Get It

The item below was sent to yours truly complete with the suggested title by a reader:

University of California gives CIO $841,000 bonus despite year of negative returns

By Randy Diamond | December 9, 2016 | Pensions & Investments

The University of California Regents approved an $841,096 bonus for Jagdeep Singh Bachher, chief investment officer and vice president for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to a posting of regents' actions from its Nov. 16-17 meeting, on the UC website.

Mr. Bachher was paid a salary of $632,380. With the bonus, his total compensation amounted to $1.47 million. For the prior fiscal year, Mr. Bachher received a bonus of $874,838 on top of $615,000 salary, for a total compensation of $1.49 million.

The posting said the university's investment results for the year ended June 30 “were lackluster,” trailing its benchmark by 81 basis points, which resulted in a net loss of $791 million.

But it notes for the two- and three-year periods ended June 30, the annualized results were ahead of the benchmark by 50 basis points for both periods. “This resulted in a net gain to the portfolios of approximately $1 billion for the two-year period and $1.5 billion for the three-year period (over and above that which would have resulted in the absence of active management),” the posting said.

Awards are based on a rolling three-year assessment against performance benchmarks. Mr. Bachher was in charge of managing more than $97 billion for the university, including its endowment, pension plan and other investment pools, and the bonus is calculated on the performance of all the entities.

Mr. Bachher has cited volatile markets for the -3.4% one-year return of the system's $9.1 billion endowment as of June 30, 1.7 percentage points below its benchmark...

Full story at http://www.pionline.com/article/20161209/ONLINE/161209853/university-of-california-gives-cio-841000-bonus-despite-year-of-negative-returns

We're sure the bonus was music to his ears:

More than expected but...

The state controller has released her cash report through November. About $200 million more has arrived in the General Fund than was projected for that period when the state budget was enacted. That's the good news. But of the three big taxes - personal income tax, sales tax, and corporate tax - only the first is ahead of projections. The other two are behind. So the state remains highly dependent on the economic fate of top income earners and thus is especially vulnerable to any downturns that may come along.

You can find the cash report at:
http://sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CASH/05%20November%202016.pdf

Attitudes

Concerning Public Higher Ed in California:

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Table above from the latest public opinion survey of the Public Policy Institute of California on public higher ed:
http://ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S_1216MBS.pdf