Rating Regents

From the Bruin: University of California student leaders are creating a system to evaluate UC Regents based on their engagement with students. The UC Student Association will release the UC Regent Report Card annually to evaluate how often UC Regents visit campuses and talk to students during their visits and how they vote on issues that affect students. UCSA will vote on the details of the report card at its monthly board meeting this weekend. UCSA President Judith Gutierrez said she thinks the regents are out of touch with students because they have often failed to enact policies that benefit students, such as keeping tuition low or passing strong sexual health measures.

Gutierrez also said campus external vice presidents are soliciting suggestions from students on metrics to use for the report card. Student representatives to the UC Board of Regents said they think creating an evaluation tool will help keep the regents accountable and involved with students. Student Regent Paul Monge said he thinks regents should spend more time with students because of their impact on students’ lives.

“When the regents are voting on tuition increases, it is helpful for us to know how that translates directly into students’ lives,” he said. “The best-informed policies come from having conversations with those directly impacted.”

Monge also said he thinks regents should meet with students because he thinks they operate under a set of assumptions they may not always base on students’ personal experiences.

“Having a report card or other mechanisms to monitor activities create positive incentives for regents to do our due diligence,” he added. “As UC Regents, we should welcome public accountability and not shy away from it.”

Monge also said regents’ policies only urge them to visit campuses, rather than require them to do so.

“There is no internal goal or minimum standard to judge how often regents engage campuses,” he said. “Unless we truly incentivize a culture of visiting campuses, regents will not have firsthand accounts of student experiences.”

Devon Graves, student regent-designate, said student representatives to the Board of Regents have been promoting the report card through social media and informing the regents of its creation.

“All the folks I talked to are fine with it,” he said. “They said they think it’s reasonable. It’s expected that students want to have interactions with regents.”...

Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2017/10/13/ucsa-plans-to-introduce-regents-student-engagement-evaluation-system/

Veto

Governor Brown is in the midst of feverish signing and vetoing various bills. One bill - SB 169 - would have put into California law the now-revoked federal "guidance" to universities of under Title 9 relating to sexual assault and harassment. Brown notes in his veto message concerns about due process under Title 9 procedures that have arisen in recent years.

You can find the veto message at:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/docs/SB_169_Veto_Message_2017.pdf

The actual bill is at:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB169

It might be noted that the bill's language appears to extend into K-12 districts.

Brown also includes in his message reference to the "Yes Means Yes" law enacted in 2014.

Reports

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed a law that will require the University of California to be more transparent in how it reports costs and how it deals with the state auditor, a measure that was introduced in the wake of a scathing audit of the UC president's office this spring. The audit found that the UC Office of the President failed to disclose up to $175 million in budget reserve funds, even as the system looked to lawmakers and tuition hikes for more money.

Records showed that surveys sent to individual campuses as part of the audit were altered after consultation with the president's office, raising concerns of interference in the audit by the top office. The new law will prohibit UC campuses from coordinating with the president's office when the state auditor requests information.

The measure, AB 1655 by Assemblyman Tim Grayson (D-Concord), also will require UC to use publicly available financial information when it publishes its biennial report on the costs of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. That report, which is required by law, is meant to demystify how much the campuses are spending on instruction and research. But a 2016 state audit found that the reports were "problematic because the source of the data it uses is not apparent, and it does not tie the costs and funding it reported to readily available and public financial data, such as its audited annual financial report."

Source: http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-after-scathing-audit-uc-will-have-to-1508022218-htmlstory.html

Actual bill at https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1655

Try the bus

We noted the offer of free bus service in an earlier post. So why not try the bus (circa 1931)?

Aftershock of Shapiro Visit to Berkeley

From the Daily Cal:

Berkeley College Republicans president impeached by secretary amid power struggle

10-12-17

Troy Worden was allegedly ousted as the president of Berkeley College Republicans by the organization’s secretary at the end of its Thursday evening meeting.

Bradley Devlin, the secretary of BCR, allegedly impeached Worden because of how he handled Ben Shapiro’s appearance on campus Sept. 14, which was organized by BCR. The club allegedly intends to appoint a “less alt-right” member as president and bring back “actual Republican ideals,” according to a BCR member who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his reputation.

Devlin said he will be “going in for” the role of BCR’s new president but declined to comment further on the incident. According to Worden, Devlin allegedly called a vote of no confidence against Worden’s role as president at the club’s Thursday meeting without notifying any other members beforehand. The majority of the people who voted, Worden alleged, were freshman pledges from Devlin’s fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega, who had no affiliation with BCR.

“Essentially, he brought in a large group of people who, because they signed papers, claimed that they could vote in the election … and then declared the results that I was impeached,” Worden alleged. “We will not allow the ego of one individual board member to distract the club (from) its overarching goals (of) supporting the Republican Party (and) supporting the Free Speech Movement.”

Not all of BCR’s board members were in attendance and none of them had been notified beforehand, Worden alleged. Devlin also allegedly counted the votes by himself without any oversight, according to Worden. Worden alleged that after Devlin announced the impeachment, he and his fraternity members went outside the room and “let out a cheer.”

BCR member Pranav Jandhyala was not at the meeting Thursday night but heard about the incident afterward. He said he was taken “by surprise” but added that he hoped the situation would be resolved.

“A lot of us didn’t know that this was coming or that this was happening,” Jandhyala said. “Nothing is productive when there’s fighting in a club, and in order to be a successful club on campus … the only way to really do that is remaining united.”

Despite Devlin’s impeachment announcement, Worden said he still considers himself to be the president of BCR. "I absolutely dispute it, and actual BCR members dispute it. Any claims he makes to my being impeached (are) false entirely. There’s no grain of truth in it,” Worden alleged. “Now, all he’s done is (create) confusion for the Berkeley community.”

Source: http://www.dailycal.org/2017/10/12/berkeley-college-republicans-president-allegedly-impeached-by-secretary-amid-power-struggle/

For Whom the Pell Rolls (Toward Graduation)

From the Washington Post:

For disadvantaged students, getting into a top college is a significant feat. But getting a diploma matters far more. Among 100 major public universities across the country — state flagships and other prominent schools — only 11 report a six-year graduation rate of at least 80 percent for students with enough financial need to qualify for federal Pell Grants:

                                      Grad Rate  Pell Grad Rate 
---------------------------------------------------------------           
University of Virginia-Main               94%         93%
University of California-Berkeley         92          89
University of California-Los Angeles      91          88
---------------------------------------------------------------
Full article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/10/12/which-public-colleges-have-top-grad-rates-for-students-in-financial-need/

Note: No other UC campuses are on the Washington Post's list.

UCLA Free Transit

If you didn't get an email about the above offer, here it is:

Rideshare Month 2017 is well underway, and this week, we're highlighting the benefits of public transit. Try it free for an entire quarter, and see how much money you can save, in addition to alleviating the stress of driving in traffic every day. With our new Bruin Commuter Transit Benefit, you can ride on any Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Culver CityBus and/or any Metro rail or bus line.

Link to apply:
https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/6f7e3ec4bda447889b7a2f1c99d059d1

But just be sure you're on the right bus: