The state controller has released the cash report
for the past fiscal year 2017-18. There is good news and bad news. The good
news is that revenues were up about $1.5 billion relative to the projections
made in June 2017 (when the 2017-18 budget was enacted). The bad news is that the
extra money came mainly from the personal income tax (which probably means a
big capital gains component) and the corporate tax (profits). Sales tax revenue
- which is a proxy for consumption and much of the economic activity of the
state came in below budget projections and, indeed, below last year's figure.
So the good revenue news was likely from the most volatile component of revenue
that can drop off precipitously in any kind of downturn.
Of course, there is no sign of a downturn currently,
despite the turmoil about tariffs and such. And the state has access not only
to its official general fund reserves - including the governor's rainy day fund - but also to cash sitting in other accounts of the state outside the general fund. So-called
unused borrowable reserves are close to $40 billion, which is a significant
cushion.
From the Bruin: UCLA researchers will launch a new app that aims to better understand the campus climate, which includes a variety of factors that contribute to students’ experience at UCLA.
BruinX, the research and development branch of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, finished beta testing their new app, BruinXperience, last month. UCLA undergraduate and graduate students can start using the app fall quarter.
The app will remind students every two weeks to complete a two-item survey which asks them to select a picture that best describes how they feel at that moment, then provides a text box for them to explain their choice.
Carli Straight, a research scientist for BruinX, said collecting survey responses more frequently will be advantageous because students can remember recent personal events more accurately.
Data can also be collected in closer proximity to specific events to observe how opinions change before and after the event.
She added that the app allows students to directly tell administrative officials about what affects their experience on campus.
“We not only ask students to report how they feel but why they feel the way they do, giving them the platform to tell us, in their own words, what affects them,” Straight said.
Lauren Ilano, a research analyst at Student Affairs Information and Research Office, said she thinks collecting data more frequently could help improve programs that use campus climate data.
“Having more campus climate data collected at closer intervals could potentially help departments make adjustments to their programming,” Ilano said. “Campus climate issues are extremely important and having more regular data is one way to assess initiatives in real time.”
Lena Nguyen, a rising second-year political science and pre-communication student, said she thinks BruinXperience will make the campus climate survey process more convenient for students.
“(Past campus climate surveys) just never came up,” Nguyen said. “But I would do it if I saw it online or on my phone because it’s faster.”
Straight also said that BruinXperience will not replace existing survey infrastructure, which includes traditional, more in-depth quarterly surveys.
“Information collected from both short-interval and annual surveys will contribute to a more complete understanding of students’ perceptions of campus climate,” she said.
UC Berkeley student Edward Huang selected as student advisor to UC regents, plans to bring STEM perspective
By Ryan Geller | Daily Cal | 7-9-18
Edward Huang, a rising UC Berkeley senior and applied mathematics major, has been vetted and selected by students, UC administrators and regents to be the 2018-19 student advisor to the UC Board of Regents. The student advisor position is intended to broaden student representation on the Board of Regents by providing a perspective relevant to communities that are not already represented by the student regent, who is the only voting student member of the board. The position, which has only existed for one year, will be reviewed after Huang’s term to determine whether the program should continue. “I was a little surprised that they chose someone with more of a STEM background than a public policy background,” Huang said. Huang has served as both treasurer and vice president of the Cal Hiking and Outdoor Society, or CHAOS. He is also involved with Berkeley Student Cooperative, where he began serving as maintenance manager of Davis House in spring 2018. Rafael Sands, a recently graduated business economics and political science student from UCLA, was the first to serve as student advisor and said advisory positions such as this require relationship-building and communication skills, which can be subtle and highly detailed. Sands was part of the selection committee that chose Huang as his successor. “Edward is a very good listener; he knows when to speak and how to speak, and he is very inquisitive,” Sands said. “Knowing how to use your voice effectively is so important. This is a unique position that has a lot (of) power if you can use your voice in the right way.” As a STEM major, Huang said in an email that he gravitates toward quantitative analysis when looking at policy issues. He added that the scientific process is a reliable methodology because it forces people to question how they know what they know and to only use information that has an evidentiary basis — a method of thought he plans to use in the advisory process. Huang said his involvement with CHAOS gave him administrative experience, as he made decisions that took into account up to 1,000 members. The club is about building community, having fun and reducing stress, according to Huang, as well as good stewardship exemplified by wilderness practices such as “leave no trace.” Student Regent Devon Graves said he agrees with Sands in that although there is only one voting student member on the board, the positions are about access to information and communicating with board members. “Students are the best messengers for communicating advocacy needs,” Graves said. Graves also said Sands established the position’s value by building student advocacy at the state and federal level, and that joint advocacy between students, the student regent and the student advisor played a role in this year’s increased state funding and prevented an in-state tuition increase. “I am really excited to be a part of this collaborative decision-making process, and I hope that I can increase student representation on the board,” Huang said. “I know there will be many difficult decisions this year, and I am prepared to make those decisions for the benefit of the school community.”
In an earlier post, we noted that although the upcoming Regents meeting was supposed to have a proposal for modifying (cutting back) retiree health, no such item has appeared on the Regents' preliminary agenda.*
"Sources" now say that it is unlikely such an agenda item will be added and that more consultation will go on before any such proposal is put forward to the Regents.
