Cloudminder

"Under Brown’s plan, the GPA requirements for Cal Grants would increase, thereby reducing state expenditures by an estimated $131 million. Nearly one-third of current recipients would be cut off from grant money, according to the report."

2012-02-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

"Additionally, the report cautions against Brown’s proposal to afford more financial flexibility to UC and CSU administrators by eliminating earmarks on state appropriations." read the full story.

also see: Center for Investigative Reporting to merge with The Bay Citizen -- Phil Bronstein, we are counting on you to make sure things don't get f'ed up there.

Birgeneau wants to go to the US Congress --to ask for fund matching/change the topic.

More importantly:
Have We Protected Poor Students from Debt?

"While the UC could reap many millions from an Eolas win, it is suing the world’s biggest internet companies — the same companies that recruit its students, and are enmeshed with the UC in many other ways."

2012-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

see:
Patent Troll Claims Ownership of Interactive Web – And Might Win

(hint: think about those recent deals with Adobe,Google, Oracle etc. etc. Could it possibly affect the holdings of any UC Regents? Other UC VIPs?)

one thing leads to another

Brown on Cal Grant Funding and GPAs, Round Up

2012-02-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

see:
"Brown’s 2012-13 budget proposal reduces funding to Cal Grant program by $131.2 million by increasing the minimum GPA requirement for Cal Grant A from a 3.0 to a 3.25, Cal Grant B from a 2.0 to a 2.75 and community college transfer entitlement awards from a 2.4 to a 2.75."
A.S. opposes Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget cuts

also this story at CSU

Calif. Speaker Pérez wants to cut college costs

some analysis on that here.

also see these latest posts: from Changing Universities and University Probe's Charles Schwartz is in the Chron of Higher Ed on UC Financial Reports and Remaking the University.

the California Channel is a great resource- there are many recent videos on textbook costs, community college initiatives and press conferences on higher ed- peruse the recent videos section-- many times telling comments are made that are not necessarily picked up by the MSM.

Also, Daily Cal raises some very important questions about the lack of transparency of UC Regent Chair Lansing's meetings with cherry picked groups of students tour...
Board of Regents Chair Speaks With Student Leaders Behind Closed Doors About UC’s Future
- as an observation, there is a reason why CA has public meetings laws (the regents are public officials, the students attend a public university) to protect citizens- are students giving up some of their power by agreeing to meet in these meetings as the regents set them up?

Birgeneau Called Sec. Chu "Our Messiah"?!

2012-02-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

A section from this old piece - about the background of the making of the BP/Berkeley deal-provides a flashback to the hyperbole, puffedupness of just a few short years ago--But then again - if you pat each other on the back and call each other Messiahs it is easy for one to imagine doing things like this. and not the Solyndra debacle and that li'l ol' spill in the Gulf of Mexico (that -interestingly-some UCSB scientists are saying is no big deal- all clear).

they had a recent reunion - the Messiah returned you could say- sans Dynes...

More on the push for Cal- or is it UC- to become a 'federal university'

One of the staffers mentioned in that old story (first link) is now going to be chief of staff to Mr. Former World Bank-- a staffer from decades of operations that have brought us to a time where many ops are being described harshly by outside consultants... but not the BP deal of course...where is the consistency of thought from new management?

This reads like one of those puff pieces the VIPs put out when someone is getting ready to call it a day soon, right? hhmmm.

Speaking of possible replacements for consideration:
Christina Romer on manufacturing in the NY Times--maybe.

UCSD Guardian picks up on a story about DSPP 'Disabled' UC Santa Barbara students possibly being discriminated against in UCSB hiring practices.

speaking of bad stats in recruiting see the stats on the UC student regent position- no female students filling that role in a long time - only 70 students systemwide apply, many unqualified, undergrads can't compete with grads?!

Why was personal property belonging only to Occupy UCDavis members
stolen?! - but curiously and fortunately all UC property left in place in this incident? It seems a strange coincidence.

NPR picks up on the alternative to tuition increases by giving a cut of future alumni salaries back to UC for 20+ years-- but they don't cover the other alternatives being discussed as well..

in honor of Charles Dickens birthday today: The Downward Mobility of the American Middle Class.
January’s increase in hiring is good news, but most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy. The middle class, meanwhile, is becoming poorer and poorer.

PS there is also this -- it is strange that a chancellor is getting more coverage than the director of that lab-- thought efforts were being made to draw clear lines between the labs and the campuses but apparently not.

Yudof emphasizes Stafford, downplaying Pell and real cost to attend...

2012-02-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

Yudof's latest interview with Patt Morrison

Auction 2012: Greedy Bastards and Student Debt -- read carefully the part about prestige over learning and online.

then think about what Reich says about :"All of which raises a basic question: Who or what is the economy for?"..."The best means of balancing the demands of consumers and investors against those of workers and citizens has been through democratic institutions that shape and constrain markets." and his comments on tech-- recall comments in the SOTU and compare with Edley,Yudof, Ratigan various versions of an emphasis on tech as a fix for higher ed...democratic mediating institutions are %$#@ed.

Song of Solomon -Cal Bear-anthropology- the Black and White Ball...
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it's just all so damn serious-sad-need a laugh: "But beware averages. Shaquille O’Neal and I have an average height of six feet."-Reich

Profs at Cal Join Ralph Nader On Leg. Limiting Tuition Increases

2012-02-03T11:59:00.002-08:00

Initiative in progress could limit public college tuition increases

Gavin, Arnold and Jerry--the dramz continues

2012-02-03T09:36:00.006-08:00

sometimes think that Gavin makes all sorts of kind overtures/words/re-remembering of Arnie because Gavin's wife wants in on the movie biz -and they both want access to certain types in SoCal-and Arnie has influence that way-- Regent Lansing too...but who knows...
yes, we covered this already but...
but can't seem to get the glowing statement Gavin gave about how Arnold 'gave' CA Public Higher Ed $750 million and there's no reason we can't do that today too sentiments Gavin said during that KQED interview we linked to a bit earlier.
The section that UC and the regents should press the Gov and Lt Gov on is this section:

"in 2007, Gov Schwarzenegger, facing an equally daunting budget challenge, invested an additional $750 million dollars in higher education despite the budget deficit. I don't think this can be done- I know this can be done."

The Gov. (Brown) should push back on that statement if it is not true for today.
listen at the 28:00 mark but- most importantly- listen at the 30:00 mark of the interview with Gavin.
everyone needs to not toy with what can be done for public highed ed and get to substance.
HuffPo has now called the interview a Sacto Smackdown
Drama.
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Love this area of research: UC Berkeley Scientists Eavesdrop Inside the Mind but (could be) really spooky...
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Reading this Ramirez v. Regents Of University Of California
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PS can lower Sproul be renamed OccupyCal Square, Upper Zellerbach, Bear Square or something other than Sproulcentric. all that (re)construction and it doesn't even get its own name?

Told Ya March UC Regent Meeting Will Be Big...

2012-02-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

but one other thing will be happening at the beginning of March- this update on a very sad story-- that always points out how differently each group is treated- lately the disparity between how the Regents are treated as compared to the Prof. How are the Regents really held to account in this process?

Riverside: UCR rally protests police action

UC Riverside Discusses January Protest Clash

Regents Will Consider UC-Riverside Student Plan for Alternative to Tuition in March

--in addition to their receiving reports from the investigative committees at UCD and UCB at this same meeting.

UCSD Buys Bankrupt Nevada Cancer Facility who could possibly be worried about $ or the size of UC already being unwieldy?

the MSM still breathing life into a bad idea: Student proposal: Pay college tuition after graduation

Prof. Lustig-viewing this changes lives--but... "Should Sugar Be Regulated Like Alcohol and Tobacco?" --Maybe sugar could fund public higher ed... not likely.

“not necessarily the most collaborative executive.”

2012-02-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

part of why things are the way they are:

California's lieutenant governor and former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom joins us to discuss the role of the office of the lieutenant governor. And, as a board member of both the University of California and CSU, we'll hear Newsom's ideas about the changes in higher education in California.
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more on non collaborative executives, both jr. and sr.:
@mark_yudof Mark G. Yudof "I am delighted to welcome my friend @SenFeinstein to Twitter!"
and he is up at the Lab with Chu
But does Yudof ever go to the Cal campus to meet regular everyday students and staff...(he could have joined Edley and Robinson yesterday- that might have packed in Pauley)
why?
remember when Birgeneau said he got chewed out on the phone by Di Fi in November after the ruckus? Did a good friend tell her to do that, hmm?
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something happening here.

Votes of No Confidence Expressed In Different Ways..

2012-02-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

refusing to participate, or engage-- is one of them.

At forum, UC Berkeley officials say improved police methods needed at future protests
Matt Krupnick charitably calls it "sparsely attended"
SF Chron covered the event too but fell off into the ditch of side issues. (the number of mainstream reporters NOT covering the status of the investigative task force/committees at UCD and UCB is really a story in itself.)
and note the admin continues to throw the UCPD under the bus without addressing their own failings...Robinson says he fears- but doesn't fear - they will/did disappoint:

how do you achieve an objective independent status when you are being paid by one side? Do they teach that to freshly minted Golden Gate U grads?

No DREAM Act for UCSF Patient

2012-02-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

if the dream requires living, see:
Jesus Navarro, An Undocumented Immigrant, Denied Kidney Transplant Despite Willing Donor And Insurance Coverage

wonder what Regent Zettle thinks of all of this...

Photo Op

2012-02-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

Daily Cal obliges:
UC holds town hall meeting to discuss response to future protests

@sy_khan tweets cover it better:

Speaker: I would like to point out that a horse with blinders is only doing one thing: he's looking forward. #occupyforum
14 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: so far, the chancellor and his men have totally failed, and that is why we need another solution #occupyforum

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: part of the problem is that top layer of admin is invisible- last time i saw the exec. VC at a GA he was practically in disguise

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: increasing distance between faculty and the admin is a serious concern and part of the very problem of privatization #occupyforum
14 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: many think the police issues are a distraction from what really matter- privatization of the campus, etc #occupyforum
14 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: we're not looking in the past for bad guys, we're looking for bad system designs. Looking back is a component of looking forward
14 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: I had ethical concerns about joining the BAMN lawsuit, but it was all that was open to me, my only avenue for justice #occupyforum
14 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: when is it ok to use things that cause pain to someone? #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: it's a slap in the face that Christopher Edley was invited here as a rep- has proved time and time again not on side of students
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Groups now returned into larger group for commentary and questions #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: i was sleeping on Sproul for 30 nights, got to know police very well. I know that they feel very victimized by UC #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: after Wheeler '09 we wanted to have a crisis command center, that completely failed on Nov 9 #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Cont'd: I think the lack of chain in command is no longer an excuse, can no longer be tolerated #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: everyone could agree that the melee on Nov 9 was not supposed to happen, so guestion is why does it keep happening? #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
#UC Admin rep: what I've seen is that all of admin is seen as conspiratorial cabal that have different aims but that's just not true
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker: It should be a joint task force of admin and students that comes up with plan that works across all UC #occupyforum
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Audience has broken into small groups to discuss various issues
15 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Speaker just asked all plainclothes officers to ID themselves, two people raise hands #occupyforum
16 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
Dean of law school Christopher Edley addressing room #occupyforum
16 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
member of #occupycal addressing room through mic check.
16 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
A big circle of chairs has been set up in the center. ASUC pres Vishalli Loomba, Graduate assembly pres Bahar Nevab have joined the circle
16 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
members of the entering crowd, many of whom i've seen at #occupycal GAs, are moving the rows of chairs into a giant circle
16 hours ago

sy_khan Sara Khan
It's 4pm and I'm at the open forum 'how would you respond to the next #occupy?' at the pauley ballroom.
16 hours ago

and there is this UC Berkeley to implement revised code of student conduct
and this:
Police Review Board process stalled
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Don Cornelius - RIP- Soul.

bending the cost curve- another Yudof interview on Obama's challenge to higher ed

2012-01-31T13:41:00.000-08:00

Yudof on KQED Forum with a panel that includes: Martha Kanter, under secretary of education in the U.S. Department of Education
Christopher Prado, student body president at CSU East Bay
Debbie Cochrane, program director at The Institute for College Access & Success
Kristen Soares, president of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU)

compare and contrast with this from Changing Universities

finally there is this audio clip which includes some of the student public comment from UC Regents meeting if you missed it.

(PS Martha Kanter will no doubt sleep well now knowing that she has Yudof's imprimatur that she is 'a good person' --and liberal arts is ever so grateful to be acknowledge as worthwhile- is it ever possible for him to dial back the arrogance?)

At Cal: "the percentage of African American employees laid off exceeded that of other minorities."

2012-01-31T09:28:00.000-08:00

Notice a theme?

Though the analysis states that the number of African American employees laid off did not rise to a level of a “legal disparate impact" because of the low number of employees involved, they were “disproportionately over-represented among more recent hires in job groups where layoffs occurred."
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However, the campus will borrow up to $50 million from the UC Office of the President in order to hire project teams, fund the program office and pay a consulting firm to advise on the project. The campus plans to repay the office with the initiative's savings.

According to the report, the campus has spent $11 million of the loan money thus far, and approved projects are projected to cost $42 million. The campus plans to spend $71 million total -within its original spending expectations of between $70 million and $75 million -throughout the initiative, with an additional $5 million annually thereafter to keep the projects running.

Read the story and the report (if you can find it) here.
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fascinating how quickly and easily the cost saving numbers in the misty future projections are thrown around -- but the numbers on minority lay offs take forever to be disclosed...
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New Berkeley Campus Code of Student Conduct, An Update and A Reminder

2012-01-30T19:24:00.000-08:00

"After more than a year of review and study, campus officials announced today (Monday, Jan.30) that a new Berkeley Campus Code of Student Conduct has been approved and will go into effect starting Feb. 1. The code lays out expectations of behavior for students and student organizations at the university. The new code is designed to be more student-friendly and bring more consistency to the process."
Read it in full here. press release here

An Update from Prof. Choper to Chancellor Birgeneau

(but did Cal hire a $100,000 outside consultant too? -- hope not)

and a reminder about this public forum happening Tues at Cal with UCOP legal team.

MIT and UC, Up is Down, Down is Up

2012-01-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

so, John Reed- current Chair at MIT and former CitiGroup head- was on with Bill Moyers-- in a large section in the middle of the interview he blames much of the banking scandals on beliefs and practices that originated in Higher Ed... interesting point but also wonder if the MIT lovin' Koch Bros talk with him about this? funny how the Wall St folks all ran to positions in higher ed about the same time...

he will be in town in mid Feb with alumni--and others with very close connection to Cal- perhaps he will speak more on all of this, maybe even debate the issues.
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University of California Sued For Not Hiring Disabled Students

could it have anything to do with this: “Our current system is a mess. It is extremely expensive and cumbersome to operate,” said Peter Taylor, chief financial officer for the UC.
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Startups move UC discoveries to market in tandem with this background.

Blue Shield says UC medical centers want to drive up costs

Heart Surgery For UC

(UC regent) Jerry Brown Oil Scandal: Governor Fired Regulator Over Oil Rules
(remember all those groups talking about props to make oil taxes fund higher ed?)
and this latest from Bob Samuels--Romney, Private Equity, and the Future of American Capitalism

UC on funding future green housing projects: "We are way beyond that old paradigm."
UC Using More Private Developers For Student Housing

"This is not a question about the investigation, it is a question about the cooperation and lack thereof from a department within UC Davis."

2012-01-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

Why is a PUBLIC University allowed to be NON Responsive to -- the Public?:
"The bigger problem, it turns out, is that the investigators apparently have no power to compel people to come forward and speak with them. None of this is all that surprising, but it is going to temper the ability of the Kroll Investigators, as well as Cruz Reynoso's task force, to really get to the bottom of this.

I do not expect the District Attorney's office's investigation to yield anything that will come to criminal charges, and that presents a real problem in that we may never really know what happened and we might be left to subjectively deduce from not much more than we know now.

There is now a real problem with the legitimacy of the independent investigation.

We asked Claudia Morain about this situation and she referred us to the University of California Office of the President and told us to talk to Peter King, who has neither responded to emails nor a phone message.

However, more importantly, we told the UC Davis News Service, "I respectfully believe the issue of lack of UC Davis police cooperation with the investigation is a question for UC Davis."

This is not a question about the investigation, it is a question about the cooperation and lack thereof from a department within UC Davis.

Ms. Morain told me that she would get back to me. That was on Tuesday. Two days later I got no response and asked again, and I have not gotten a response yet.

Disappointing, but not surprising."
Commentary on the Controversies of the Week- Davis Vanguard
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No Reply At All

Mark Yudof -Should Financial Aid Be Linked to a College's Affordability?

2012-01-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

a Mark Yudof siting- and he is speaking on something that matters to students! from PBS
Should Financial Aid Be Linked to a College's Affordability? - President Obama announced Friday at the University of Michigan that he's putting colleges on notice that tuition hikes can't continue year after year. Ray Suarez discusses the proposals with Mark Yudof, president of the University of California, and Richard Vedder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

$100,000, POTUS, Ralph Nader, Save the Date?: January 31st

2012-01-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

but first- a $100,000 here- a $100,000 there- to pay for services Senior Management Group (SMG) members and their staff are already being paid HUGE salaries for :
“I’m not surprised to hear that (UC has) hired someone to deal with crisis communications,” Whithaus said. “The chancellor has been fairly explicit in meetings with faculty about being unhappy with the way her communications staff performed during the crisis.”
UC Spent $100,000 On Consultant After Pepper-Spraying
yes, after the pepper spray-- Katehi voiced a number of complaints about her staff...her fickleness about them at the state leg hearing...Oy. And we pointed out the costs of the SMG before...

"“How can we know that Kroll’s fact-finding isn’t consistent with the story that Marsh wants to tell if there aren’t safeguards against the permeability of these two entities?” Meister asked. “We won’t know whether the fact-finding is independent of the script.”

--a "destructive diversion" to look at these things closely?! UCOP just doesn't get it.
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more from POTUS at U Mich and on his tuition lowering plans. View the speech at U Mich in entirety here.
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Stopping America’s Public University Tuition Spiral by Ralph Nader, former Presidential candidate and consumer advocate
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Is it worth it to participate in this?: UC Will Hold Public Forum To Discuss Police Practices- Boalt's Edley and UCOP General Counsel will officiate...

Justice Reynoso on the UC Davis Investigation, and Bratton on Hot Spotting

2012-01-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

Letter From Reynoso Indicates UCD Police Not Cooperating With Investigation

Bill Bratton was on with Dylan Ratigan talking about hot spotting crime and health care issues -- data driven style. No word from him on the issues above- anywhere. Recall earlier concerns faculty voiced over him here:Letter to President Yudof objecting to hiring William Bratton to investigate UC Davis pepper-spray incident

Higher Education News - UC Looking For Revenue Sources and CSU Limits Executive Pay

An Open Letter to the UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy White (crosspost)

2012-01-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

can be read at: The Nation
and also this companion piece.
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and this other story:
"In the long term, the university hopes to see the number of people staffed in these fields decline, which will save money, Taylor said. Roughly a third of the savings from the new office will go to the medical centers.

Another third will be used for general funds, and the remaining savings would be applied toward auxiliaries that support housing, parking and union systems."

UC-Wide Payroll System To Be Implemented Daily Bruin

Climbing Ladders With No Rungs and Turning Tables

2012-01-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

being covered here: California colleges enroll thousands who don't meet requirements -By Matt Krupnick -- it raises larger questions about perhaps a lack of coordination between UC and CSU in policies.
and
Thousands Who Don't Meet Requirements Enroll at UC, CSU Schools
The number of students admitted into UC schools who don't meet minimum requirements is growing.

University Diaries on the CSU Salary Cap that includes pointing out an important private funding exception...
and check out what happened to this grad student here:
Push Me, Pull You, Arrest Me at California State University Headquarters By Joe Deegan
folks are sick of it all and it is being translated like this:
Editorial: Time for another way to run a college
and
UC Davis students take over vacant campus building
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remember the Google coming big time to Cal

well, there is this latest on the Google - students need to think carefully about this...maybe.
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Remaking on the SOTU- surprised no discussion on the passage POTUS had about on line alternatives and shortening the length of time on course completion- but the post covers many other areas.
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UCSD Guardian paper is giving error messages but apparently they are covering the "secession of UCSF"...maybe their links will work later.
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the rest is all the $%#@ over the place - randomness:

Angela Merkel says things are great, but-- Soros says things are/will be lousy, 2600 people pay $20,000 each to attend Davos -by invitation only- Money Honeys everywhere.

this video clip keeps nagging - fact check, fact check (like CalBuzz - not huge Erin Burnett fans).

(Charlie Rose and Zbigniew Brzezinski-- there was an exchange at the 30 minute mark on supposed market rate salaries and their impact on the future of America and capitalism-thought of UC SMG salary justifications.
btw
why did one of the UC senior admins (Lenz?!) say at the UC Regents meeting that some govt officials said not to worry so much about drafting austerity measures/resolutions in advance?! that things/economy will pick up by Fall. Do they know something?)
Do you think it is going to get better - or are we just bracing for/constructing the next round of 'worse'?

remember we suggested a psych study on The Ladders commercials a while back? well, there is this latest confirming not far off the mark on that one.

except the Psych folks already have some serious problems understanding correct terms for actions in social justice and transparency "The study focused on “prosocial” gossip that “has the function of warning others about untrustworthy or dishonest people,” "?! -wtf - where do these folks come from- the 1950's? that is not what one would call "gossip"--in this day and age- the psych folks are wading in the fluff while this and this --using the term 'gossip' makes it more PR friendly but the whole subject reduced to silliness.

Did you know Senator Boxer and Di Fi support PIPA? (see mid page next to Thelma and Louise photo on that link) as in SOPA PIPA...
many of their colleagues came up in this 60 minutes piece - it also came up in the SOTU too...
SOTU presented to the Congress
but are representatives truly representing?
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Turning Tables

SOTU, Letters to the LA Times and more...

2012-01-24T18:54:00.000-08:00

POTUS:
"When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July. Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars. And give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.
Of course, it's not enough for us to increase student aid. We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down. Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who’ve done just that. Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly. Some use better technology. The point is, it’s possible. So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can’t be a luxury -- it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford."
read the full text here.
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Letters to the LA Times indicate all those planning to rally in May have some outreach work to do first.
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Donna Brazile and Cornel West might want to read the UC Diversity report before their upcoming visit and talk at Cal...
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Daily Cal has Prof. Saez on Mitt Romney.

Former UC Regent and Cupcake Seller

2012-01-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

so much going on with the UC Regents meeting - now this latest on a former UC Regent:
Remember just a few months ago: Ward Connerly, driving force behind Prop 209, helping to sell cupcakes
There is this new piece: Affirmative-Action Foe Is Facing Allegations of Financial Misdeeds from the NYT

Buddhist(?) UC Regent Blum, what do you think of this?

2012-01-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

Blum claims a connection to Buddhism and Buddhist art...

so what does he think of this: LA Times Picks Up Japanese Garden Story: Not the Best PR for UCLA

one also wonders why UC chose to do this when they are constantly saying they can't use such donations/funds for other things - the sanctity of using donor funds the way the donor intended and agreed with the university to use them. Unless the money is precisely for the capital projects the administration wants. A certain family in Woodside also asking those questions-a family from a part of the country that still values gardens as a source of renewal
-home to Filoli and nearby Hakone- favorite places.
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at Cal: Administration agrees to restore anthropology library hours

Slummin' It In Riverside

2012-01-22T08:01:00.000-08:00

The black limos lined up at UCSF Mission Bay normally -now replaced by white vans in Riverside...
"Heaven and Earth! Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"

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Bill Moyers has an interesting series on PBS. (remember his Amazing Grace doc?)
Cal linked to one of the episodes- but the most interesting episode so far is his interview of David Stockman.
Stockman talks about a number of things. Also, Stockman talks about Jeff Immelt in the Obama administration and basically paints him a Dick Cheney role.
Note, Moyers includes the Sunlight Foundation on their home page.
but also read this article...

check out Up with Chris Hayes this morning on MSNBC-video clips available later- where Elliot Spitzer's 'absolutist free speech' stance allows him to say Citizen's United isn't all bad etc...and he debates David Stockman on other key points - Melissa Harris Perry in the debate as well.

Aftermath...

2012-01-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

see: (Newly released) Report faults UCLA, professor in lab death
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UCSF shuttle driver charged in fatal crash
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Desmond-Hellmann: UCSF wants new structure
and-UPDATE!- this is a good article here (meant to link to it earlier) note how it talks about several bio tech businesses in Emeryville that have deep ties to current and former UC faculty-including some former high profile deans etc. - and the state's stem cell etc committee- and other 'foundation' committees- Lansing and others sit on outside of UC are also name dropped in the article...

but we are supposed to believe the discussion on these issues begins at the UC Regents meeting...
it was interesting to hear Lansing tell one of the committee chairs that she wanted to interrupt his close of his committee in order to "set up President Yudof" for his (spontaneous?, unscripted?) comments... orchestrated much?
a completely open mind to it all...
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more on UC protests:
Anthropology library study-in demonstration continues

Two arrested, plastic pellets fired during Thursday Riverside protests

and coverage of aftermath at UC Davis and UC Riverside can be found here.

Breaking At UC Davis: No Charges Filed Against Pepper Sprayed Protesters by DA

2012-01-20T16:09:00.000-08:00

see Davis Vanguard coverage
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is this really the Foundation of 'Sewer PACs' in Education...?

Patriarchal When They Want To Be...

2012-01-20T12:41:00.000-08:00

A smoke-free UC goes too far
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Free UC Berkeley Extension Courses for Eligible Staff Employees
are you the right sort of employee?
did daddy supervisor say you could?
did you show your plans, your grades?
do you get a ticket to ride -- or not?
what does el hefe say?
it is almost as opaque as UC admissions...are employees treated as badly as middle class California residents? recall the hideous admin of the CDOP plan?! the cronyism of the SPOT award?!...
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but when students suggest a tuition scheme that is against their own interests the regents don't take a patriarchal stance (they DIDN'T say "listen kids your life is gonna get more complicated after graduation") instead they say --'you're proposing giving us money for the next twenty years- we'll take it under serious consideration'...Yudof didn't even try to score any brownie points with the students by leaning forward and saying/reminding them-you sure you want to do this?- maybe
simply impractical
the next twenty years
where many of them will
marry...
some will have children/child support
some will divorce/spousal support
some will have illnesses/insurance gaps/donutholes
some will need to fund their start ups
some will need to care for their aging parents
--even if they don't marry or have kids etc. the plutocrats will still be after them...or creating new dramas in the world economy
and the alumni will now be in a sick fin. relationship with their alma mater as well.
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Remaking on the "huge taboo" oh yeah, big time,- hitting the third rail- watch the fireworks...
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Recall we sent POTUS Aretha? He does his best Rev Al
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Let's stay together- ?- everyone is asking that question...not just UCSF.

Round Up- At Last

2012-01-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

Changing Universities-UCR Students Promote a Bad Tuition Plan as Police Beat Protesters

UCLA Faculty Association-USC covers UC Regents Protest at UCR

The People's Vanguard of Davis - The Investigative Eye-Rubber Bullets at UC Regents Meeting in Riverside Ends Relative Calm of New Year and Chancellor Katehi Issues Another Message on Pepper-Spraying Incident

Protesters occupy campus library at Cal.

Something very disturbing is happening at the UCLA Japanese Gardens - if you don't understand that a Japanese Garden is also a spiritual place-- you might not understand the importance of this story...

California Progress Report-$422,320 for a College Degree? With Tuition Skyrocketing, It is Time to Rethink Higher Education

HuffPo, if you're gonna make fun at least spell the name right (always typos on it).
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Etta on stage jammin' with BB, George Benson, Van Morrison, Santana,Dr. John, John Scott and many others-- sigh- The Very Thought Of You -RIP

Apparently They Fired Him?

2012-01-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

another question, see:
UC Regents Fire Tenured Riverside Professor

okay, if we are not allowed to know what happened with this action item during a regents meeting for a public land grant institution-- well, can we at least know how much UC has spent on this matter since Khoury is claiming: "Khoury noted the university has spent far more in taxpayer dollars on legal fees than the amount of money at stake."

is the public allowed to know that number? is the uc community allowed to know that figure?

it is interesting that this case merges with the Rodgers issues-- RIVERSIDE: Regents To Vote On Firing Retired Professor

Crane knew that he would not be confirmed all along?

2012-01-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

that is what UC Regent Bonnie Reiss just said at the regents meeting -when she was reading a declaration of UC Regent appreciation for Crane's service- and Sherry Lansing vouched Reiss' comments -'all of what she said is true'-- awkward and strange to feel compelled to vouch that statement.

if it is true -then -- why did he make himself a divisive wedge issue in a system already deeply troubled with many other challenges? for his own aggrandizement? for the press he would garner? for networking? to get his name out there statewide?
if so, why should that garner him an honorable mention from the UC regents today?
why?
why did Reiss bring up Jerry Brown as the reason he would not gain confirmation? it had nothing to do with Brown.
Bonnie says she and David knew about this all along-someone asks under their breath- did they also know about the housekeeper too? ouch.
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why did regent marcus say that it is wise for regents to enjoy twelve year appointments so that they are not part of the politics? how does that logic work? they are not anything like the SCOTUS... sounds like delusions of grandeur
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Lansing says that they are captive audience at the meeting and that they can't leave-- it might have something to do with protests.. it looks like the building was surrounded and regents were given special instructions.
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congratulations to Chancellor Desmond Hellman who just stated honestly that operational excellence is going to result in job loss for staff and staff are frightened. One of the few willing to straight out admit it.

What is UCSF to the UC system?
What is Hastings to the UC system? when did it begin being called UC Hastings?
What is public about UC? how is UC public? Peter Taylor ( senior UC financial admin) is going to tell us?!
a systemwide existential crisis being voiced at the end of the UC Regents meeting.
it needs to be written down for them - cuz they can't see where it was written down for them already...
and Hadi Makarechian is going to bring the entrepreneurship guidelines to lead the way...
companies we need companies to be generated and a 10% cut on their profits that flows back to UC all over the place, rake it in...Hadi asked if he would be paid for his work on that, Pattiz asked the lab directors why they- with all that brain power couldn't design a video game to sell to make UC money..ha ha.. was it Zettel? who asked the staff on seismic retrofits if their efforts could be turned into a profitable marketable tool to make UC $$- - Faustian.
these were the issues of the day Lansing and the regents wanted to hear instead of the student protestors. "We've spent 45 minutes listening to you!"
the corporate corruption of higher ed-- Washburn is right.

Pages and pages of HUGE UC Salaries

2012-01-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

the november meeting whitewash minutes to be approved today include pages and pages on huge compensation actions see it for yourself.

Listen: UC Regents Meeting Today

2012-01-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

Brendan Jackson UCLA has great coverage he is tweeting- including pictures. meeting will resume shortly.
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Here's the link: http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
agenda says starting at 8:30am but they start when they want to- yesterday they started very late- and the schedule was all off from the agenda times from that point on...the final day they generally try to rush through to get out early -so...

65 people signed up for public comment- these are not quotes, but just what could be heard on the audio from UC regents meeting this morning.

Elliott Kim alum raised some real key points about salaries for UC general counsels and Chris Edley.

UC Administrators "Fat cats turn obese" - oh lawd...

Peter Matthews gov wilson paid $37 at UC Berkeley Boalt- Schwarzenegger paid $6 at community college - Matthews might pay $200,000 for his newborn daughter to attend UC. rescueeducationcalifornia.org

vanessa- an alum-has a sister also an alum - sister developed serious medical condition and fell behind on student loans now financially ruined

another speaker-why have UC Regents refused to back any legislation to stop the attack on public education? and raised 'fucking record breaking salaries'??!!

Roscio- her friends have had to take out huge loans, unemployed can't afford tuition - pls change policy.

Mohammed uc grad student-- lords and peasants - few can afford education-- we are not peasants.

Kevin Whalen grad student at UCR- question everything, taught this. skeptical of just blaming Sacto. deregulation and lower tazes regents do this in their business - they have a tall task in making themselves believable. They need to back legislation to turn this around.

Someone from UCSD this isnt a factory, corporation, airport-- UCSD has gotten rid of a bunch of libraries. why aren't regents paying their fair share and backing legislation to support public education?

as minorities began to come to UC and public higher ed the tuition has been raised. San Bernardino have you been down there? They know more more people going to prison rather than college.

symbolic gestures of listening- don't believe regents represent the public -' how do we the public do our job and get the regents the fuck out of here?'

someone from UCR- GSOE project

20 minute time limit reach - still 25 people need to speak

Lansing - despite what you might think we do care - none of us receive salaries- some of us do back some of the legislation mentioned- we will allow the rest of 25 to speak but don't know what you will do later - we hope you will let us meet b/c we are going to discuss other ways of funding rather than raise tuition.

speaker - asks regents to support legislation to fund public higher education.

UCSA rep- more student regents on the board of regents - (Jonathan Lee)- if you say you want student input this is a way to do that- students pay so much in to the system and want to have a voice.

UC Riverside student - Chancellor White is using diversity as a PR word. Diversity is not present at UCR for staff faculty. She is on loans not financial aid and there isn't any support other than loans - she is working for her tuition very hard. medical school should be pushed as part of a fix to health disparities based on race.

student- parents took out a second mortgage to pay for tuition, she and her sisters are in debt.

UCSD .7% representation art paid for but not students of color- millions spent to put up art on campus.

BS you don't make money off UC - Regents have businesses that make money off UC.

Margie Crowley UPTE- staff don't get listened to at all. Not afraid to show that she is an activist. actions speak louder than words. what legislation are you going to support? you show no support for us. sign petitions and vote for propositions.

Chris Benoit CUE rep and grandmother -- her children recently moved to Washington to get an education b/c CA doesn't work for them. Her mother was a CA agri worker. Her husband is an alum and school teacher. Her kids can't afford UC. Why aren't regents fighting for public higher ed.

former national guard and occupy LA member- 'the corruption here at this meeting stinks.'

another speaker - imagine that you can't afford to send your child to public higher ed/university or college- for the rest of my time I want you to silently imagine that. silence.

another speaker- the suits got raises and perks over regents meetings. think about priorities - lining pockets of suits or education of students.

benjamin wood not on list grad of UCSB but believes he has a right to speak $30K in debt for his education at UCSB. prop 13 and commercial property problem - Regent Blum and his firm benefits from not fixing the problem/reform prop 13 if he really cared.

mic is cut off - dead air/silence.
mic back on - someone yelling in background, secretary says "thank you"
silence, thank you, clapping.
BS that we are timed on our free speech at a public meeting at a public instition-Suzanne Magigin UCR honors student- George Orwell Animal Farm a parody Mark Yudof Student Farm- yelling Lansing " I can see that this is not going to be productive" inaudible speaking yelling off mic " i understand that there is a desire to stop our meeting I hope you don't " there are three more speakers

Gerald Vasco reps some Law Students- students entering Davis were not told the tuition/fee projection - duty to notify students.

Nathaniel wants to speak- other speakers say you need to listen to us - lansing says we've listened to you for 45 minutes, public comment ended

other speakers are yelling we have respected your process but you have not respected our right to speak

UCSB natl society of black engineers -- not gonna fault you for making money that's america just gonna ask you to protest with us be our voice in political realm to look at me when i am speaking to you madam -- pretty soon all of you are gonna be out of here and all of us are gonna be in there and we are going to make sure we keep public education

about five more students are on the list
more speakers
speaker says she is spending enormous amounts of time appealing to regents to attend regents meetings. enough. 200,000 uc students have had it. uc regents need to put their bodies into motion for uc regents- when you saw student pepper sprayed and batoned that is not isolated incidents. we are going to organize until we die.

ahmed UCSB - UC Regents making vocalized statements to the state govt but UCSB is not getting due representation. teleconference did not include UCSB. The students can't even get into the meeting rooms to see the meeting process.

mario UCSB- on welfare all of his life, will be just another homeless student if you raise tuition.

another speaker - alternative revenue sources. question that term. regents here for money. laughing all the way to the bank. regents at the top of the pyramid - they will stay at the top- there positions are the result of a closed loop not open to any of us out of the 1%
someone in a blue suit with a cornflower blue tie poses for pictures with students but doesn't do anything- hypocritical bs hope you can't sleep at night.

open peoples mic begins- Lansing says to yudof 'is this a chant are they going to go on like this I don't know what to do - where is barney, i don't know what to do get barney'-- another woman says 'let them go for a while then make the announcement that you are warning 'etc
Lansing starts warning the protestors 'ok,if this meeting continues to be disruptive you are not letting us do our business -we will now clear the room'

peoples open mic continues - regents are talking among themselves.

sound cut off.9:46am

Coverage of UC Regents Wed Meeting

2012-01-18T21:19:00.001-08:00

see both video and stories:
RIVERSIDE: Regents to vote on firing retired professor

UC RIVERSIDE: Regents hear pleas from students, local leaders

UC Board of Regents Meets in Riverside-Students protest as Board of Regents meets in Riverside

UC Riverside students propose new tuition payment plan

As UC Regents Meet in Riverside, All Eyes Are on Gov. Brown’s Ballot Initiative

$1000 a sq ft Chancellor House Renovation at UCSD

2012-01-18T17:18:00.000-08:00

$1000 a sq ft Chancellor House Renovation at UCSD
a "special place" for 'special donors'
and 'it's for the faculty' - to 'celebrate Pulitzer prizes and Nobel prizes'
cuz there are 'no other appropriate special enough places at UCSD'
'La Jolla just doesn't have anything appropriate'...
Pueblo Revival with Native American Remains
an 'enjoyment for the faculty'
$10.5 million
it's coming from private funds - not university funds

it's not like that money could be used elsewhere...at one of the 'poorer' campuses.

tomorrow it starts again... uc regents meeting.
special.

Listen: UC Regents Meeting January 18-19, 2012

2012-01-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

Listen Here: http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 - you can also view the agenda from that link as well. ~~UC Regents will resume open meeting at around 3:15pm on Wednesday- you can listen when the "in progress" link is displayed~~. Or not- looks like they removed all events from today and will resume tomorrow morning and grace us with their presence and allow us, once again, to listen to some of the proceedings...WAIT!- they are sticking to the agenda and they are now broadcasting the comm on grounds and buildings...they just removed the event for a while and then decided to put it back up and broadcast afterall...
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Questions/scribbles so far:

Regents meeting and rally to take place in Sacto in May - but it is the March UC Regents meeting that you have to keep your eye on.

Did you hear one of the students tell the regents that there should be more student regents (one for each classification)? that should be Jerry Brown's move to show an alliance with students etc.- to name students at each level to the three open UC regent positions this year. Or, even construct a faculty or staff appointment to the regent level- with those three open regent positions.

Did you hear the student who said during public comment he was suicidal over his tuition crisis last summer?

Why were there a bunch of scheduled student speakers during public comment but the majority did not show up or get to the mic?

Why did uc regent de la pena say that uc could have been sued for millions of dollars if they continued operating the student clinics the same way? what did he mean? what specifically was wrong with the operations,care? now they will be outsourcing the credential checking hr work...30% below market salaries affected care? who was in charge of this in the first place? why should we be - as yudof suggests-so grateful for de la pena volunteering hundreds of hours to fix this?-- why wasn't management managing this in the first place? is that too much to ask? they said they took it up b/c of mental health service quality concerns for students - and maybe the Tang Center incidents and other incidents also caused them to take a closer look - but why did that have to be the catalyst for fixing what sounds like some critical and basic operational failures? if the CFO (they handle other similar plans too) is taking over the student health care plans and the university is providing the health care services to the students in UC facilities - is that a good set up? is it better for parents and students to set up their own outside UC arrangements or to keep it in house as a one stop shop for the student? what are students giving up, or getting,-- in this arrangement? it is a question for staff too.

Why did chancellor white choose to talk about his problems with the minutemen rather than address diversity as an issue overall for legal Californians in his comments?

Why does the DREAM act take up most of the air on diversity issues/discussion? Would the conversation have run differently if Eddie Island was present for the meeting? Is he/ will he be satisfied with that discussion today from that committee work?

Birgeneau wants to only talk about his work to get the CA DREAM act passed- again with the focus on this issue only as it relates to the CA DREAM act-he wants a focus on the positives on diversity - cites his diverse cabinet, - but it is not enough just to meet some diversity check list - it has to be diversity and excellence- and there are plenty of folks who can fill both criteria -but they are not filling all of the spots at that Cal cabinet- some appointments are based on being friends of friends- the excellence is sadly lacking at Cal in that cabinet in some pretty obvious parts... so we can't just talk about diversity - but diversity paired with excellence --and just having a project with that word in the title does not cut it or fix it.

Let's ignore the 'glacial pace' on diversity in the SMG, Faculty etc..at this point it is not a glacial pace - it is dog whistle policy-- you know??, that dog whistle that keeps being heard by some as a result of comments currently coming out of South Carolina- that is the same dog whistle being heard when UC central admin and regents bemoan a 'glacial pace'...for decades.

do the regents realize how they sound when they say they need Eddie Island there at the meeting to articulate on this issue? do the regents realize how bad it is that it is true?

Eshelman Hall getting naughty- did you see? there also was a banner drop at the Campanile and a letter address to Yudof, and others etc distributed- you can view them here.

Did you hear how they discussed the plan to move to a shared services model -including downsizing and outsourcing a bunch of HR tasks and IT positions system-wide? the staff advisor designate voiced some of the concerns. more dog whistles.

Daily Cal reporters tweeted the Regents meeting

Why did uc regent pattiz intro the lab directors that way? embarrassing/silly/funny?

if you didn't catch this-or don't know what the &%$# the above is about/referring to- you should try to listen to an audio clip of the UC Regents meeting today if you can get your hands on an audio clip somewhere...

Did you see this on former higher ed chair CA Assemblyman Portantino?

or this latest on former UC Regent Ward Connerly?

Dylan Ratigan is in the Bay Area - talking to Stanford and Gavin (guess Newsom decided not to do Riverside today? - he talks about open primary, redistricting, and civic engagement etc.)- Dylan talking with Stanford folks about getting private money to higher ed including UC and comments on LLNL and innovation--oy--Greedy Bastards!

and the Governor gave the State of the State.

Dark Clouds... Shed A Little Light

2012-01-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

well, the first day back from the MLK Jr holiday- this is fitting:

Racial Patterns of Campus Budget Inequality: the State Audit Part II

“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”-- MLK Jr.

Shed A Little Light

Fiat Lux

Reminder: UC Regents Meeting and Discussion On The Future of Higher Ed

2012-01-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

Changing Universities: Biden and Romney Talk Higher Ed

here is a direct link to the podcast featuring Bob Samuels. Disturbing. Samuels comments begin at about the 27:00 mark.
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Here, once again, is the UC Regent Agenda for tomorrow and Thurs.
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Upcoming regents meeting spurs plans for student demonstrations
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watched this and wondered- when they discuss the details of her recruitment to the position- if UC will ever have a leader with similar temperament- doubt it. Discussion of capital projects etc etc was also very illuminating.
Women in Leadership: Drew Gilpin Faust | NBR
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temperament can be important- Andrew Sullivan recently made the point on Hardball.

Transfer Students and UC-- and 'that' agenda item for the UC Regents Meeting

2012-01-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

Bucking a recent trend and thwarting efforts to increase transfers, fewer community-college students than last year have applied to the University of California system for the fall 2012 term.
Nearly 1,800 fewer students applied for transfers to the 10-campus university than a year ago despite a record 160,939 undergraduate applications overall, according to figures released Thursday.
In contrast, transfer applications to the 23-campus California State University system increased 6 percent. --read the full story.
could it be that transfer students are being steered to online for profits?
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If you're a transfer student from CCSF you're double screwed--Viruses stole City College of SF data for years --but it looks like no consequences for higher ed institutions though --it seems...take a look at some of the posts from Tracy Mitrano on this kind of stuff. HuffPo has more- Computer Virus At Local College Compromised Student Data For A Decade
a long history of this everywhere.
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UC Riverside students propose alternative UC student contribution plan
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Bill could offer tax credit for middle-income families’ college expenses
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That item in the UC Regents Agenda -- concerns the faculty personnel action (always trying to be so ultra secret on those actions) on this: Tenured UC Riverside Professor Faces Rare Firing Discussions
The UC Board of Regents is scheduled to discuss firing a Riverside professor. Sarkis Joseph Khoury has a history of quarrels with the university and says he's the victim of a witch hunt.
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MLK at Cal

Birgeneau Brought Bain To UC Berkeley

2012-01-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

and the Operational ~~Excellence~~ Exodus mission that is being copied system-wide at UC. Check out the full story on the Creative Destruction...also note the firms mentioned and their connection to UC movers and shakers.

Update- also consider these two stories:
Mitt Romney's Rationale On For-Profit Colleges At Odds With Reality

California Leads Nation in Unaccredited Schools (the same story in the NYT gets this headline treatment "California Leads Nation in Unaccredited Schools, and Enforcement Is Lax")

gee, hmmm - could any of it have anything to do with this?
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also see: Off-Topic Column - Parcel Taxes, Bain, Romney, Executive Pay

"there is a good chance the latest effort by Senator Leland Yee to introduce legislation to prohibit pay raises for top university administrators during bad budget years, or when student fees are increased, will be successful.

According to the release from the Senator's office, the bill will also prohibit incoming executives from earning more than 105 percent of their predecessors' pay. UC and CSU have historically given new administrators more than double-digit pay hikes. In May 2009, the UC Board of Regents approved a $400,000 salary for UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, which equated to a 27 percent hike from her predecessor."

More here: Yee Introduces Bill to Stop Higher Education Executive Pay Hikes

OC Register and SF Chron have coverage.
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Protests set for UC regents meeting in Riverside
Activists and school officials are preparing for next week’s visit by the regents

Dear Martin,

2012-01-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

Is this Progress? Panelists discuss a recent report from Indiana University on how poverty is changing in America. Participants include Princeton professor Cornel West, TV host Suze Orman, filmmaker Michael Moore, and author Barbara Ehrenreich. Tavis Smiley moderates the discussion.
Happy Birthday.

apparently this was his favorite piece of music- choirs do it best.

A Day Of Service.

Haven't Got Time For The Bain...

2012-01-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Robert Reich The Bain of Capitalism
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Winning Our Future | King of Bain "When Mitt Romney ~~Came To Town~~" Came To Cal [Trailer]

Blum ...everywhere

2012-01-11T16:21:00.000-08:00

Recently came across these two docs listed below (as a result of looking up some action items for the upcoming UC Regents meeting) -- left wondering why UC Regent Blum figures prominently in them. Why?! Regents usually say they remain aloof/distant from students, staff, faculty because they want to remain objective etc...

Kessler v. Bishop et al - Document 73 see page 7 and 14-16. (some of the details in this piece read as very reminiscent of stories Daily Cal had on delayed and problematic student hearings at Cal over the past few years.)

and this Enstrom business (see Blum on every page) that FIRE is also covering-- they also make an appeal to UC on future appointments.

Also, see this related: UC Regent Minutes September 14-15, 2011 -- note in this piece how the UC Regents talk freely about how easy it is for them to support legislation/propositions etc. in this instance... remember that.
and this from Yudof:
All UC campuses will become smoke-free
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Hear the Lonesome Whistle Blow: Workplace Retaliation
and
3 Questions for Margaret Heffernan, CEO and author of Willful Blindness
"If leaders understood the causes of their own blindness better, and recognized that this constitutes a significant business risk, then they have the capacity to get a great deal more information, insight and understanding from their workforce. It’s an interesting fact that investment in people delivers a far higher return than investment in technology – and yet technology is somehow more appealing.

The workforce represents a vastly under-utilized asset in most companies. When there are problems in a business, it is almost never the case that they are unknown, unknowable or invisible. Someone somewhere knows about it. The leadership challenge is to create an environment in which this information can and will find its way to the top."
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Whistle and we won't be able to come to you, or won't have to after all

UC Regents Meeting Agenda for January 18-19, 2012

2012-01-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

We were reminded that there are Three UC Regent Positions To Fill:
Odessa Johnson's term expires in March 2012.
George Marcus term also expires in March 2012.
The replacement for David Crane still needs to be picked.
now available:
the UC Regents agenda for January 18-19, 2012
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some press coverage on the way UC Regents communicate or fail to communicate:

Regents Close Meeting After Students Protest from Daily Nexus

On the Record-At a teleconference meeting held at four different UC campuses in November, the UC Board of Regents promised increased engagement with students on fiscal issues facing the university. Have the Regents made enough of an effort to foster dialogue with students from Daily Bruin

Duck

2012-01-09T16:48:00.001-08:00

--again. Believe this early valentine?:
How Microbes Teamed to Clean Gulf
Scientists Studied 52 Species of Bacteria and Water Currents to Explain Demise of Oil and Gas Plume
"There was a lot of doomsday talk," said microbiologist David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and co-author of the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But it turns out "the ocean harbors organisms that can handle a certain amount of input" in the form of oil and gas pollutants, he said.
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“We developed this new website to give our employees a single source that makes it easy to look for open positions across the entire university system,” said Dwaine Duckett...
(in the latest UC Regent meeting agenda items there is talk of outsourcing...some for IT, some for credential checking with regard to student clinics etc.)
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check out this duck--
--could it possibly be the result of the tsunami in Japan?!! the west coast is supposed to get a bunch of stuff on the beaches later, in a year.
did the duck just arrive early?
(no, no margaritas to blame for this question)
or...well, we have other theories...
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Oh Jimmy (happy B-Day)

UCLA: “The D.A. cannot win,”

2012-01-09T12:50:00.001-08:00

UCLA chemistry professor to plead not guilty to felony charges associated with 2008 lab fire death
for more background:
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/87/i19/8719notw4.html
and
http://www.slate.com/id/2218825/
and
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/30/local/me-ucla-burn30

Student Regent: "What (the UC Board of Regents) can do is show our gratitude by supporting the governor’s tax measures, continue to make the case to the governor and the legislature on why we need the money,” Mireles said.

2012-01-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

"It's much better than it could have been."
Gratitude ~~Cafe~~ Buffet: 'I'm Gratified- I'm not Gratified- I'm not Gratified but will not say it'--mind games.
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California Legislative Analyst’s Office urges creation of commission to oversee higher education
“Taking away (the California Postsecondary Education Commission) abolished an important information source that had already been weakened by budget cuts,” Orfield said.

The Governor’s elimination of the California Postsecondary Education Commission earlier this year could pave the way to create a far more effective organization in the future, the LAO report stated.

recall: "We believe there is a potential conflict of interest in relying on (the institutions) for permission," according to the new report.
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and this happy thought: College for today’s newborns could cost as much as $422K
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(is financial aid a form of public funding? why or why not? those are questions you have to ask yourself -the answers will tell you where you stand in this labyrinth...)

UCOP: "times have changed; the economic model has changed."

2012-01-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

UC Salary Criticisms Fuel Student Protests
Students and some faculty members say the UC system is being run as a private bureaucracy, with executive compensation levels to match.
"University officials have acknowledged the system is trying to be competitive with private universities, and must offer competitive salaries, but UC adamantly denies that student tuition is going to fund its myriad non-instructional programs. Rather, officials say, state budget cuts are behind the dramatic tuition increases of recent years.
"It's not as simple as saying, 'They're raising my tuition and therefore I'm funding UC health care,'" said UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein. "It doesn't work that way. Student fees go toward educating students – period."
and
"The university is now being run in the interest of the administration," said UC Irvine student activist Anne Kelly, a Ph.D. candidate in earth system science. "They're promoting their own internal growth, asking us to sacrifice with higher tuition – but administrators have had raises."

and lots of photos, data and charts on the sidebar.
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yep, many are aware the economic model has changed, see: this post and this post.

Demands For Accountability At UC Davis and Systemwide

2012-01-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Cruz Reynoso Takes Control of Investigation and Release of Information
"In a letter from Justice Reynoso to President Yudoff, outlining a December 13 meeting, the former justice writes, "We established ground rules, procedures, and a schedule that put us on track to release a report by late January or early February."
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Accountability sought from UC, CSU systems

Report by Legislative Analyst's Office outlines new oversight body to monitor ...

LAO seems to really miss CPEC now that it's gone
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Santana

Not Nice Crap, and David Crane

2012-01-08T08:11:00.000-08:00

these are the things on Joe Matthews' (NBC Bay Area, LA Times,New America Foundation) mind:

Brown: My Budget Is Crap -- he says it is also 'not nice'
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The Curious Case of David Crane
"Crane's detractors point out all the times he's been wrong or has overstated his case. And sometimes those detractors have been right.

Crane's latest gambit -- a nonpartisan effort to elect people with "courage" to the state legislature -- is poorly conceived. The legislature doesn't much matter in California's governing system, and it's unclear exactly what constitutes "courage" in a legislative context."
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The problem with David Crane was that he took jabs at the CA legislature from the UC regents table which did nothing for advancing the UC cause, and he threw out one sentence suggestions about moving UC hospital revenue and other things but gave no in depth analysis or plan. At least Nicholas Berggruen gave us the Think Long report...Cal's Laura D'Andrea Tyson served on that committee-btw- she also recently resigned her post from Eastman Kodak, they are having issues...("Their Kodak Moments
Career Snapshots: Workers Take a Look Back as Many Struggle With Uncertainties About Family Finances, Retiree Benefits")
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musically- this brings to mind Carlos Santana, who made a speech in front of Jerry Brown about how a certain CA Gov was "not nice" to certain groups.- wonder if the Gov. was thinking of that when he used those simple words?

and reminded of the Lovely Linda (née Eastman-- of Eastman Kodak, later Lady McCartney)

Also, forgot to include this story from November '11- earning their CBEs...
Sir Paul outranks -so it's
My Love

Good News For CA DREAM Act

2012-01-06T18:25:00.001-08:00

see:
DREAM Act repeal referendum falls short of necessary signatures for November ballot
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Gov Gives UC Just About Nothing, Continuing the Gradual Termination of "UC"
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Governor Brown's Budget Slashes Money to Poor, Looks to Voters to Aid Education
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some Gilded BS outta UCR's 'Undercover Boss':
"I have also invited Chris Edley to join us, and I am delighted that he has agreed. Chris will bring a view and a voice from outside Riverside and within UC, as he is the Honorable William H. Orrick, Jr. Distinguished Chair and Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law.
I invited Chris because he will bring clairvoyance about universities and the positive power of protest and social movement, as well as insights into the complexity of managing such ‘events’ in real time. He also brings a deep understanding of the law, not as a lawyer per se in managing/limiting campus risk, but rather as a faculty member and colleague. He has also lived through the best and the worst of protests and assemblies at Berkeley, so he can share his perspective of what factors make things work out for all involved; and what factors can get the situation sideways in a hurry."
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Clean Up Your Own Backyard

“We applaud the governor’s willingness to grant UC leadership maximum flexibility in navigating these fiscal times,” Lenz said in the statement. “The administration’s focus on protecting higher education from further budget reductions is a welcome relief, and the governor’s stated desire for a long-term state investment is encouraging.”

2012-01-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

talk about mixed messages---

here is the: UCOP Statement
and
Gov. Jerry Brown unveils budget proposal with $2.6 billion for UC

Brown’s state budget could cut $200 million from UC this year

Someone let the cat out of the bag on the state budget

also recall: Memo to Jerry: Time to Whack Other Tax Proposals -- they have a photo of Don Vito Corleone with this--is it time to get all "to the mattresses"?
They also have this latest post: "The 73-year-old chief executive summed up the hard work of politics via the Latin phrase Ad Astra per Aspera, which he said means, “To the stars through the thorns.” ...And of course you don’t need us to tell you it appeared on the right side shoulder patch in “Star Trek Enterprise,”

You spin me right round, baby- Right round- like a record, baby -Right round, round , round -You spin me right ...

awful stuff. thorny indeed.

Bad News For CA DREAM Act

2012-01-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Volunteers gather signatures to repeal DREAM Act
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and HuffPo has this headline Asian Americans vs. University of California? (2012)
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interesting that polls show Californians support funding for higher ed, yet cuts.
and Daily Cal has stories saying Californians don't support the DREAM act, yet it passes.

"Managing The Decay"

2012-01-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

The title is a quote from the Newtster about "Mr. Bain's Operational Excellence"-lol, the inventor of scorched Earth gives some of the best quotes!
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Major diversity issues at UC Berkeley's Engineering program.
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Many of the Chancellors etc say they don't care about rankings other than THE's and Shanghai's but anyway, there's this: in rankings published Tuesday by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego finished seventh, ninth and 10th
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"A Loss Of Institutional Control"
"So you have a pre-event incident in which the chancellor was too busy doing other things to have direct control - you have a case that her lack of administrative control may have contributed to the event. What you have now is not malice but negligence, and possibly incompetence."

The Burning Question for the New Year: What Will Come of the Pepper Spray Investigation
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We hope members of various CA Chambers of Commerce note this response - b/c it could actually help to move the dialogue along to fix UC and CA: My Dialogue with President Yudof
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Berkeley And The Public Ivies: Five lingering questions
__
University Probe wants to know what happened at the UCOP and Chancellor teleconference meeting on pepper spray etc.-- President Yudof’s Principles re Police Behavior - at the Sacto hearings Yudof said he read the riot act to them-- or other words to that effect...who knows.
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Always learning: Higher Ed in 2012: Background Thoughts on the Public Sector Under Subsidized Capitalism
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for more on 'He's pretty good... at managing the decay'

the more one thinks about it- this falls right in line - Yudof sees himself as manager of a cemetery ... so, Cal's hire of a firm based on someone who manages decay falls right in line...

We need people who are interested in managing Restoration (btw a good robert downey movie).

stuff that broke over the break...

2012-01-01T14:55:00.000-08:00

Someone who loved the case method died for it in a really horrific way- and all UC does is whine in response:
UC system, UCLA professor charged in lab fire that killed staffer [Updated]
UCLA has this...

University of California System, UCLA Professor Charged In Lab Fire That Killed Staffer

Daily Bruin: "Harran and the UC regents are charged with three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards."

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University Diaries has this on an endowed chair prof at UCLA-“The wealth allowed Klein to give generously to a host of causes, volunteer as an unpaid professor at UCLA …”
- one wonders, can one buy their own UC stamped endowed chairs??- does Bob Barker come out of retirement to officiate?
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We actually do need doctors for things other than botox and fillers:
California ERs Serving Blacks Likelier To Close
"This should be disturbing to people," said Dr. Renee Hsia, lead author of the study and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

"People who don't have an emergency room in their neighborhood, it's not like their emergency disappeared," she told Reuters Health.
UC Irvine counters:
"I think that the closures are a reflection of economics a lot more than they are about race," said Dr. Wesley Fields, chair of the Emergency Medicine Action Fund and a clinical professor at the University of California, Irvine.
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Some work done by Princeton: Why Mexican Immigrants Can’t Get Ahead
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Also, check this out: Lure of Chinese Tuition Pushes Out Asian-Americans - it starts off like this:
"Kwanhyun Park, the 18-year-old son of Korean immigrants, spent four years at Beverly Hills High School earning the straight As and high test scores he thought would get him into the University of California, San Diego. They weren’t enough.
The sought-after school, half a mile from the Pacific Ocean, admitted 1,460 fewer California residents this year to accept higher-paying students from out-of-state, many from China."
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UC Davis is putting out their economic engine PR and folks are scrutinizing it-see mid page.
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The Buzz: Pension reform crusader David Crane loses his post as University of California regent

yep, some at Sac Bee calls him a 'crusader'. some group at sf chron gave this short superficial editorial that was fluff... others thanked him for his kind words on his way out- kind words he saved for the very last minute. Let's remember- He was pretty light on engagement with members of the UC community. and he brought this up: "He said that he would explore the UC's five medical centers - which generated $5.9 billion in the 2009-10 fiscal year, according to UC documents - as one source of that revenue."-- but we never heard him speak anymore about it again...
all we saw from him at the regents table was flame thrower behavior- just insults spurted out against the legislature-- but he would go to other outlets to say a lot of other stuff... -- he should have been saying this at the regents table and in front of people from Sacto if he believes it. --if you watch this last link pay special attention toward the end where he says 'we have our own money, we need the names rather than we need the money...' gee, where have we heard that before? (btw, one of the Koch Bros put up serious $$ for this MIT PBS work that is great to watch.)
don't doubt Crane and Co. isn't worried about the money necessary to front future candidates... no worries there at all.
of course, who better than a hedge fund guy to lecture on generational theft... but looking at the sac bee and sf chron "edtiorial" content it looks like he prefers to be called investment banker. (we will leave his name on tab above until filled- for Auld Lang Syne)
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Researcher takes on ‘empathy fatigue’ in the workplace -- there are other folks at Cal who have dug much more deeply into it- always interesting how the PR folks at Cal pick certain people to highlight- but, anyway...decided to include it to consider with this next...
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was RFK (and are present day folks similar to him) the exception rather than the rule?:
Lower classes quicker to show compassion in the face of suffering -- reminded of present day Kennedys and in CA that also brings to mind Shrivers-- Maria Shriver, Arnie and-- David Crane, who says he is a Dem and wants to serve as conductor in orchestrating the leaders of the future...
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Wonder what Bratton/Kroll think of these developements- since it concerns two of their clients...
Berkeley Explains Exactly Why It Chose Google Over Microsoft

Major university chooses Google Apps over Microsoft Office 365

LAPD Cites Security Issues in Google Apps Switch Abandonment

Los Angeles Police scale back Google cloud email

and there is this sort of thinking on the subject as well.
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from the old early days of telecomm--
Graham Bell's first recordings can now be heard thanks to some folks at The Labs...courtesy of CNN
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Prof. Newfield "Ruin and Rebirth in the Public University: How we can avoid decline"
McMaster University Seminar on Higher Education -starts at around the 12min mark- it runs just over an hour- get some popcorn...a beverage.
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Happy New Year.

The Principle of Moments

2011-12-21T17:02:00.000-08:00

Crane: "It should come as no surprise that the legislature refuses to confirm someone who points out the elephant in the room: that it is the California Legislature that's privatizing UC. This year the Legislature voted to cut UC three times while boosting spending on favored special interests. For Californians seeking affordable college educations, that must change."
see: Clock Runs Out For UC Regent

scorched Earth to the end
now, he will be working on other stuff...
btw-- we will keep his tab up-and maybe even update it a li'l until the end of the year, in his honor.

UC's tempestuous relationship with K-12 and everyone else-see:
AWOL At The Kvetching By Peter Schrag
it prompted this commentary:
Commentary: Deepening California Education Crisis

and this on UC Regent Chair Sherry Lansing:Three Regents Meet with UCLA Students - "During the meeting, UCLA student leaders asked the regents to publicly support a tax increase proposed by Brown...Lansing said to student leaders that while she cannot speak for the entire board, she would be willing to take a public stance in favor of the proposed initiative…"

The UC Regents are going to have to figure out what they support and fast- no more sitting on the sidelines.
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Remaking the University has another very, very interesting new post.
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Carlos Santana had an interesting speech at his induction into the CA Hall of Fame. He may have had this next story in his mind...
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Cesar Chavez' grandson at OccupyLA photo- the visual is really surreal,sad, beautiful- he looks alot like his grand dad -left wonderin' have any of the Kennedy, MLK, X progeny been at Occupy nationwide?
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The Principle of Moments-always wanted to hear Santana play with RP on this-
Happy Christmas Percy. -and Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year -- to you. PS yes, Happy Hannukah, Kwanzaa,Festivus, Solstice and, well -always have to go back to the ol' standard- HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

VC Wilton On UC's 'Fifth Source'- sort of

2011-12-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

Wilton,VC Admin and Finance- gives a twenty minute presentation on the state of UC funding overall and Cal and hints at future plans for other sources of revenue (his presentation to the Deans a few weeks ago may have been more comprehensive- but light on those add'l details for staff and regular folks, ya think?)
see:
Finance and IT at Cal
watch from the roughly 3:20 minute mark to the 24 minute mark esp.
the high number of views is the result of the failure in recent months of the Cal Mail system that students rely upon, you also might want to watch the full presentation for some disturbing comments about the state of student systems at UC Berkeley.

It is like they are just now finding out they are running a university system.

Hellman Hollow

2011-12-19T12:07:00.000-08:00

that's the name- would have preferred Hardly Strictly Meadow...
this story has some info on UC contained in it as well--the (financial and otherwise) relationship chart type of stuff: Warren Hellman, financier and philanthropist, dies at 77
(His daughter Frances, a current Cal professor, was married to former UC Pres Robert Dynes. Dynes is now married to his former UCSD Associate Chancellor Anne Parode.)

Bay Citizen (his newspaper) has much more coverage.

"Amid these developments, the UC Davis administration has now announced the composition of a new Chancellor’s Advisory Board, which, we are told, will help to guide our university into the future. This board includes the CEOs of Bechtel and of Chevron, as well as the senior vice president of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. It also includes the principal of McGill University, who, twice in November 2011, ordered riot police onto that campus — police who also used pepper-spray against peaceful protesters. And it includes M.R.C. Greenwood, former UC provost, who left her post at the UC amid a scandal over improper hiring practices and conflicts of interest."

2011-12-19T00:06:00.000-08:00

wholly moleeeee:

Op-ed: Reviewing the case for Katehi’s resignation
By Nathan Brown
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Whoever picked these folks might try to feign ignorance of the corporate side-- but here is some UC background on one portion of the appointments that they surely should have been aware of:
UC Pres. Dynes Appears To Have Violated University Policy By Quietly Granting M.R.C. Greenwood A $125,000 Cash Payment (2005)

UC shocker: Greenwood resigns as system provost as improper-hiring probe under way

Conflict of interest found for UC provost-Despite violations, she got paid leave and offer of new job

(not sure if Dynes and Birgeneau went to McGill - think they went to McMaster and U Toronto)
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who picked these folks?!...if Katehi did it -- well, add it to all the other reasons she should resign. Now, we don't just have present day dirty UC laundry to deal with-- no, we get to double down and bring the scandals from less than a decade ago back up too ....
let's just bathe in the muck--YUCK!

Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded...

2011-12-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

Barbara Ehrenreich The Making of the American 99%

On Corruption: 5 Questions with Lawrence Lessig

Santa Monican to serve as UC regent (one of the toothless ex-officio)
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Christopher Hitchens, going to miss that voice (6:30 mark esp.).

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xo Stuart Adamson xo

And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..

Video: CA Legislative Hearing on CA Univ Campus Police Policy

2011-12-15T16:04:00.000-08:00

watch:

Legislative Hearing on California University Campus Police Policy (1 of 3) begins with ACLU representative, Emeritus UC Police Chief Calvin Handy, and Barbara Attard a policing expert. At the 1:09 mark UCOP Mark Yudof and UCOP Robinson and two CSU administrators Ben Quillian (at 1:22) and Nate Johnson Chief CSU Law Enforcement Officer at 1:28 mark.
____________
Legislative Hearing on California University Campus Police Policy (2 of 3) At the 7:00 mark UCD Chancellor Linda Katehi (pay special attention to comments at 22:00 and 40:00 mark) and John Welty CSU-Fresno, who made very few remarks. at the 26:00 mark "the system needs to make sure that chancellors are trained to be chancellors.

Student Panel begins at the 42 minute mark -includes Claudia Magana, UCSA and

UC Grad student Charlie Eaton (he begins at the 48:00 mark) and two CSU students.

Tom Hayden discusses the question of safety of pepper spray at the 1:32 mark.

Bob Samuels remarks are in public comment at the 1:48 mark.
_____________
Legislative Hearing on California
University Campus Police Policy (3 of 3)
this section closes out the public comment -multiple details about the CSU meeting (including some less than glowing comment about Roberta Achtenberg included)- and ends the hearing.

UC Tuition Increases Secret Compact?!

2011-12-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

(Since Birgeneau and his conference table of concerned senior admins say that the winter break is when) students and their families huddle together to talk about tuition and plans for the coming school year- just suggest they "pay attention puhleez!" to this:

Another Hint of Discussions with State Behind Closed Doors on Multiyear Tuition Increase Deal

But where did it come from? Update on UCR.

2011-12-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

Update: this from UCR --UCR Chancellor White Withdraws New Campus Protest Guidelines

"We were in error to post guidelines that neither comport with our values nor reflect the realities of how the campus exercises the right to free speech."

"I regret any confusion and discontent caused by the document. The document and its posting were not worthy of this great university."

but how did such an error happen?

Changing Universities has more on UCR and the leg hearing. btw Bob Samuels comments to the legislature with regard to how there are stricter regulations on how the prison population may or may not be pepper sprayed -certain distance required, certain amount of time the spray can fall etc.- and contrasting that with how the student population can basically be treated with much less stringent regulation - how this makes sense since there is more money for prisons and less money for higher ed -- it was necessary to make that particular point to the legislature.

The University Should Hire Chancellors Who Know How To Be Chancellors

2011-12-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

That's what Assemblyman Block said yesterday during the hearing in an exchange with Katehi (she was telling him she was just a l'il ol' engineer-- oh yeah, and an educator-- and these issues are beyond her or something like that, she said she needs to be trained -- it was like watching a sad performance review)-unbelieveable.

There were many, many important sections to the meeting. The CSU administrators testimony should be viewed in its entirety for UC folks and everyone else, some wild testimony there!- they were part of the panel with Robinson, Yudof (CSU should acquaint themselves with Yudofspeak).

The comments made to Katehi by Block during her panel were noteworthy.

Cal's Charlie Eaton is a "must see" during the student panel.

The public comment in large part was very illuminating on events that transpired at CSU trustee meeting and Gavin Newsom also came up-- wonder if he has communicated with the higher ed committee on what he saw at that meeting -- Reed and he had a difference of opinion on what happened. Reed did not attend the meeting, just like Birgeneau...

will post the video when available. It was a five hour meeting and the full video is the best way to watch cuz you can speed through the canned stuff.

This picture pretty much captures it--all the handlers barking at the student in a hoodie:
Confrontation Between Katehi and Pepper-Sprayed Student Steals Show At Capitol

Apparently AG Harris has handed things back to Yolo:
One of the probes was being handled by the Yolo County Sheriff and District Attorney, who asked Attorney General Kamala Harris to take it over to avoid a conflict of interest. Harris' office handed the matter back to Yolo County authorities, who said they will now conduct their own investigation despite limited resources.

some video of the hearing is available here-- this promise to research is the result of Tom Hayden's testimony (he also had some history on Jackie Spier and Tom Lundgren on this issue):
UC Davis pepper-spraying spur pledge for research

State legislators question university officials about November protests

UC Davis Chancellor: I Didn't Tell Police to Use Pepper Spray

Not surprisingly, Yudof did not stick around to hear the student panel. Message sent, message received.

Cobbler,Children, Shoes

2011-12-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

Cognitive dissonance-- that was the term Jerry Brown could not let go of earlier this week.

Trashed
At UC Berkeley, recyclables end up in the landfill, outdoor plazas are drowning in litter, and gardeners spend their days collecting garbage. Welcome to the world's greenest university.

Cleanup effort removes 780 gallons of fuel after 1,650 gallons of diesel fuel spilled at UC Berkeley's Stanley Hall Dec. 10

this from earlier: Study: UC Berkeley is world's greenest university

and there is this to top it off - we know that Berkeley has the greatest income inequality in the east bay, and we know Berkeley High is spitting distance from the Cal campus (literally down the block): Berkeley High School's Teen Prostitution A Growing Concern

No More Words

2011-12-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

We will post the Cal Channel video of today's legislative hearing on pepper spray etc. once it is available.

Yudof Responds To $100 Million Dollar Cut

Press Conference: Senate Pro Tem Steinberg on Free Digital Text Books

Hush, Hush Keep It Down Now --Voices Carry

2011-12-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

UC Berkeley announces new financial aid plan for middle-income families and, here is: more info

it was either that or ...

Birgeneau was no where near Sacto or Katehi today...did you notice?

"UC is in talks with the state Department of Finance to try to work out a multiyear agreement in which the state would stop cutting the universities' budgets every year in exchange for a steady, predictable schedule of tuition increases."

2011-12-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

why is SF Chron making this the headline:
State budget: Trigger cuts hit community colleges

of a story that discusses important developments at CSU, UC and community colleges?

UCLA Fac Blog noticed it too

also see this earlier story from them..

and also this story

Flashback, for all of you who attended the Nov Regents meeting and had the senior admins, PR people and Regents basically patting you on the head and saying calm down, calm down- no tuition hike discussion or votes were scheduled for this meeting- REMEMBER THAT?! well--

"UC is in talks with the state Department of Finance to try to work out a multiyear agreement in which the state would stop cutting the universities' budgets every year in exchange for a steady, predictable schedule of tuition increases."

Update: Legislature to hold hearing on UC Davis pepper-spraying On Dec 14th

2011-12-13T17:46:00.000-08:00

see:
Legislature to hold hearing on UC Davis pepper-spraying

The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2011 in Room 4203 of the State Capitol.

Rehypothecation and Extraction

2011-12-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

this is happening: Gov. Brown announces about $1 billion in state trigger cuts
Anyway, here are Governor Brown's comments in full- it runs about 38 minutes.

but- remember 'Cal is becoming a federal university' and UC is becoming an online for profit -so this should not matter much...oh, wait:

"Since state revenues fell more than $2.2 billion short of projections, Brown was forced to initiate “trigger cuts” to education and social services, based on the state budget enacted in June. Both the UC and CSU systems will lose $100 million as a result of the cuts.

Already battered by previous cuts, UC Berkeley will cover the funding reduction by dipping into reserves, campus Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance John Wilton said in a Nov. 4 interview with The Daily Californian Senior Editorial Board. Student tuition, which was already increased this summer, is expected to rise in order to meet the shortfall."

or maybe some rehypothecation needs to happen?

b/c then the Daily Cal updated their story and had this:

"The cuts to the UC, however, will not be passed on to individual campuses and will be absorbed by the UC Office of the President, according to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel.

“We’re using short term bridging strategies — asset management,” Montiel said. “We’re taking certain steps in the short-term basis to move funds from one pool to another.”

In order to avoid a mid-year tuition hike, the university will look to reserves from its employee health care services. The UC will begin to draw from its employee health care reserve fund — which is used to provide for a possible substantial increase in the cost of health care — to account for the cuts, according to Montiel."
(bold emphasis is ours)
'absorbed by the UCOP'-- as if...
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Blackwater is now called-- fittingly-- Academi... maybe inspired by recent UC campus events...they say they were inspired by Plato-- get it-- Plato, plutocrats...
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a UC Irvine RA is pissed off at events at a Chick Fil A...something about some former UCLA student's words on a receipt.
__
Just stuff on the mind- including what US Senator Pat Roberts calls "35 cent words"
What Is Re-Hypothecation, And Does It Explain Why So Much MF Global Money Is Missing?
and Dylan Ratigan has some stuff on extraction- watch it while thinking about higher ed.

for certain types of students there will be a physical campus for others an online experience- and there will be research PhDs for certain types of students and other doctorate degrees for other certain types of students- none of this will be based on race, gender, socio-economic factors-- but will be decided on by some fair final arbiter in the sky...
Elijah
Cummings is requesting compensation info from the for profits by Dec 23rd.

Religion in the race.

Finally, Newt on UC Berkeley's Bain: “I would just say that if Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain Capital, that I would be glad to listen to him.” that quote is so Operationally Ex--

Wilton Talks Cal's Budget With Faculty and other items

2011-12-13T08:22:00.000-08:00

see:

Vice chancellor presents campus budget challenges to faculty

you might recall Wilton's earlier presentation to faculty- you can view that here.
__
and the ACLU raises more concerns about procedures at UC Berkeley
_
on the online for profit model UC covets read:

For-Profit Colleges Evade Stricter Rules By Courting Powerful Allies In Washington

HuffPo Analysis of Campaign Finance Data Related to For Profits in Higher Ed

Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools

“A look at the company’s operations, based on interviews and a review of school finances and performance records, raises serious questions about whether K12 schools — and full-time online schools in general — benefit children or taxpayers, particularly as state education budgets are being slashed. Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards.”

Professor Wendy Brown, UC Berkeley: When The Public University Can No Longer Afford Itself: The Impending Crisis in UC Graduate Programs

online for profits conservatively rake in 20 Billion in revenue each year- they are beginning to spend tens of millions in lobbying to keep their pie...

Easy Listenin'- Prof. Terada's Talk

2011-12-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

You can listen to the fifteen minute talk here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26534530/rei.mp3

Remaking will also be posting the text from Debt, Democracy, and the Future of the Public University. If you have good quality audio clips from that event you might also leave them with Remaking in the comments section so that there is a library.

Berdahl In At University of Oregon

2011-12-12T08:43:00.000-08:00

Robert Berdahl, former Chancellor at Cal is now named interim University of Oregon President
he was hired as a consultant by the guy he is replacing...
there is some drama in the sports program there...

-- so convenient how new chancellors can come to campuses and say that all sorts of new Operational Excellence needs to be brought in for beaucoup bucks b/c so much stuff is messed up -- and then out of the other side of the mouth --'oh, the previous folks did wonderful, wonderful things, a model really'-- and the formers ride that wave to new places- never mind the undertow...which one is it?!
__
Is this the guy with the cat named Obi? Silent UC Berkeley protester detained. Is the cat named for Wan Kenobi?
__
A li'l karma for the BP deal?
Diesel fuel spill at Stanley Hall-scary cuz the chem labs are just across the lane and other stuff, too much goin' on in that section of campus. Right on the hills of the ASUC contentious meeting there--can the new Stanley get some good headlines?
__
Cal has some folks who found the largest black holes in space and some folks based out of Moffett Field found a planet like earth- back in the day..watching Blue Angels take off from the tarmac there-afterburner Heaven-and a beautiful lunar eclipse!
__
The O'Jays -- "smile in your face --all the time they wanna..." -- no, really, it wasn't like that...

Dixiecrats of Higher Ed? and “Under no circumstances would I ever threaten a U.S. senator.”

2011-12-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

Three things:
1- we already know about Dianne Feinstein - Mrs UC Regent Blum- and those stories on Mr Blum and his major investments in for profit schools and loans UC has made in support of it...oh yeah, and some concerns raised (and we know about the "unusual partnership" UC has with UC Regent Chair Sherry Lansing venture in on line education.)

2- we already know that Di Fi has friends 'on the other side' like fellow US Senator Olympia Snowe and her husband's major investments in for profit online schools and some troubles on that front...

3- and we already know about the many many Dems who voted in support of less regulation of online for profits...

University Diaries had this post on a story in the New York Times and
the NYT article includes this --it stayed in mind:
"Anita Dunn, a close friend of President Obama and his former White House communications director, worked with Kaplan University, one of the embattled school networks. Jamie Rubin, a major fund-raising bundler for the president’s re-election campaign, met with administration officials about ATI, a college network based in Dallas, in which Mr. Rubin’s private-equity firm has a stake.

(is this the same Jamie Rubin who used to be in the State Dept and who now works for Bloomberg News and is married to ABC News' Christiane Amanpour?)

A who’s who of Democratic lobbyists — including Richard A. Gephardt, the former House majority leader; John Breaux, the former Louisiana senator; and Tony Podesta, whose brother, John, ran Mr. Obama’s transition team — were hired to buttonhole officials.

And politically well-connected investors, including Donald E. Graham, chief executive of the Washington Post Company, which owns Kaplan, and John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix and a longtime friend of the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, made impassioned appeals.

In all, industry advocates met more than two dozen times with White House and Education Department officials, including senior officials like Education Secretary Arne Duncan, records show, even as Mr. Obama has vowed to reduce the “outsize” influence of lobbyists and special interests in Washington."

and Clintonista Lanny Davis also has lobbied for less regulation of online for profit higher ed...

Back to the article- now there is this very disturbing section:

"The battle got so testy that Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who has led Congressional hearings into the colleges, got into a heated exchange with Mr. Stein, the Education Corporation investor.

The senator said that during a hallway conversation after lunch in the Senate dining room, Mr. Stein promised to “make life rough for me” if Mr. Harkin kept up his attacks.

“I took it as a threat — it was one of the most blatant comments ever made to me in my years in the Senate,” Mr. Harkin said."

If you support Senator Harkin's efforts you have to pay attention to the ongoing details of this story. The quotes about possible threats made to him over his proposed legislation are disgusting! Dems who voted against these regulations need to come out with their version of legislation that would address their concerns over the whole gainful employment rule - the safeguards for students should be first on their minds, so...
-and they need to make clear that any behavior that Harkin says was threatening was, and will always be, unacceptable.

Katehi: "We are waiting to learn if the California attorney general's office will also investigate. It has been asked to do so by the Yolo County sheriff's department and district attorney's office."

2011-12-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

All this time passing with no outside agency conducting its own investigation...

Our Students Are Not Protesting in a Vacuum

less concerned with vacuums - more concerned about shredders and missing hard drives and ...

what is the term -- 'white wa--'

HuffPo: "University Of California Campus Police Have History Of Excessive Force Against Protestors"

2011-12-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

HuffPo University Of California Campus Police Have History Of Excessive Force Against Protesters -- UCPD has no choice but to make very clear to the community the exact details of administrative failures that occurred- it seems they are being thrown under the bus-- administration has a private police force and like it, but don't understand what that means or the responsibilities that go along with it -- and a group of 'volunteer out of the goodness of our hearts' regents who like to dabble.
There are also these headlines floating around: "Campus Police Violence Is Nothing New In California" -- but it's about the administration who are overlords of the police- market rate and above salaries for people who have no clue on how to run higher ed or a public research university.

Trying to pass the blame around by saying Sacramento made this happen or it was a confusion of different practices when using 'mutual aid' is not going to work.
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a UC alum has this story:
Democratic Mayors Lead the Way on Cracking Down on Occupy Movement
also see video here:
Antonio Villaraigosa likes to talk about how much power and influence the Mayors have
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"Just six members of Walmart's Walton clan are worth as much as the bottom 30 percent of all Americans"
That’s according to a new analysis by Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist at the University of California at Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics.

The insane wealth of Walmart’s founding family

for all those focused on how to get more money for higher ed and 'the kids'- ruminate on this old story-- you have to consider your target audience:
California Child Support: Non-Custodial Parents Owe $19.2 Billion

and this important new report:

Calbuzz
Why PPIC’s New Wealth Gap Report Matters
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also vexing--

'The Honorable Jon Corzine' (that was the tent card at the US Congress yesterday)

and there's always 'Professor Emeritus Jerry Sandusky' (yep, he still has that title)

ps
on Cal-- just keep going back to: "Two weeks after the Wheeler Hall protest, Mr. Birgeneau awoke to find dozens of protesters surrounding his home on campus. Some hurled torches at his windows and smashed lights in his yard.

“I know that stung for him,” Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor of public affairs at Berkeley, said. “He was terrified.” Ms. Holmes said university officials became concerned after watching developments at other Occupy protests, including Oakland, which at times degenerated into violence and vandalism.

Ms. Holmes said she sympathized with those who questioned whether the university had betrayed its history with its crackdown on the encampments.

“I can completely understand that people are upset and that they see it as a conflict with our traditional values of free speech,” she said. “But it is a practical consideration to keep things going here on our campus.”
--don't remember hearing about smashed lights and windows having torches hurled - remember seeing a photo of a big cracked planter on the portico.
so-- it (that previous event) was in Birgeneau's mind but no not really he was incommunicado on a junket in China-and it was in the mind of administrators who were in town but were out sick/not well- some things just don't add up...
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and the Niners and Raiders are going to play in the same stadium?!
ok, got it all out...

"Mr. Rodgers is the only tenured African American business professor in the entire University of California system"

2011-12-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

read that sentence again and feel the need to make this story its own post:

UCR Denies Professor Fellowship

the entire system?!!!
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UC Berkeley releases its final enrollment data: UC Berkeley Enrollment Data

will they release a similar multi year table on staff demographics? Does one exist?

will they release a similar multi year table on faculty demographics? Does one exist?

Counter-Intelligence, Disinformation? On Student Loans

2011-12-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

Want to highlight a string of student loan stories that were a bit eyebrow raising- most found in the NYT Economix blog:
Student Loan Debt: Who Are the 1%?
also see: How Worrisome Is Student Debt?
and
Reader Response: Using Pell Grants to Estimate a School’s ‘Economic Diversity’
also this story featured a Cal student's struggles:
The Other Student Loan Problem: Too Little Debt
are some of these stories doing the bidding of Wall Street? or?...
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the decentralize-then centralize-then decentralize over and over again game gets played again:
Report recommends reforming Cal Grant distribution - this would be a UC system-wide change.
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They want to rename Speedway after Hellman- they should call it Bluegrass Meadow or Hardly Strictly Meadow or Meadow Soprano-- not Hellman-- fugetaboutit. There's enough- so to speak- billionaire p!ss marks in the Bay Area already.

Mr. Spock Of 'Star Trek' A Woman? -not so wild...

"As much as one-third of the total gains of after-tax income for people making more than $7 million a year is the result of benefits they have received in the form of lower taxes,"

2011-12-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

Paul Pierson, professor of political science at UC Berkeley,

Sylvia Allegretto, deputy chairwoman of UC Berkeley's Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics said...

And Ann Stevens, director of UC Davis' Center for Poverty Research, sought to debunk the notion that...

Read more: Government Gets Blamed For Widening Wealth Gap
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Progressives Take on The Governor over Taxes
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free UCR from oppression sign the petition

btw there is this drama at UCR right now: UCR professor alleges mistreatment by administration

UCR Denies Professor Fellowship

and there is this from a fac at UC Davis: Cloudy with a chance of pepper spray

Birgeneau Bunker Brewin'

2011-12-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

for a long while now...just really quickly -the bunker mentality has been present on a number of occasions for years-- these come to mind:
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At an ASUC Meeting:
Chancellor's Statement Cut Short At ASUC Meeting
he just wanted to make a statement, no public comment
saidChloe Chloe Hunt
#ASUC President Vishalli Loomba says there will be no public comment for Chancellor Birgeneau.

-the student govt also had to change their meeting room suddenly to accomodate him.
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At a panel discussion on the future of higher ed guess he doesn't want to hear questions either. Questions are dangerous things?:
dailycal Daily Californian
RT @jordan_bl: Cal Chancellor Robert Birgeneau leaves after last speaker, will not stay for q&a session which is starting now
_
His response to grad students:
Birgeneau cancels appearance with Graduate Assembly
_
the staff interactions:
Only 50 Staff Members Show Up For Chancellor Birgeneau At Cal! -- but he/the administration operatives wanted it that way - with only 50 people , that was supposed to be a good thing??!!
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it goes way back:
Union protest pre-empts chancellor's annual meeting with staff (2008)
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the comment that keeps being made on resignation is "well, we don't know if his replacement would be worse"
that is not a ringing endorsement!
(and then of course you have Brady bringing up-- Nixon, oy!)
--bailing on discussion/exchange with students and only sticking around for faculty is no way to be a chancellor of any university - especially a university that is supposed to be "the greatest public university in the world." This is a sad untenable situation- if there were some truly legitimate governing body to step in on this situation - now would be the time - but we don't have anything like that kind of leadership framework in the UC system. When the students are calling it a bunker mentality and upset with the Chancellor for leaving after a minor disruption - well...

--is Katehi hiding out too?
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A recent Daily Bruin editorial hits the nail on the head

but UCOP takes the photo op route instead -- they posted Sherry Lansing sitting with some students supposedly engaged in deep dialogue-- a photo op for the home page...any word on actual dates of her one woman/regent listening tour?

"The University of California must try to staunch the bleeding before its reputation as a successful alternative to costly private US universities is irreparably damaged."

2011-12-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Nature-
State cuts fuel California protests
Fears raised of lasting damage to public university system.

UC Berkeley to spend $2M with AT&T improving wireless coverage‎

UC Irvine Awarded 2011 Open Educational Quality Initiative Award for Institutions

Campus official says UC Berkeley shooting most likely ‘suicide by police’

there was this event:
Student regents, former Stanford president among speakers at education forum

and there is this event today:
debt, democracy, and the future of the public university: an event co-sponsored by qui parle
Dec 7th, 2011 The event is being held in the Maude Fife Room, Wheeler Hall 315, at the UC Berkeley campus, from 4 to 6pm.

also see: Reflections on the Significance of the Public University at McMaster

vendre des canard à moitié

2011-12-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

Remember a while back when Breslauer said that the lack of democratization of UC Regent appointments was a "canard"? The UC Regents actually are the bosses of the chancellors and the chancellor cabinets...

Well, it seems Chancellor Birgeneau's cabinet was out sick during the "let's make em crunchy" project: Birgeneau can be heard here at the 1:10mark he seems to be saying each cabinet member's name who was out sick while he was on a junket in China, here are the folks he listed by name as best we can hear:
Beata Fitzpatrick 'out sick': $174,999.96
John Wilton 'out sick': $375,000
George Breslauer 'not well': $297,409.32
Claire Holmes 'also not well': $230,000.00

and a few million more in the Chancellor cabinet apparently also not available...hopefully the final reports will give more explanation on all of this...

So, a question: what about when you pay quadruple for a duck and you don't even get the duck? Do they have a french expression for that?
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on something that didn't happen today:
EDITORIAL: CSU trustees can't just cancel their meetings

and there is this at Cal:
First online degree program at UC Berkeley to address public health workforce need

Chilean student-protest leader speaks at Berkeley

then see: This is What the Privatization of Education Looks Like

Yudof appoints members to task force investigating UC Davis pepper spraying incident -includes list.

Heavy On The Ex Cathedra? -Yudof's Speech To SF Chamber Of Commerce...

2011-12-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

So, Yudof gave a speech talking about silly "grand narratives" and "canards" (Cal's Breslauer is big on the canard word too, more about that in the next post). He seems to think he could not possibly be wrong, --infallible...ugh. Much of it reads as half truths (like, yes, the middle class is hurt more but it is also UC policies that caused this to happen; and the playing with SMG numbers etc.)

You can read it here: A Baker's Dozen Myths About Higher Education President Mark G. Yudof California Chamber of Commerce Board Meeting San Francisco, CA Dec. 2, 2011

Recall, this earlier post and Yudof has an interesting past history with the Chamber of Commerce in CA.

Also, the UC Hospitals enterprise is doing Viva Las Vegas great, no shortage of resources, so much so they have branched out to other states: The Nevada Cancer Institute is being acquired by the University of California, San Diego Health System.

Big on the ex cathedra term right now after seeing it used in this story.

if you scroll to the bottom of the home page you will see we took note a long while back of the use of the term 'grand narratives' to try to just dismiss contrary opinions based in fact...

UC- Siempre Como Una Telenovela

2011-12-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

It is fitting that Remaking the University chose to employ the use of soap opera titles for links to stories on Higher Ed -- afterall, true public higher ed is going down the same path of extinction as some of the most beloved soap operas. So, decided to go big on that idea- couldn't resist- we contribute our set of titles as well below-
start with the more positive stuff first:
Search for Tomorrow
Newsom Seeks to Harness Energy of Student Protests
(his new digs, wonder if that Russian billionaire friend will visit him there?)

The Young and the ~~Restless~~ Innovative
UC and Stanford rank high in earnings from business spinoffs

Guiding Light
Daily Cal journalists point out the pros and cons of developments in the DREAM Act
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~~Ryan's Hope~~ 'Birgeneau's Nope' to Grad Students
but evenso a former Academic Senate Chair tries to offer some support.
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Edge of Night
Pepper-Spray Cop's Money Troubles

Passions
some are so passionately annoyed by the 200 faculty (a fraction of the total faculty) who signed in support of Katehi-- so passionate in fact, well, they posted their salaries! --but they should focus that kind of ire on the senior administrators...

One Investigation To Live
Investigation of UC Davis Wall Street Ties

it's funny, all the quotes from Lynn Tierney- remember her from this story: U.C. Regents Boot Documentary Filmmaker Ric Chavez From Meeting

2010 UCOP TIERNEY , MARY LYNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT $224,660.08
2009 UCOP TIERNEY , MARY LYNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT $220,622.82

she sounds a lot like Claire Holmes at Cal

2010 BERKELEY HOLMES , CLAIRE A. ASSOC. VICE CHAN.(FTL. AREA) $230,000.04
2009 BERKELEY HOLMES , CLAIRE A. ASSOC. VICE CHAN.(FTL. AREA) $230,000.04
2008 BERKELEY HOLMES , CLAIRE A. ASSOC. VICE CHAN.(FTL. AREA) $142,504.20

folks like Debra Saunders think there a too many going- but she doesn't understand that some of them are for CYA purposes...
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Another World
there is this post on the 'specialness' of UC Regents -widely read -- The Regency

Santa Barbara - this from the Daily Nexus
Regulating the Regents: Why it’s Your Job
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this section is a l'il bit deep inside baseball/in the weeds, but a good read:

General Hospital- cuz- in the mind of UCOP
--UC is primarily- first and foremost- a $10 Billion dollar hospital system--
they don't care how the non hospital side operates, or fails to operate but they like the tuition $$$ from the non hospital side:

more evidence of the Operational Excellence debacle-
The Adobe project and its implications for future OE-related IT efforts

and The Bold and The Beautiful: "Nearly two months later "things" which are inhibiting deployment are still being worked out. This does not strike me as being particularly "operationally excellent"."

- these problems have been around forever but now? the movers and shakers of OE will start to start to think about how to start addressing these long standing issues... (yes, wrote that sentence just like that- read it slowly over and over again if you must.)

Peyton Place Patents
Apply This 1% Solution to the Affected Areas…

Sad about the soaps but the Telenovelas are muy popular! -- Maybe Carlos Slim can pick up the hobby of other billionaires and start his own Future of CA and UC committee-(call it the 'Think Lavar CA Committee' or 'Gobernar CA' or 'Valor CA') and step in to save the day for the soaps and CA higher ed?!- The classes could be in Baja- technically keeping it U. of 'California' and Jerry "I Don't Want To Step On My Own Story" Brown could visit on vacations to give the convocation!
Habla Espanol Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahay Chandler Roy Montgomery Marick Montgomery?

Yolo DA and Sheriff Ask CA AG Kamala Harris To Run Investigation At UC Davis

2011-11-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

Sac Bee has: this

"The sheriff and district attorney, in a letter to Katehi dated Tuesday, said they are requesting that the state attorney general's office handle the investigation.

"In light of the significant statewide issues involved in these events, we join in asking you to bring the full resources of the state of California to bear on these events so that the public will have full confidence in the outcome," the letter states.
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Is UC Davis's Pepper Spray Investigation Truly Independent? The Atlantic

And, in the way of things, Altegrity has a corporate owner, Providence Equity Partners, which has investments in the Education Management Corporation, the second largest for-profit college company in the United States after the University of Phoenix. Any love for affordable, high-quality public education that exists at Providence Equity Partners would certainly run counter to the firm's financial interests.
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Will Calif. AG Investigate Pepper Spray Incident? KCRA Sacto

Audio: November 28th, the UC Berkeley Academic Senate

2011-11-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

Please listen asap: http://soundcloud.com/honeyrococo/11-28-11-3-21-pm-november-28th

Audio: November 28th, the UC Berkeley Academic Senate

--there are a number of issues with what Birgeneau and Breslauer state, will blog later on that-- but wanted y'all to be able to listen asap.

Raises and Capital Projects Chug Along...

2011-11-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

e.g.

UC Board of Regents approves raises for campus administrators, lawyers

Regents approve funding for Lower Sproul renovation

recall this earlier story:

Student government officials held up their end of the plan by submitting names for the committee, but administrators did not respond in a timely manner. Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Erin Gore took “full responsibility” for the delay, stating that she had been working long hours and had been concentrating on other aspects of the renovation project.

-- Gore came to Cal from Bank of America Securities Division-and her division at Cal has apparently shrunk (no more Business Technology Solutions unit etc.)- is higher ed more challenging than BofA?
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Commentary: Mark Yudof Remains Oblivious To the Rest of the World

"We consider these retention efforts to be essential," he said. "I understand it's not a great time, but we can't really close down shop and say we're not going to make any effort to retain our best people."

The Sacramento Bee came forward with the details:

Two vice chancellors at UC Irvine and a vice chancellor at UCLA got raises of 9.9 percent. That brings salaries for Wendell C. Brase and Meredith Michaels at UC Irvine to about $247,000, and the salary for Steven A. Olsen at UCLA close to $317,000.
Joseph I. Castro was appointed interim dean of the graduate division of UC San Francisco and given a 7.5 percent raise, bringing his salary to $252,625.
Steven A. Drown, chief campus counsel at UC Davis, got a 21.9 percent raise, bringing his salary to $250,000.
Diane F. Geocaris, chief campus counsel at UC Irvine, received a 14.3 percent raise, bringing her salary to $255,000.
Carole R. Rossi, chief campus counsel at UC Santa Cruz, received a 13.9 percent raise, bringing her salary to $215,000.
Michele Coyle, chief campus counsel at UC Riverside, received an 11.4 percent raise, bringing her salary to $215,000.
Marcia J. Canning, chief campus counsel at UC San Francisco, received an 8.9 percent raise, bringing her salary to $255,000.
Daniel Park, chief campus counsel at UC San Diego, received a 6.4 percent raise, bringing his salary to $250,000.
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UCOP reflexively says oh well that is just a little smidge of the overall budget - it is not going to solve the larger problems -- blah blah
but

it is not just the raises the UC Regents approve - it is the raises for those in administration already earning over six figures receiving quiet raises-- yet, the system is not ending up with such great results- as evidenced by the never ending scandalous headlines --see a small sampling in the right hand column.
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Some of the students would like to receive an apology from Birgeneau that is not a mere audio clip from O'Hare. A face to face apology. Imagine that.
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This is another contribution UC makes to the state- but they don't like to talk about it:

Berkeley Has Bay Area's Largest Wealth Gap, Say Numbers
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Cal frequently like to b&%tch at students on behalf of landlords -- but what does Cal do for students in these situations?
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The Governor was in Baja?

Bratton Is Katehi's OE Consultant On Campus Police?

2011-11-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

is this all just an Operational Excellence exercise?!
that seems to be the role of Bratton and the Task Force:
recall earlier--
"The task force will review the report and make recommendations to Ms. Katehi on steps that should be taken to ensure the safety of peaceful protesters on campus. She will present her implementation plan to Yudof."
they don't plan to see her go - this is a management exercise to them...
see this latest commentary.

Other links:

(VIDEO) UC Davis' Nathan Brown: We Must Rethink How We Approach Civil Disobedience

UC Students Faculty, Staff Protest Board of Regents

Protesters shut down UC regents' teleconferenced meeting

The University We Are For?
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Flashback-- our old post on Yudof and the First Amendment-- Quartering of Soldiers, Letters of Marque and Reprisal hahahaahaha lol so funny--Mark Yudof's Problem With The First Amendment
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Daily Cal Has A Story On How A Star Wars Creator Faced the corporate corruption of movie making...

And Daily Cal had a thing on Above The Clouds

Another story for the library ;-) on the ethics of Star Trek
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UC speaking up at the UC Regents meeting-- you did indeed look/sound "Fucking Beautiful!" right up there with Aug 2011 Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA - check it out:

Gov. Crusty Takes On 'Crunchy' and Fried

2011-11-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

see:

Gov. Brown requests review of police use of force guidelines

Cal Buzz sometimes affectionately (?) calls him Ol' Crusty or something like that -- anyway, glad he is back home and has his eyes on this issue.

Justice Reynoso,Chair Task Force on Pepper Spray Incident, Gives Phone Interview - Davis Vanguard

2011-11-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

See:
Former Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso Named to Chair Task Force on Pepper Spray Incident

"The task will not be to investigate, the task will be to review the report that will be made and to give our own reactions," the former Justice told the Vanguard.

The task force will review the report and make recommendations to Ms. Katehi on steps that should be taken to ensure the safety of peaceful protesters on campus. She will present her implementation plan to Yudof.

a student comment in that story:
The Vanguard spoke with Eric Lee, one of the student protesters who did not know much about Cruz Reynoso, but was strongly opposed to William Bratton being named to head up the investigation.

"The fact that Bill Bratton is on that committee is terrifying," he told the Vanguard. "This is a man who led militarized police on working class neighborhoods in Los Angeles to round up indigent people under the assumption that they would be committing criminal acts."

"He is the father of one of the most classist political theories... the broken windows theory," he said. "If this guy is on the task force, I frankly don't care who else is."

"More importantly it doesn't matter who is on the task force, because the task force itself is a joke. We don't want a task force - we want Chancellor Katehi to resign. Anything less than that is not anything that we're interested in being a part of."
Mr. Lee is not the only one with deep concerns:
CUCFA Letter to President Yudof objecting to hiring William Bratton to investigate UC Davis pepper-spray incident

Coverage Of Nov 28th Roundup

2011-11-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

just a few pieces:
UCSC students rally in solidarity with UC Davis protesters

Occupy protesters at UC Davis settle in for long haul

Students protest Occupy crackdowns at UC meeting

UC Students Protest Police Actions, Soaring Tuition As Regents Meet

Protesters Demand Accountability at U.C. Board of Regents Meetings

Students Protest at UC Regents Meetings

Students shut down UC regents meeting

Protesters gather at UCLA for UC regents meeting

Students to Speak Out at Regents Meeting

Hundreds protest UC Regents meeting at UC Davis

Why We Occupy: Because College Used To Be Virtually Free In California

On Birgeneau...

2011-11-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

see @amrutatrivedi
should also be a story soon at DailyCal

also it is funny - he asked for it-- but:
State senator requests public meeting with Chancellor Birgeneau on Sproul Plaza

amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Academic senate meeting adjourned. Passed 4 resolutions
42 minutes ago
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1. Opposes all violent police responses to non-violent protest, whether that protest is
lawful or not.
2. Condemns the UC Berkeley administration’s authorization of violent responses to nonviolent
protests over the past two years.
3. Demands that Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer, and Vice
Chancellor LeGrande take responsibility for and repudiate such policing as it occurred
over the past two years.
4. Demands that these administrators develop, follow and enforce university policy to
respond non-violently to non-violent protests, to secure student welfare amidst these
protests, and to minimize the deployment of force and foster free expression and
assembly on campus.
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»
Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
#berkeley division vote of the sending mail ballot defeated
43 minutes ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
to clarify, four resolutions have passed in body present but now voting whether mail ballot should be sent out to all faculty.
45 minutes ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Now voting on whether to send the resolution as mail ballot to faculty not present
52 minutes ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Now counting no votes
56 minutes ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Those in favor of 4 resolutions asked to stand up. Staff hand counting
56 minutes ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Hand counting votes of faculty members in favor of 4 resolutions.
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Berkeley division mtg ends debate and moves to vote
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Wendy brown: "each resolution addresses a part of what can stop police violence"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Law prof's comment "this is a campus that is famous for free speech because it is regularly violated," met with laughter from faculty
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Speaker: "senate/faculty need a committee on demonstrations on ground to talk to students"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Langan: "I can have no confidence in chancellor that stands by assertion that linking arms is not non-violent"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
UCB english prof. Celeste Langan: "will use my two minutes of free speech to talk about arms"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
speaker: "I am disappointed because (resolutions) are too weak."
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
A prof during public comment calls for initiative to inform UC parents about contact info for state legislators "who raise tuition"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Another speaker says senior admin has treated student protesters, not as allies, but as adversaries
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Speaker: "Resort to violence is systemic, ingrained"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Prof. Speaker: "we have to recognize what police violence means for witnesses"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Ananya Roy: "apology is fine for isolated event. But patterns require more than an apology"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
AAVP Julia Joung addressing faculty: "I am here to ask for your support of the fundamental issues of the #occupycal movement "
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Graduate Assembly Pres. Bahar Navab: "students not hit for encampment, they were batoned for peaceful expression...of frustration at UC"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
VC Le Grande: "I want to be advocate (of students) and improve student experience"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Breslauer said senior administration is open to holding meetings with student representatives of #occupycal GA
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Breslauer calls for need of actionable ideas for how to address relevant socioeconomic issues
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Breslauer: "tactically, it would have been better to wait until middle of night to avoid confrontation when there were less people"
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
EVC&P Breslauer said admin thought of people's park, tree-sit, Zuccotti park and occupy Oakland when enforcing policy of no encampments
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Birgeneau: "process (of clearing encampment) went as well as it could have" on nov. 15
1 hour ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Birgeneau: "as chancellor, I was more disturbed than possibly other people in room" at police action of nov. 9
2 hours ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Birgeneau said he told UCPD chief Celaya before nov. 9 he did not want "repeat of #occupyoakland...no tear gas or pepper spray"
2 hours ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Chancellor addresses @ucberkeley faculty members
2 hours ago
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Amruta Trivedi
amrutatrivedi Amruta Trivedi
Speaker: "this academic senate mtg is a vehicle through which we can bring halt to police violence "
2 hours ago

"While students were calling the protest “non-violent,” the events on November 9th were anything but nonviolent."

2011-11-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

that quote comes from this story:
UCLA Faculty Association UC-Berkeley Policy Statement

there are other links to read during the audio blackout of the UC Regents meeting:

Defending the Indefensible

Live blogging regents as best we can

Changing Universities Open Letter to President Yudof

Calbuzz What Jerry Brown Should Have Said About UC Davis

UC San Diego Statement on Police Responses to Protests

Several stories at California Progress Report
here are the titles of most interest:
Student Activists Deserve Our Thanks and

How Students Landed on the Frontlines of Class War and

Schrag's take on the Think Long Committee (which includes Cal's Laure D Andrea Tyson and G. Parsky, former Chair of the UC Regents.)
___________
on UC Regent meeting, this update:
FYI @ 1pm PST :
dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado Police carrying riot helmets seen leaving building #UCregents
1 minute ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado #UCregents meeting has been resumed via teleconference in a smaller, blocked-off room.
2 minutes ago

The Regents end the meeting with Blum asking to end in the memory of Chancellor Heyman- and Blum gives his often used line of "just what the university needed" - someone other than Blum should have said it-(he has said it about others and then later on said how someone new was needed)- and it is a shame that this is the meeting it was done at- this meeting was an aberration of -- EVERYTHING.
The public comment statements were the only thing legitimate about it- everything else, as one commenter said was "false dialogue" .
they adjourned - Yudof tells another unidentified regent they deserve the medal of valor and they all take off (Lansing had to beg them not to leave early) for other destinations --laughing and giggling as the audio cuts off...
__

here is: some of the audio from the meeting.
and also see
Proceedings Conducted Openly

WTH Is Happening @ The UC Regents Meeting?!

2011-11-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

update II 12:35pm the audio for the Regents meeting has been taken down and it says "there are no upcoming events" for the past ten minutes...

update: the audio is coming in and out now on UC Regents meeting - they are playing with the mute buttons at various locations and saying the internet is up the internet is down-- regents who were not present during the roll call for public comment are now suddenly present for votes on the finance committee-- it would be nice to see an actual vote sheet of who voted and how and who was present for public comment... http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
-- there are going to be a lot of questions about how this public meeting is going down- esp. after the CSU backroom vote a few weeks ago...
_______
Original post:
if you are listening on line - and that is what you are asking- you are listening to dead air for the past twenty minutes

We are left wondering -- if the regents meeting is continuing at other locations -- Why isn't the public being provided with the audio?

you can follow some of what is going on in the room by @dailycal
you must see the updated tweets!!! un be frickin lievable!

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: #UCregents "temporarily adjourning" meeting at UCSF. Meeting is continuing via teleconference at other campuses. #highered
3 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Mtg mem: "#UCregents said they canceled their mtg b/c of threats of violence. You have to admit, that's a little ironic."
4 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Several meeting members are parents #UCregents #highered
8 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Audience member: "#UCregents are good leaders, but they are not your leaders." #highered
11 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: #UCregents audience proposal to end people's mic passes #highered
14 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Gavin Newsom is sitting in a circle with #UCregents audience members, listening to proposals. #highered
14 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Gavin Newsom says he will join #UCregents audience meeting, cheering ensues: "We have one regent!" #highered
16 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Gavin Newsom has not left the room. Audience members are thanking him, asking him to join their meeting #UCregents
17 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado #UCregents meeting members discussing their support for the #refundca pledge
39 seconds ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: The meeting appears to have adjourned. #UCregents leaving the room. #highered
18 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: Yudof has left the room #UCregents #highered
19 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: #UCregents meeting has come to a halt due to audience member meeting. #highered
20 minutes ago

dailycal Daily Californian
RT @daortellado: #UCregents audience holding up banner reading "THE REGENTS ARE THE 1%" #highered
21 minutes ago

Reminder: UC Regent Meeting Monday Nov 28th

2011-11-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

as if we need a reminder but -- anyway...

agenda http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov28.html

listen via the Internet at: http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

Also, if you are confused by or new to this set up on UC Regent meetings -here is: some background.

at 9:01am the link above displays this "Upcoming Events
Name Date
Currently there are no upcoming events." you have to keep hitting refresh or checking back until an "in progress" link appears and then click that link to listen. (Also the link to granicus that UCLA provided will just link to an error message- so use the granicus link above that works. These people don't even know the proper links for their own meetings with their arcane setup...)
okay it is 9:04am and the in progress link has finally appeared...

Is This Allowed Under Bagley Keene? Re Tomorrow's UC Regent Meeting

2011-11-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

Take a close look at the instructions to media:
UC Regents meeting at UCLA and three other locations Monday, Nov. 28
By UC Office of the President November 26, 2011
NEWS MEDIA ADVISORY
Friday, Nov. 25, 2011
University of California Office of the President
(510) 987-9200

UC Regents meeting at four locations Monday, Nov. 28

The November meeting of the University of California Board of Regents, rescheduled and reconfigured after being postponed because of public safety concerns, will take place Monday, Nov. 28, at four locations: UC San Francisco-Mission Bay, UCLA, UC Davis and UC Merced. Public comment is scheduled for 9-10 a.m.

(NOTE: Contrary to misinformation circulating in the media and through social media, the UC Regents will not consider tuition increases for this academic year. No tuition action was ever planned for the November meeting. A proposed expenditure budget for 2012-13, which will serve as the basis for UC's funding request to the state, is the principal item up for action at this rescheduled and reconfigured meeting. The agenda will allow for an expanded discussion period – increased from the usual 20 minutes to one hour – in which students and members of the public may voicee their concerns and address comments to the board.)

The sites will be open to the public and connected to each other via teleconference. The public notice of the meeting, where they will take place on campuses and the agenda are available at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov28.html.

Those interested in the proceedings of the Nov. 28 meeting but unable to attend in person may listen via the Internet at http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=.

NOTE TO REPORTERS:

There are different procedures and arrangements for media at each campus. We recommend that media representatives bring credentials. Please see details for each site below.

UC San Francisco/Mission Bay

Procedures for media covering the meeting are the same as usual, although reporters are encouraged to bring valid press credentials. A press room, with a live audio feed, will be available. Parking in the 4th Street garage is recommended. Directions to the Mission Bay Community Center (1675 Owens St.): www.ucsf.edu/maps/directions-to-ucsf-mission-bay/

UCSF shuttles run regularly from the 16th Street-Mission BART Station to the community center. For shuttle timetables: www.campuslifeservices.ucsf.edu/transportation/shuttles (red line)

UCLA

Due to space considerations, working media must show a valid credential to gain access to the James West Alumni Center, where the meeting will be held. This is at the end of Westwood Plaza. A press check-in table will open at approximately 7 a.m. For security clearance, cameras must be in place in the meeting room by 8 a.m.

A press room and filing area will be available in Room 135 of the Morgan Center, directly across from the James West Alumni Center. The press room phone number is 310-267-5528. Live audio of the meeting will be broadcast in Bruin Plaza, adjacent to the Morgan Center.

Parking:
The turnaround in front of the James West Alumni Center and Parking Structure 6 will not be available. Limited news van parking will be available in designated areas just north of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science building, near Westwood Plaza at Strathmore Drive. Handicapped spots in that area must remain clear. News vans may also park on the roof of Parking Structure 8. Follow the instructions of traffic officers and parking signage. Parking for passenger vehicles will be available in Structure 8. For a permit, show a valid press credential at the Westwood Plaza kiosk. Click to view parking map.

UCLA Media Contacts:
Steve Ritea, (310) 739-4062
Phil Hampton, (310) 466-8848

UC Davis

Media should proceed to the Activities and Recreation Center Ballroom on La Rue Road and park in lot #25. For free parking, members of the press should display either their business card or an official press credential on the dashboard of their vehicle. TV trucks broadcasting live will be directed to a parking area behind the Activities and Recreation Center.

UC Merced

Media should enter though the lobby in the Kolligian Library, where they will be directed to Room 232. Reporters may park free on campus if official press credentials issued by their affiliated media organization are clearly displayed on the dashboard of their vehicle. Media parking in spaces marked as reserved is not permitted.
source: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/uc-regents-meeting-at-ucla-and-219753.aspx

"UC has not punished a media adviser or other employee for protecting the free speech rights of students does not mean that university employees do not feel constrained and do not need protection,"

2011-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Read the old 2008 story on UC: Above the Law? from Inside Higher Ed
Now we are way beyond just 'feeling constrained'-- they've broken faculty members ribs, pulled 'em by the hair, knocked down their wives, made 'em 'crunchy' etc. when those professors were trying to protect students' first amendment rights. So, what do we think of what they said back in 2008 now? So much old business- warning signs, red flags- to be looked at again...

Told of the university's assertion that it has the right to opt out of the underlying free speech law, too, Goodman said via e-mail that the issue "all does come back to whether they support the protections in 66301 -- that the university should not have the authority to discipline students or engage in prior restraint of their expression when that expression would be protected by the First Amendment or the California Constitution if the expression occurred off campus." He added: " If they do agree with that, then they should have not a problem with SB 1370 as it only protects university employees from punishment for student expression that is already protected by 66301.

"No provision of [Part 40] shall apply to the University of California except to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, make that provision applicable."
In this case, Hayward and Chastain warn, the regents do not plan to let the media adviser provision apply if it should become law.

yep, read the old 2008 story on UC: Above the Law? from Inside Higher Ed

also....

reclaim UC has this section in this interesting post:

From: Robert J. Birgeneau
Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 8:59 PM
To: 'Claire Holmes'; Beata Fitzpatrick'; George Breslauer'; 'Phyllis Hoffman'
Cc: 'Janet Gilmore'
Subject: RE: DRAFT text for Wheeler story

Hi Claire,
I agree with the basic message. However, we need to find a new word other than "activists" to describe the protesters; that descriptor gives them too much gravitas. I prefer: intruders, occupiers, and/or protesters. Also, assuming that everything goes according to plan, I would like a quote expressing my admiration for the very professional way in which the police managed to apprehend and remove the illegal occupiers.

Bob
__
And this on Davis:
'Major reforms are needed because regardless of whoever is fired or resigns, it won't mean anything if we don't change policy and the way our institutions are run,' Adam Thongsavat, president of the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis, said in an interview. 'That's what's going to affect students and campus policy and bring awareness.'
The student government passed a resolution Monday night calling on the state attorney general's office to investigate campus police misconduct.
The students are demanding police go through sensitivity training, seek more student representation and review policies on student protests.
Katehi has already asked the Yolo County district attorney's office to investigate, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven confirmed Tuesday that the department will look into the matter.
Attorney General Kamala Harris was deeply disturbed by the videos of the incident, spokeswoman Lynda Gledhill said Tuesday.
'She's confident they will conduct a quick and thorough investigation of the matter,' Gledhill said.
(the students have appealed to the CA AG before...)
Also-- while reading that DailyMail story kept thinking about the fact that there were at least two ASIAN officers who experienced problems at UC Davis -- perhaps not just anti gay but other issues as well.
Get better George.

The 'Moral Authority Of Political Favors' Also Known As "UC Regents"

2011-11-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

will be meeting on November 28th--here is the agenda.

and

‘Occupy’ California Protesters Call For Strike To Shutdown College Campuses

According to a post on the Occupy Wall Street website, the UC Board of Regents on Monday will propose “drastic” budget reductions and a massive increase of fees. And the protesters are calling for action.

But UC spokesperson Dianne Klein tells TPM there’s no vote on Monday on budget issues or fee increases.

“There’s not a shred of truth in that,” she said. I don’t know where they got that.”

-- because, of course, students should only show up at only the meetings on the actual day of the vote on tuition increases -- how dare they remain active against tuition increases during all UC Regent meetings where staff and senior administrators lay the groundwork and continue the drum beat to increase tuition and fees...yes, indeed, how dare they?! I don't know where they got that.

on twitter--@mark_yudof aka Mark G. Yudof:
Please note: **There is no tuition item on Monday's regents meeting agenda, nor was there ever a tuition item scheduled.**

In other words... "the children/kids are hysterical, they don't even know what they are talking about!"--"go away!"

Robert Reich did a video for MoveOn a few days ago:

we went back to that ol' Moral Authority term that was so much en vogue in politics just a few short decades ago (afterall the Newtster is still hanging around)-- because of this story along with many others that make reference to morals and leaders in higher ed.

The UC Version of Omertà?

2011-11-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

update: Remaking the University has story on another link b/ween Penn State and UC Davis.)
__
original post:
scribbles:
change the subject
vilify the press, media,anyone who speaks
pivot, fixate only on drafting new policy, cover up
blame Sacramento,Californians, the simple or stupid people
it's a term that kept coming up a few weeks ago...due to that certain crisis at a school on the east coast.
see this post specific to how higher ed operates when faced with troubles

in this moment we can't just pivot to the budget and figuring out how to get more money for UC/higher ed

we can't just divide up into the 'let's fix Prop 13' group
or 'let's hit up the service sector' 'Think Long' group
or the David Crane whatever group's yet to be formed proposals
(and there are about another half dozen m/billionaire's think tank proposals for CA that we could continue to rattle off )

without paying attention to how the place is run

sending out rah rah communiques vilifying the press coverage -- or blaming some simplified media coverage (that does not exist) and encouraging everyone to 'shut up and keep it in the family' isn't going to work-- and it is the worst thing members of middle and upper management can do- because it looks like what it is -- Omertà behavior.

some brave people are openly talking about seeing serious burn out and admin failures in front of their eyes, others are talking about the damage that happens when you turn Chancellors into 300% time effort fundraisers-in-chief and what happens organizationally as a result--and it is showing for the organization- there are officers who are either being 'thrown under the bus', not directed properly or...who knows --and there are those who have left service because they faced abuse. Those are real problems - exposing real human suffering.

You can't just look away and focus on "other fish to fry"... believing that action is for another time and place or should be focused solely on one agenda.

and there's a window right now and a lot to be learned about how the place is run in these moments...
it is an opportunity to truly stand up for UC- in a lasting way.
__
Grateful for those who are stronger than Omertà
Grateful for Gabriel Zimmerman getting some 'props',and Chancellor Heyman, and Walt Hazzard
Grateful for those in a Haas computer room who got out safely
Grateful for Occupiers, General Strikers, The 99, Los Indignados, and everyone who got "crunchy" or "fried" and 'threw their bodies on the machine'-- and all others who are
Wide Awake (this plays with Homecoming first, just like the old vinyl 12 inch)

and so much more! Happy Thanksgiving.
P.S. An alternative to the new extreme consumerism 'sport' called Black Friday, a Season of Sharing -if you're so inclined. and are Republicans really saying this about Mrs UC Regent Blum?:"Sen. Feinstein can have the job as long as she wants it. " What about Independents?