caledinsider.org: The Budget Literacy Project

Posts may be sparse the next few weeks due to the imminent approach of final exams here at Cal, but be sure to check back in mid-May.

http://ucregentlive.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/california-democracy-act-withdrawn/

Is this the real Daily Californian Web site?

Read about the outcome of yesterday’s discussion on whether and howUC should take over state prison healthcare.

Also, student loan overhaul approved by Congress (NY Times).

Watch archived videos of the regents’ meeting here.

Interim Provost Larry Pitts was appointed UC provost today. Here is an e-mail sent out by UC President Mark Yudof to UC employees that I received in my inbox. (I work for University of California Press, so I get UC employee e-mails). I’m posting the letter because it includes information about Pitts as well as an explanation of what the provost does, which I have highlighted in bold print.

March 25, 2010

Dear UC colleagues:

I am pleased to inform you that the UC Regents earlier today confirmed my recommendation that Larry Pitts be appointed UC provost.

As many of you know, Larry has been serving as interim provost since February 2009.  In this role, he has done a terrific job not only maintaining the academic enterprise but also overseeing the restructuring of the Academic Affairs organization here at the Office of the President in order to better support the campuses and plan for the future.

As provost, Larry will be responsible for academic affairs systemwide, which includes setting academic policies on student admissions, retention and graduation; developing academic priorities; and long-ranging planning activities – ever-important activities given the challenges we are facing.

Larry knows UC extremely well.  He is a longtime faculty member and a professor of neurosurgery at UC San Francisco, where he has served since 1975.  At UCSF, he has been chief of neurosurgery at San Francisco General Hospital and of UCSF/Mount Zion Hospital, and vice chair and acting chair of the Department of Neurosurgery.  He is also past chair of the UC Academic Senate, and has served on a variety of UC Academic Senate committees at the divisional and systemwide levels, including the Senate’s Shared Governance Task Force, the Task Force on Healthcare and the drafting task force on UC’s Health Corporate Compliance Plan.

As an accomplished leader and a passionate advocate for UC, I believe he’ll do a terrific job working with University leadership, the faculty and the entire the UC community to help lead the University into the future and to maintain UC’s standards of academic and scientific excellence.

Please join me in congratulating Larry on his appointment.

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark G. Yudof
President

This recommendation was approved:

“The Regents expressly reserves the right and option, in its absolute

discretion, to establish fees at any level it deems appropriate based on a full

consideration of the circumstances, and nothing in this policy shall be a basis for any

party to rely on fees of a specified level or based on a specified formula.”

Regents and administrators are still responding to campus climate issues, focusing on UCSD. Student speaking about noose at UCSD.

I went out to the hall for a moment to get a bagel and saw UC President Mark Yudof walk by. If you had an opportunity to ask Yudof one question, what would you ask?

BAMN– By Any Means Necessary– a group that supports affirmative action, dominated the public comment period.

Most speakers focused on the incidents on UCSD’s campus.

The public comment period ends and Regent Gould transitions into Board Meeting. President Mark Yudof responds to controversial incidents, mentioning things people said during public comment. Large portion of people attending public comment period leave as yudof starts to speak, shouting “Whose university? Our university!” Yudof continues to speak.

More details about public comment later.

Public Comment Period

Started with one of the regents (I think it was Russell Gould) speaks about the recent controversial incidence at UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC Irvine.

Comment period is being doubled from 20 minutes to 40 minutes.

“At the heart of these issues are the values of respect and tolerance … I ask that you embrace those values when you deliver those remarks today.”

In case you missed today’s UC Regents meeting like I did (I was at work):

Student Regent Designate Jesse Cheng’s liveblog

UC Commission on the Future Releases Initial Findings (the Daily Californian)

The commission proposes increasing the enrollment of out-of-state students, setting up multi-year fee increase plans and introducing online classes as an option for students.

The UC’s student fee policies.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office summary of  and comments on the 2010-11 fiscal year budget.

The march made its way into San Francisco around 5 p.m. according to the Daily Cal. The Huffington Post reports that the number of protesters has dwindled to between 300 and 400. The Post’s live blog of the march can be found here.

Several protesters have been detained in Oakland, according to the Daily Cal. One protester said some anarchists tried to occupy the University of California Office of the President.

Take this survey about the UC budget crisis so we can improve this site and better serve your information-seeking needs.

Watch a video of Julie talking about how the group formed, its goals, etc.

Thinking about UC finances and everything related to them is like holding a big soap bubble in your palm. You try to keep it from popping long enough to look into it like a crystal ball, hoping you’ll at least get a clear idea of the present. I’m not talking about specifics like how much the UC has sold in bonds or how much it pays its employees; I mean simply trying to map what can be researched. I mean trying to make a few categories and subcategories just so the whole massive thing seems somewhat manageable. However, when I try to organize what I know of (not even what I know), I’m constantly reminded that even my vaguest ideas of what sort of information is to be had out there are only from the peripheral edges of what I can see through a peep hole. I feel like an ant looking at a mural; I can’t possibly see the whole picture.

What seems impossible for one person is difficult but plausible for a group. Last night I went to a meeting for a nameless research coalition composed of undergraduates, graduate students and UC faculty. The meeting was delightfully small compared to intimidating action-focused meetings I’ve sat in on. Topics discussed included the power structure of the UC, the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the “Blue and Gold Plan,” pension funds, and conflicts of interest among the UC Regents, particularly Richard Blum, whom a Berkeley professor referred to as the “alpha regent.” After a quick brainstorm session, small groups were created based on the brainstormed research topics. The meeting finished in under an hour and a half, an unprecedented accomplishment in my experience. If real, useful information is going to be compiled in a timely fashion, efficiency is a must. As you can imagine, the group is working under pressure.

“One of the things that we’re really working hard at figuring out is how to do research effectively in what is essentially an emergency situation,” said Julie Michelle Klinger, a first year graduate student in Geography at UCB and founder of the group. Click on the link at the top of this post to watch a video of Julie talking about the group.