The California Professor

Social Security Deduction

2011-12-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

It would seem that the University was not prepared for the extension of the Social Security tax cut just approved by Congress. As a result, January paychecks will reflect the old, higher payroll tax rate of 6.2% instead of the 4.2% that's been in place throughout 2011. The extra amount withheld will appear instead on the next paycheck, on Feb 1 for most employees. So our Jan 1 paychecks

Backroom Deals

2011-12-01T08:53:00.001-08:00

This past Monday, after hearing the plight of students for never-ending tuition hikes and their outrage at the trampling of their constitutional rights at Berkeley, Davis and elsewhere, the Regents of the University of California promptly reconvened to a separate, smaller room for the non-public portion of their meeting, where they provided yet another resplendent example of their vision,

Yudof steps in

2011-11-22T21:27:00.001-08:00

From the SF Chronicle: On Tuesday, Yudof asked the acting police chief to get criminal charges dismissed against 10 protesters involved in Friday's demonstration and said the school would pay the demonstrators' medical bills. He also named William Bratton, a former Los Angeles police chief, to direct a review of the pepper-spray incident. One has to say, that if those are the qualifications

What Katehi didn't say

2011-11-21T21:26:00.001-08:00

As we know the Davis Chancellor addressed the 5,000 participants at the rally held today on the UCD quad: the full 2:44 minutes of her emotional speech can be viewed here. She apologized for Friday's "events" and vowed to work to re-gain the students' trust. That cannot have been easy, and it certainly took courage. But equally important is what she did not say. For instance, here is something

The Chancellor's Conundrum

2011-11-20T07:10:00.001-08:00

Faced with intense pressure and stinging criticism following the pepper-spraying of non-violent protesters on her campus, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi should do what responsible administrators always do under the circumstances: find a scapegoat. In these difficult times, the Chancellor's mind must certainly be considering the central question: who? who should I fire to save my own job? One

UC Davis' "vision of excellence"

2011-11-19T17:50:00.001-08:00

It seems like UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi finally succeeded in her stated goal to obtain much deserved national recognition for her campus.

The dirty secret behind UC privatization

2011-11-17T08:44:00.001-08:00

There is much to think about in Nathan Brown's remarks, delivered at the Tuesday day of protest, even if one does not agree with everything he says. In particular, his claim that in many ways UC likes to replace state funds with student tuition, seems right on the mark. State funds are restricted, and they can mostly be used for instructional purposes. Student tuition is unrestricted, and it can

Regents' retreat

2011-11-15T09:02:00.001-08:00

Only for the fourth time in history, the UC Board of Regents has cancelled a meeting, apparently out of concern that protests planned concomitantly with the meeting might turn violent. Oh, c'mon, really? I am sure a few baton pokes from UC PD officers would have sufficed in keeping the distance between the ragged and smelly students and the highest officers of the University.

New Budget Model

2011-11-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

UC Davis has released a white paper outlining a proposal for a "new budget model" (we had discussed something similar back in February). The proposal is in line with, but independent of, the "Funding Streams" model being implemented by UCOP, and similar to the corresponding allocation schemes at Michigan or Minnesota. The leading idea of Funding Streams is that revenue is to remain with the

Student Regents

2011-10-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Looks like the student regents have it exactly right: it's depressing.

OWS

2011-10-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Council of UC Faculty Associations endorses Occupy Wall Street, and asks people to sign a support petition: The social movement known as Occupy <>Wall Street (OWS) is growing and raising issues of direct relevance to the faculty, students and staff of the University of California including contracting opportunities and increasing debt loads for our students created by a system of privatized

Where's MY senior manager?

2011-09-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009 Richard Evans pointed out that "soon every faculty member will have a personal senior manager," as the number of senior management FTE was fast approaching that of ladder rank faculty. Fast forward two years and, well, it happened: there are now 8,822 senior management FTE's at UC compared to 8,669 ladder-rank faculty FTE's. As Keep California's Promise puts it, "UC's administrators

Negotiated Salary

2011-09-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

For a long time, faculty in the Health Sciences have been receiving salary according to the aptly named "Health Sciences Compensation Plan" (HSCP). HS faculty generate a sizable chunk of revenue for the University, and HSCP makes sure that they get some of it back in what the University calls a salary "augmentation." ("Augmentation" reminds one of a particular surgical procedure especially

No clue

2011-09-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

It looks like nobody really has any clue as to how to go about addressing the University's financial problems. As widely reported, UCOP came up with a scheme whereby tuition would rise by 16% a year for the next four years (which compounds to 81%) unless the State steps in with yearly funding increases of 8% for the next four years. As anybody can imagine, this is not likely to engender warm and

UC Disorientation Guide

2011-09-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Reclaim UC carries a "disorientation Guide" for students entering UC this fall: As you go from class to overcrowded class this fall, you’ll want to forget that tuition last year was around $1,800 less than you’re paying now. Continuing a 30-year trend, the UC Board of Regents gathered in cigar and gin-soaked boardrooms over the summer to raise our tuition by 17.6% and lay down plans for

Brown Kerr

2011-09-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

That's Pat Brown and Clark Kerr, the architects of California's Master Plan now in tatters. The Economist has a piece on the "quasi-privatization" of California's public universities, quoting Kerr's point that universities are "bait to be dangled in front of industry, with drawing power greater than low taxes or cheap labour." According to The Economist, this privatization strategy (higher

For the record

2011-09-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I am not that California Professor.

Meanwhile, in South Dakota ...

2011-09-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like South Dakota's Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard might have a bit of a problem on his hands when it comes to faculty salaries at the state's four universities, which have been frozen for the past three years: Higher education officials tired of watching talented faculty jump to private industry and out-of-state universities for better pay want Gov. Dennis Daugaard to end

The power of ten

2011-08-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ever since the beginning of this blog, we predicted that the steady de-funding of UC by the State, accelerated by the financial crisis, would have resulted in a serious strain on the system as a whole, and provided an incentive to follow the Michigan/Virginia model for those campuses that can (UCB and UCLA, essentially), while the remaining campuses would be left to fend for themselves. Well,

Contingent faculty

2011-07-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

As reported in the SF Chronicle, the Academic Council recommended last week that the University expand the use of contingent faculty "where appropriate" across the system, in the words of system-wide senate chair Dan Simmons. We have not seen any official announcement, or document such as meeting minutes to confirm this. But this would appear a major shift in the official position of the faculty:

Six hundred and fifty

2011-06-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

That's the size of the cut (in millions) that UC is being required to take with the Governor's new budget, with possibly another $100 million if the optimistic revenue projections built into the budget do not materialize. (CSU and CCs will also get similar reductions – the Governor's budget includes almost 12 billions in cuts to services.) Having averted the worst-case scenario (a total

Small consolation

2011-05-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

It's small consolation nowadays, as we learn of his lovechild with the housekeeper, to realize that we are not the only ones he screwed.

The May revise

2011-05-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

The Governor released the revised budget. A very cursory look reveals that no further cuts are proposed for UC, CSU and CC, beyond the $1.4B already cut from higher ed in the January budget. However, the whole budget is predicated on revenue solutions that need voter approval — so we'll see.

The ides of May

2011-05-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Governor Brown will release his revised budget on Monday the 16th, just after the Ides of May (May is one of those months — including March — when the Ides fall on the 15th as opposed to the 13th). That is when we'll know if the University will bear the full brunt of the "all-cuts" budget, i.e., $1 billion, or whether it will be cut "only" $500 million. It's a sad testimony to the state of UC

California Budget Shenanigans

2011-03-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Budget negotiations broke down between Gov. Brown and the Republican minority in the Legislature. So there won't be any tax extensions on the June ballot, which means we should brace for further cuts. If you thought $500M was devastating for the university, this is probably the nail in the coffin of higher education in California.