The California Professor

Spring cleaning in Davis

2012-05-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

The UC Davis Academic Senate special committee investigating the now infamous pepper-spraying incident of Nov. 18, 2011 issued their final report (PDF). The special committee recommends that the Davis Executive Council call for the resignations of Chancellor Linda Katehi, Vice-Chancellors John Meyer and Fred Wood, and (now retired) UCD PD Chief Annette Spicuzza. While the UCD Executive Council

Save higher education

2012-04-28T17:50:00.001-07:00

Tax Cupertino.

UCD PD Chief resigns

2012-04-18T18:07:00.002-07:00

We were wondering whether any heads would roll as a consequence of the Reynoso report, and if so, how many. It looks like UCD PD Chief Spicuzza saw the writing on the wall and decided to resign her position at UC effective at the end of business tomorrow, Thursday, April 19. In her words: As the university does not want this incident to be its defining moment, nor do I wish for it to be mine. I

Leadership failure

2012-04-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing the Reynoso report makes clear is that leadership failure was pervasive and widespread on Nov. 18. Here are some facts that we learned from the report, and some questions we'd like to see raised: The Chancellor's "Leadership Team" convened to address "extraordinary events" on campus was in fact a half-assed affair: the "team" met by conference call, nobody kept minutes,

The Reynoso report

2012-04-11T14:37:00.003-07:00

The report is out. It looks like the whole chain of command engaged in a spectacular failure of judgment. In fact, the headings of the different subsections already provide a summary of the findings: There was a failure to investigate whether or not “non-affiliates” in the UC Davis Occupy encampment were present. The administration decided to deploy police to remove the tents on Nov. 18

UC decline

2012-04-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

UCOP's recent memo to the Regents outlines the effects of years of ruthless cutting at the University of California (thanks to Bob Samuels for the pointer): At UC Riverside, [students] will walk onto a campus where enrollment has grown in the last three years by nearly 3,000 students – many of them the first in their families ever to attend college – while at the same time the

$37,000 Chancellor Pay

2012-03-06T07:52:00.001-08:00

UC Davis is mentioned in a Slate piece investigating skyrocketing compensation of public university executives as an example of such excesses. Chancellor Katehi's $400,000+ yearly compensation is compared to Chancellor Mrak's 1969 compensation of $37,000 (inflation-adjusted: $226,000). Mrak's successor, Meyer, was hired in 1974 with annual compensation of $47,000 (corresponding to $214,000 when

CalState vs. Harvard

2012-03-06T07:23:00.004-08:00

In the meantime, it appears that a middle-class student attending Harvard University will end up with a lower bill than one attending a California State School. Go figure.

Not Surprised

2012-03-06T07:21:00.001-08:00

Somehow we are not surprised that the long-awaited report of the Reynoso task force has yet again been delayed. This time because of a temporary restraining order being filed this morning by the police union in Alameda County Superior Court. Could it be that the police officers involved in the pepper spraying have something that they'd rather not be made public? Don't they know that attempts to

At long last

2012-03-02T17:46:00.001-08:00

From the UC Davis Academic Senate: The release of the Reynoso Task Force Report on the Pepper Spray Incident is scheduled for March 6. Former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso, chair of the task force, announced today that the group will outline its findings and recommendations to the UC Davis community on Tuesday, March 6 [...]. The task force findings,

Their day in court

2012-02-22T21:08:00.002-08:00

Nineteen former and current UC Davis students who were pepper-sprayed on Nov. 18 filed suit in US District Court against UC Davis officials. The University officials named as defendant in the suit are LINDA KATEHI, Chancellor of the University of California at Davis; RALPH J. HEXTER, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of California at Davis; FRED WOOD,

Vote of Confidence

2012-02-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

As expected, UC Davis faculty have defeated a no-confidence motion questioning Chancellor Katehi's leadership, and they have done so by a large margin (70% of the votes cast). Nothing new, especially faculty in the applied sciences have been supporting the Chancellor for a long time, and she has been particularly good to them, pushing forward with the plan to collect increased funding in grants

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