Listen to the Regents: March 13, 2013 - morning session

Our efforts to archive Regents meetings (since the Regents' policy is currently to preserve them only for one year) continues.  Below is the agenda for the morning meeting of March 13, 2013.  Included was approval of a UCLA medical building about which cost concerns had been raised at an earlier meeting.  Eventually, the Regents seem to approve any construction project - even if concerns are raised - particularly when they are assured that it won't cost them anything.

Agenda for Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - morning
8:30 am Committee of the Whole (open session - includes public comment session)
9:30 am Committee on Grounds and Buildings (open session)
11:00 am Committee on Finance (open session)
11:15 am Committee on Educational Policy (open session)
12:00 Lunch

You can hear the audio of this meeting at the link below:
 

Good News for Everyone Except Florence

Sorry about that, Florence

From the LA Times:

After previously proposing widespread and hefty tuition increases for graduate and professional degree programs, UC's top administrators have retreated and will seek fee hikes affecting only a small group of graduate students, mainly in nursing, and at much reduced levels. Only about 800 students in eight programs will be affected by a proposal expected to be approved by the UC regents later this month, officials said. Under a previous and now abandoned plan, about 14,000 graduate and professional school students in more than 50 programs such as law, medicine, social work and business faced tuition increases that met strong opposition from the governor and other officials in Sacramento...

Full story at  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-graduate-fees-20130705,0,874986.story

MOOC Efficiency

Apparently, efficiency in the 21st century is not all that different from efficiency in the 20th century.  From Inside Higher Ed today:

Some students taking free classes from Coursera may never know the right answers. A University of Michigan professor teaching one of the company's massive open online courses, or MOOCs, told students this week he could not provide them with correct answers to questions they get wrong because doing so would reduce efficiency...

Full story at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/05/one-mooc-professor-wont-let-students-know-right-answers

Yours truly is sure it's just a temporary glitch that can be easily remedied with the right technology as demonstrated in the last century:

Parking at Royce Hall?

Not surprisingly for July 4th, the webcam aimed at Royce Hall this morning did not show much (any) activity.  See the image above from the webcam.  [You can visit the Royce webcam at http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/bruincam/default.htm.]  Certainly, there were no parked cars there.  When the Westwood campus was under construction, however, it was a different matter as you can see below:

GlaxoSmithKline Problem Said to Be Fixed

Back in May, we blogged about a cautionary note from UCLA indicating that a grant competition from GlaxoSmithKline appeared to circumvent university procedures.

Now an email has gone out to faculty indicating that the problem has been fixed:

I am pleased to report we resolved the barriers to faculty participation in the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Discovery Fast Track Competition. We encourage faculty who are developing novel drug targets and drug screening assays to consider applying for this program.

When the competition initially launched, we found that the terms and conditions to be at odds with UC policies and faculty interests. We took a definitive stand and notified faculty – a position that was supported by many peer institutions.

With the support of the Office of the President, we have since resolved the key concerns with GSK. Faculty may submit proposals for developing and conducting screens of GSK’s internal compound collections and thereby advance the development of novel drug targets, pathways and assays. This may lead to further collaborations and/or sponsored research with GSK, thereby helping UCLA move discoveries forward to the clinic for the benefit of patients.

The competition closes on Friday, July 19, 2013. The Office of Intellectual Property & Industry Sponsored Research will work closely with you to determine whether your submission may be appropriate for the program. Given the short and strict timeframe, we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible so that we can complete the necessary steps before your proposal can officially be considered.

For more on this program, please see the link below and we look forward to working with you on potential proposal submissions.

http://openinnovation.gsk.com/index.php

Sincerely,

Brendan J. Rauw
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
Executive Director of Entrepreneurship

Get Ready to Miss the Bus

As we noted in a prior blog post, on July 8 they are coming to rip up the Ackerman bus turnaround in preparation for the construction of -TA-TA! - the UCLA Grand Hotel.  That step will put facts-on-the-ground while litigation continues.  Here is the official notice from the transportation folks:

The Ackerman Turnaround and its bus terminal will be closed due to the construction of the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference and Guest Center for the period of July 8, 2013 through summer 2016. This closure affects campus traffic circulation, bus service, and general wayfinding, as the Turnaround is an easily reached, central point of campus. 

Transit bus service will be shifted to several locations on campus, and you can view the changes on this linked map. For Culver CityBus service, both the Rapid 6 and Local 6 service will be shifted south on Westwood Plaza, along the east side of the roadway, to Stein Plaza. Big Blue Bus (BBB) Rapid 12 and all BBB evening and weekend service will terminate on Charles E. Young (CEY) Drive north of Manning. These buses will also make stops at Westwood/Stein Plaza (northbound) and Westwood/Med Plaza (southbound). The University Apartment Shuttle will replace its Ackerman Turnaround stop with a stop at Westwood/Stein Plaza (east side of street). Metro bus routes 2 and 302 have used the Ackerman Terminal for a layover location, which will now be moved to Gayley just north of Le Conte. The most proximate Metro bus stop is located on the southeast corner of Le Conte/Westwood Blvd. Visiting tour buses and school buses should park along CEY Drive North in the designated bus parking zone proximate to the IM Field. All buses will be prohibited north of CEY Drive after the closure of the terminal as the Strathmore Bridge height limitation precludes exiting, and there will be no other area to turn around in this location.

Vanpool pick-ups and drop-offs that use the Ackerman Turnaround will be shifted to the southeast corner of the nearby Westwood and Strathmore intersection (map). This location will also serve as a disabled person pick-up and drop-off location, including the Access Paratransit countywide service. Staff, faculty, and students who have utilized the James West or Ackerman turnarounds for pick-up and drop-off are advised to utilize alternate turnarounds such as Marion Davies, Medical Plaza, or Sunset/Westwood Plaza adjacent to the Anderson School. Departments should advise visitors accustomed to utilizing pay stations in Parking Structure (PS) 6 that PS 6 is now closed. Visitor parking is available on the top level of Parking Structure 8.
 
Lastly, service and delivery vehicles that use the James West Turnaround will need to shift to either the Ackerman loading dock access road (by Engineering) or the bollarded pathways leading to Bruin Walk. Impacted departments should contact service providers to ensure a smooth transition. 

Source: http://www.transportation.ucla.edu/portal/emails/bcc/0713/News1.html

So if you miss the bus, you know who to blame:

There are at least two ways to skin the business school self-sufficiency cat

Inside Higher Ed today has a lengthy article about the Anderson School's self-sufficiency MBA program.  The theme, however, is that the UC-Berkeley Haas School is doing the same thing in different ways that haven't caused a ruckus with the Academic Senate.  Both schools say the object is to put more money in the kitty and gain more "flexibility."

You can read about it at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/02/uc-business-schools-see-different-levels-resistance-innovation-plans