September 13 Open Thread

Links:

* No preliminary injunction for the top-two primary.  The trial moves forward, however.

* Conservatives are going after St. Abel Maldonado to get him to appeal Judge Walker’s Prop 8 decision. Setting aside any feelings about prop 8, such a move would bring a gun to the relationship of the Governor and his legislative puppet.

* Speaking of the Governor, he delivered a speech in China that gave the Chinese a lot of credit for their work on green tech.

* The AP fact checks another misleading Whitman TV ad.  

2 thoughts on “September 13 Open Thread”

  1. A legacy of waste in UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office: easily grasped by the public, lost on University of California’s President Yudof.

    The UC Berkley budget gap has grown to $150 million, & still the Chancellor is spending money that isn’t there on $3,000,000 consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the consultants “thinking, expertise, & new knowledge”.

    Does this mean that the faculty & management of UC Berkeley – flagship campus of the greatest public system of higher education in the world – lack the knowledge, integrity, impartiality, innovation, skills to come up with solutions?  Have they been fudging their research for years?  

    The consultants will glean their recommendations from faculty interviews & the senior management that hired them; yet $ 150 million of inefficiencies and solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor & Provost Breslauer were doing the work of their jobs (This simple point is lost on UC’s leadership).  

    The victims of this folly are Faculty and Students. $ 3 million consultant fees would be far better spent on students & faculty.

    There can be only one conclusion as to why inefficiencies & solutions have not been forthcoming from faculty & staff:  Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility & the trust of the faculty & Academic Senate leadership (C. Kutz, F. Doyle). Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants’ recommendations – disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy – the underlying problem of lost credibility & trust will remain. (Context: greatest recession in modern times)

    Contact your representatives in Sacramento: tell them of the hefty self-serving $’s being spent by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer.

    Let there be light!

  2. 74% of the funds raised to elect Senator Mark DeSaulnier of the seventh senate district come from outside his district. 74% came from Sacramento and Sacramento is not in the seventh senate district.

    Info for Californians

Comments are closed.