Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Like a sloppy undergrad

UC Berkeley bloated, wasteful, consultants say (San Francisco Chronicle)
For a world-class university studded with Nobel laureates and innovative research, UC Berkeley manages its finances a bit like a sloppy undergrad, a new report suggests.  
The campus could save about $75 million a year by streamlining purchases, concentrating job duties and laying off "redundant" managers, according to consultants hired last fall to help the school become a leaner operation.
. . .
The campus has five big areas of bloat, according to Bain & Co., the Massachusetts consulting firm being paid $3 million to identify waste. 
The biggest, say the consultants, is too many managers. The human resources department alone has one manager per 63 employees, compared with an average of one per 127 employees across other universities.
. . .
The school spends $17 million on academic advising, but even students don't think the money is well spent. 
"School and department advising is terrible," wrote one undergrad responding to a survey from the consultants. "I never trust what I am being told."….
Fallout From Calling Off Bill Ayers Talk (Inside Higher Ed)
The University of Wyoming, which called off a talk by William Ayers, the one-time Weather Underground leader who is now a leading education researcher, is facing new criticism over the move. While Ayers has been canceled before, Wyoming officials were frank about their concerns over political fallout from a visit (as opposed to claiming security or scheduling problems). As a result, a Colorado lawyer, David Lane (also the lawyer for Ward Churchill), announced that he will sue the university for free speech violations unless it invites Ayers, theAssociated Press reported. The suit would be filed on behalf of a student who wanted to see him talk on campus.
Documents Reveal Secrets and Scope of China's On-Campus Police Informants (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Internet documents have emerged detailing how China's security apparatus recruits large teams of campus-based spies to inform on students, prevent outbreaks of unrest, and squash dissenting opinions.
. . .
At Dezhou University each spy is expected to report "three or more items of valuable security information" each month in exchange for a regular reward, with "a great reward" for especially valuable intelligence….(continued)

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