Grateful Badlands refuses Regents' recognition
" In his paper, Blum said the office of the president "should become a model for transformation to efficiency and service, rather than the frequent butt of jokes and cynicism." --Los Angeles Times, Aug. 23, 2007
Blum also pressed the importance of nurturing the newest campus, Merced, to ensure its success and suggested creating a task force to oversee the needs there. --San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 23, 2007
Badlands Journal editorial leader, "Nimble" McMayhem, said Thursday,
We are glad that Richard Feinstein-Blum, chairman of the UC Board of Regents, has been reading our reports of problems with UC administration. However, in light of all the work on this dismal topic that remains to be done, on behalf of the editorial board, I must refuse the recognition Feinstein-Blum has given to our work here in Merced, and pledge to work ceaselessly to amplify our efforts. It was never just the office of the president of UC that was the "butt of (our) jokes." We continue to believe, based on daily evidence, that the largest part of UC administrators are over-paid, over-numerous, fatuous, arrogant snobs not better educated to manage a university than is Chairman Feinstein-Blum. We are also acquainted with exceptions that make the rule.
We do not blame individuals in the UC administration. We believe their over-the-top characters are the result of the company they keep, beginning with the board of regents, stacked with people who bought their positions in political sweepstakes that brings to mind the colorful political term, 'rotten boroughs'.
No, Chairman Feinstein-Blum, we do not support a UC run like and on behalf of private corporations anymore than we support government run like and for private corporations, because neither universities or governments are private corporations. Local, state and national governments and public universities are public institutions. When dominated by private corporations they become disoriented because they have become estranged from the public interest and considerations of the common good. The California public must be suspicious of your criticisms and recommendations because they are couched in the language of private, corporate management, a fundamentalism that does not fit public institutions, especially universities.
Why not begin small by trying to figure out a department of public administration that would educated incorruptible public administrators committed to the public good? Again, there are fine exceptions within the UC administration, which prove the general rule.
On a larger scale, establish a board that judges the quality of research, its benefits for the common good, instead of simply the quantity of grant funds it will attract for the de facto private corporation that is UC. It is not just UC administration that is the butt of jokes and cynicism. UC research has long been known as a system for 'throwing money at a problem' without much planning, and UC star researchers are famed for the amount of funding they attract, regardless of the source and intent of the funding and the desired product of the research. From the newest generation of nuclear weapons to biowarfare research to genetic engineering to the mechanical tomato harvester, UC research within living memory has produced monsters in its quest for prestige and funding over the common good of the people of California. Yet, amid the excess of narcissistic ambition, there are exceptions that continue to prove the rule. The point is that they ought not to be exceptions.
Ms. McMayhem paused for breathe.
This regent chief controls a Boston-based construction company called Perini. This company teams up with another California-based company called Tutor-Saliba to build the LA public transit system ... and all we see is lawsuits for shoddy construction. Ron Tutor is CEO of Perini. Ron Tutor is chairman, CEO and owner of Tutor-Saliba.
Blum says Perini will do no work in California. (Meanwhile, in Nevada it is building hotels and casinos like crazy.
"Give the public a break! hooted McMayhem, quoting an attorney who is an ex officio member of the Badlands editorial board: "'In a long life in the law spent among expert liars, the biggest liar under oath I ever met was Richard Blum.'
Why should we believe Blum that he hasn't and won't benefit from UC construction projects?
The LA Times reports:
Streamlining UC's construction practices to speed up the approval process for new buildings and relying on outside contractors to build them could save the university many millions of dollars, he said.
Like UC doesn't streamline construction practices? Give the public a break! hooted Ms. McMayhem. They built the UC Merced campus without the most important federal permit they had to have, the 404(b) under the Clean Water Act, aka the Least Destructive Project Alternative. They built it in the densest zone of vernal pools in the nation with the full complicity of local, state and federal elected officials, former Gov. Gray Davis, under the oversight of former Secretary of the state Resources Agency, Mary Nichols, recently appointed by the Hun, our present governor, to head the state Air Resources Board. UC built the campus with full knowledge (and to the profit of some regents and most elected officials and assorted staffers) that it would stimulate the largest real estate boom in Merced history. The boom has now busted, leaving the City of Merced with the dubious distinction of having the second-worst foreclosure rate in the nation.
Like former President Pro Tem of the state Senate John Burton, D-SF said at the time, UC Merced was a 'boondoggle.'
Concluding on a San Francisco note," McMayhem said, Burton would have known how construction projects can sometimes get out of control. As a Democratic Party politician in San Francisco, he could not have avoided hearing at least once, the latter-day reflections of Hizzoner Jack Shelley, mayor of San Francisco when Candlestick Park was built. In later life, Shelley was the City's lobbyist in Sacramento, and nobody got away without hearing The Story--the distillation of all practical political wisdom in his life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hizzoner would say to you, propping his walker on the wall at Posey's and sitting at table, where a thoughtful waiter had already parked his first martini, it all boils down to a cement contract.
A gifted narrator of political experience, aided by several more martinis, Hizzoner would weave the tale in exquisite detail about just how it all boiled down to a cement contract and how, if you traced the hands in that cement contract, you would know all you needed to know about the politics of the City by the Bay, home to Regents' Chairman Richard Feinstein-Blum and his charming wife.
And, speaking of his charming wife, we have to wonder if Blum's animosity toward ousted UC President Robert Dynes was not merely a fit of pique after Dynes married the blonde from UCSD.
McMayhem concluded: "The more we know about the stratospheric scene of the geriatric plutocracy that rules us but is not wise, the more we suppose that all the remains among them is the question: Who's getting any? We decline recognition by the UC Board of Regents for having made UC the butt of jokes and cynicism. Whatever Feinstein-Blum's getting will be at public expense without Teflon.
Chairman Feinstein-Blum, thanks but no thanks on the UC Merced nurturing taskforce. Let it compost, like the careers of all unable to flee it. It was built in the wrong place at the wrong time because the UC Regents and the administration, for which the Regents are responsible, were taken to the cleaners by those of your own, in finance, insurance and real estate special interests -- you arrogant, pathetic hypocrite.
Seriously, old man, if you cannot muster anything better than wretched cliches like "dynamic strategies," the Hun may be forced by bring in former Chainsaw Chancelor of the state university system, Barry Munitz, rehabilitated from the Getty disaster by public oblivion by now. Munitz is a closer.
But, of course, how could I be so stupid? You're considering the old alleged,high-living, alledged enabler of antiquities theft for the presidency.
Badlands editorial board
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Los Angeles Times
UC regent calls for operations overhaul
Blum's suggestion include cutting duplicate staff positions, raising faculty salaries, funding scholarships to alleviate tuition hikes, and streamlining construction process...Richard C. Paddock
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc23aug23,1,4861065.story?coll=l...
In a sharp critique of University of California operations, Board of Regents Chairman Richard C. Blum called Wednesday for a major overhaul of the "outmoded and dysfunctional" way the UC administration operates...a six-page paper sent to his fellow regents, Blum called for restructuring the UC president's office to eliminate arcane procedures that have existed for decades and often hinder decisions, costing the university millions of dollars. "Why is it so hard to make broad-scale progress toward our goals?" Blum asked. "I believe the fundamental problem is an overgrown UC administrative infrastructure that substitutes motion for progress." He also proposed creating a scholarship fund of up to $1 billion to help students cope with rising fees and called for improving UC's relations with the governor and Legislature, who have steadily reduced the university's share of the state budget. ...said in an interview that the 10-campus UC system should cut back its administrative staff and devote more resources to education, in particular raising faculty salaries to be competitive with other universities. Streamlining UC's construction practices to speed up the approval process for new buildings and relying on outside contractors to build them could save the university many millions of dollars, he said. "I am quite critical of the way the operations of the university have been run," Blum said. "There are some functions there, nobody knows why they exist. We need to make decisions quickly. We need to be nimble and we are anything but." In his paper, Blum said the office of the president "should become a model for transformation to efficiency and service, rather than the frequent butt of jokes and cynicism." Dynes' presidency was tarnished by a scandal in which he approved millions of dollars in perks and incentives for certain administrators and faculty members without getting the regents' approval or providing public notice. But Blum said that amount pales in comparison to the money wasted by unneeded bureaucracy..Among his proposals Wednesday were lifting arbitrary debt caps to speed campus building projects, reducing cash reserves that are kept unnecessarily high and eliminating millions of dollars in unnecessary or duplicative administration. Blum called on the university to develop a clear strategic vision and to pursue the same high quality in its administration that it strives for in its academic programs. "Cumbersome and enormously expensive layers of bureaucracy have been added over the years, many of which may no longer make sense -- if indeed they ever did," Blum wrote. "Unless the University seriously and accountably commits itself to a new direction, we risk losing the perpetual battle for excellence in many areas."
San Francisco Chronicle
UC's top regent bashes system...Leslie Fulbright
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/23/MNB4RNCP7...
The chairman of the University of California's Board of Regents issued a highly critical analysis of the 10-campus system Wednesday, painting a picture of an impotent administration with a "dysfunctional set of organizational structures, processes and policies." Richard Blum, a San Francisco financier who has been on the governing board for four years, said the university no longer has a clear idea of where it is going, is hamstrung by arcane rules and too often is governed by a consensus system in which no one takes responsibility for results. ...sent to his 25 fellow regents, Blum says no one has really looked at UC's administrative structure in more than 40 years. He proposes a major overhaul of the system that ranges from streamlining expenditures and processes to raising funds for capital improvements to diversifying the student body. The report was issued nine days after university President Robert Dynes announced he would resign by June... A day after his announcement, The Chronicle reported that Dynes had been urged by Blum three week earlier to leave because regents were unhappy with his management. In Blum's report, titled "We Need to be Strategically Dynamic," the chairman says he has grown impatient with the lack of progress in reforming the university. He says that administrators and staff efforts have been less than acceptable and that he regularly hears complaints about faculty salaries, class sizes and delays in building improvements. "Despite the clear persistence of these problems, however, little measurable progress has been made," he said, adding later, "I believe the fundamental problem is an overgrown UC administrative infrastructure that substitutes motion for progress." Blum said major systemwide improvements are needed and that the administrative system should meet the same standards as the academic programs. Blum says expensive layers of bureaucracy are at play in the system and suggests that the administration clarify who is in charge of what and then assure that those people take responsibility for their tasks. The president's administrative office includes 516 full-time positions and an $81 million annual budget. Blum expressed hope that a new Regents Committee on Long Range Planning would develop an integrated plan for diversity admissions and affordability... Blum also pressed the importance of nurturing the newest campus, Merced, to ensure its success and suggested creating a task force to oversee the needs there.