Links for November 3rd

#OccupyOakland closes down nation's 5th biggest port.  UCOP appears to have asked its employees to stay away from the office, located near the occupation, and to work from home.

Colorado votes down a tax-increase measure for education.  The state governor wants to balance the budget by cutting higher education but much of the legislature is resisting.  The governor is a Democrat, and those opposed to higher ed cuts are Republicans.


In Wisconsin, Gov Scott Walker is targeting the UW system, with 7% of the state budget,for 38% of the cuts.

Bob Samuels analyzes UC compensation data, with special attention to salaries over $200,000.

Average student debt is also up 5% this year, to over $25,000.  The figures exclude debt incurred by students at for-profit colleges, as only 5 of 471 for-profits reported student debt figures.  Parental loans push the average to over $34,000.  California remains a "low debt state" (a bit over $18,000) (the report is here).

Higher Ed Watch discusses a cause identified in a recent Department of Education report: "the country’s public and private four-year colleges are now spending a greater share of their institutional aid dollars on trying to attract the students they desire than on meeting the financial need of the low- and moderate-income students they enroll."

Those mulling the fate of public pensions get a good reminder from David Atkins of the incentives in the financial community for putting public assets into play.

Students of management mishaps should make sure they didn't miss this NYT piece on cognitive fallacy: decision-makers routinely ignore evidence of the failure of their decision processes (h/t to Marcia).  One apparent cause:  "people who face a difficult question often answer an easier one instead, without realizing it." 

The three buildings at UC Davis with the top platinum rating from the Green Building Council are Gallagher Hall, home of the UC Davis School of Management,the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, nd the Tahoe Environmental Research Center in Incline Village, Nevada.