UCLA's plan to take its B-school private

Great news! Your daughter is ready to go off to college, and you just heard back that she's been accepted to the University of Virginia, where in-state tuition and fees are running just under $12,000. Horrible news! You don't live in Virginia. You live in [somewhere else].

By Mike Konczal Ed from gin and tacos can make it rain, and this caustic review of "DIY U" from a political science professor starts with something that made me laugh:

The business school at UCLA wants to give up state funding. The proposal would make the Anderson School of Management more autonomous and financially independent of the University of California system. But critics — including some faculty — worry the move means the school will stray from its public mission. » E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

While watching the myriad of college bowl games this holiday season, many of them between teams that have no business being in bowl games at all, please step back and ponder who the winners and losers of this system are. My high-school friend David Wise takes a critical look at college football in a Real Clear Sports article proclaims it's Time for Colleges to Rein In Football

MyPlanIQ submits:One can learn a great deal from pension and university endowment funds: before the financial crisis, many were praised (and envied by individual investors) for their foray into hedge funds and private equity. In the aftermath of the crisis, many of them are now burdened with underfunded liabilities due to their low returns. One can learn a lesson or two from their asset allocation strategies.

The Buena Vista school district in Michigan accepted $402,000 of aid over three months from the state for a service is was not providing. As RT reports, the school district has taken the drastic steps of firing all of its teachers and shuttering its classrooms before the end of the school-year as the state tries to claw back (or seek an alternative plan) its ill-gotten gains.

Stuart Rojstaczer is a retired Duke University professor who has tirelessly crusaded for several decades against "grade inflation" at

BusinessWeek - Well, t-minus 25 days until I graduate from UCLA's Anderson School of Management (Anderson Full-Time MBA Profile). I've been measured for a cap and gown (more I had to decide whether I consider myself 5 ft. 8 in. or 5 ft. 9 in., since 5 ft. 8.5 in. apparently does not translate to a gown size) and it's waiting at the student center to be picked up. I probably just had my last meal at my group of friends' favorite all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant.