FACULTY WORK-LIFE BALANCE: The UC system is proposing family-friendly changes to the university's policies on child-bearing and child-rearing leave, according to the Daily Californian. The proposed policy revisions to the Academic Personnel Manual, the first since 1996, would allow faculty to work with a reduced workload for one extra semester or quarter after giving birth to give them a smoother track to tenure. The changes would also extend the time allowed for assistant professors to reach tenure. Under the proposed revisions, faculty who have just given birth could take an additional quarter or semester of active service modified duties — a negotiable term with a lighter workload — - to recover from the effects of pregnancy and childbirth. …

LOW SATS: The Los Angeles Times reports that the UC system admitted fewer students with low SAT scores to last year's freshman class than it did in 2003, following criticism that the university was accepting ill-prepared students in a back-door effort to boost enrollment of underrepresented minorities. Overall, UC campuses in 2004 admitted nearly 2,200 fewer applicants with scores of 1,000 or below on the widely used college entrance exam, a drop of 26.6 percent from the year before, according to a Times analysis of admissions figures. The national and state averages on the exam are about 1,020 of a possible 1,600. Critics of UC's past admissions practices found some vindication in the new data. They said the change showed UC had responded to complaints from UC Regent John Moores that it was accepting too many students with below-average SAT scores and possibly violating the state's ban on affirmative action. …

STUDENT DATA: California's two public university systems agreed to provide student data to help state officials determine the effectiveness of campus programs. The California Postsecondary Education Commission will be getting nearly 2.5 million computerized student records from the UC system and California State University systems. The state's 109 community colleges have already been providing the information under the five-year-old state law. With information provided by all its public campuses, the commission expects to begin releasing reports within six months on issues such as concurrent enrollment, transfers and time to graduation. …

PRIVACY LAWS: The federal government is weighing changes in the regulations that govern the nation's main education-privacy law, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Among other things, the revised regulations would spell out when colleges should release student records under the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, known as Megan's Law, and under the USA Patriot Act of 2001. As it stands now, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or Ferpa, requires colleges to obtain students' consent before releasing their records, except in special circumstances. …

UCLA MUSIC: Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, whose A&M Records produced scores of hit songs and superstars for nearly three decades, have donated the company papers and mementos to the UCLA Library. The collection includes sound recordings, gold albums, letters, photographs and other materials, such as a score for "The Lonely Bull," a 1962 hit by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The company, founded in 1962 in a garage behind Alpert's house, recorded the likes of Carole King, Joan Baez, Sting, the Carpenters, Quincy Jones, Chet Baker, Burt Bacharach and Bryan Adams. …

EXPANDING ARTS: UC Santa Barbara is the new home of the UC Institute for Re-search in the Arts. The institute will expand beyond its traditional approach of funding art projects, to include an "ambitious range of programs and activities that will support the work of UC artists, encourage new forms of collaboration across campuses, and raise the profile of the arts in the UC system and the state as a whole," said Dante Noto, systemwide director of arts, humanities and social science research, whose office oversees the 56-year-old program. UCIRA is the only statewide organization representing the arts on UC campuses. …

UC ECONOMIC ENGINE: If economic and social challenges are allowed to degrade the quality of California's public colleges and universities, the state is likely to lose its reputation for scientific and creative innovation, UC President Robert Dynes said in a March 30 speech at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. He said California depends on a strong university system to continue its leadership in business and technology, and that the UC needs continued state support to produce the scientific and medical discoveries. "If the University of California becomes just another university, California becomes just another state." …

BLOG JOURNALISM?: Will bloggers upend the mainstream media? What legal protections should bloggers have? Is there a blogger business model? According to CNETNews.com, Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter puts blogging right up there with the printing press when it comes to sharing ideas and disseminating information. "This is not a fad," says Hunter. "It's the rise of amateur content, which is replacing the centralized, controlled content done by professionals."