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LA Times Wants a Pre-Commitment from UC

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times today runs an editorial lamenting UC tuition increases and increased admission of out-of-state students. See below for an excerpt in italics.

But the editorial goes on to tell UC to pre-commit to reversals of these actions if the budget approves, apparently according to a formula.

What in fact needs to happen is not unilateral action by UC but rather a negotiation between the governor, legislative leaders, Dept. of Finance, Legislative Analyst, interest groups, and UC in which future understandings are worked out.

One-way pre-commitments are not the way to go. Yours truly has not noticed that the LA Times has pre-committed to hire back laid off staff or restore lost quality according to formula should its revenues improve.

The University of California cannot afford to be quite the institution it has been for decades: the provider of an easily affordable yet world-class higher education for California’s top high school graduates. Tuition is rising frighteningly fast, possibly to more than $12,000, compared with about $8,000 just three years ago. And now even the “California” part has been somewhat diminished as the university system offers spots to more nonresidents in order to receive the extra tuition money they pay. The changes, painful as they are, are justifiable ways to cope with reduced funding while preserving UC’s reputation.

…As an advisory panel recommended, the university must not accept out-of-state and foreign students who do not meet high admissions criteria. The extra money might be tempting, but lower standards would reduce UC’s reputation, the very thing it is trying to prevent by enrolling nonresidents.

Even worse would be for this temporary admissions change to open the door to a permanent policy under which UC’s undergraduate programs are no longer primarily for California students. UC leaders should publicly commit to reversing course once the state’s budget picture improves to certain, predefined levels. A chief reason California taxpayers commit so much money to the university is so that it will fulfill its lofty mission of providing bachelor’s degrees to this state’s outstanding young scholars.

Full editorial at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-uc-20110707,0,6881300.story

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