The state budget trigger was pulled today, costing UC $100 million in additional cuts (as expected). Actually, the trigger was a two-part mechanism and the lesser version was pulled. But either part involved cutting $100 million from UC. For summary details, see http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/12/details-of-browns-trigger-cuts.html
Over 250 UCLA faculty, including a large number of department chairs and center directors, have written Chancellor Block with a detailed critique of plans for administrative centralization. The letter follows earlier exchanges between department chairs and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost Emily Carter and other top administrators. “Although we appreciated the fora that EVC/P Carter recently organized in response to an earlier letter requesting more time to evaluate the re-organization plans she is proposing, we continue to feel that there has been insufficient time or detail to evaluate their consequences and that we have not been adequately involved in the consultation process,”…
The deepening pandemic depression is going to have a profound impact on the University of California budget. Unprecedented unemployment, lagging state revenue, and massive campus losses associated with remote learning make it clear that we are looking at a replay of the 2008 crisis, at least. To stay up to date on the growing crisis,
A report this week from Reclaim California Higher Education (a coalition of faculty and student groups) makes the case that affordable (even free) higher education is within reach for California. The privatization experiment has failed. The harm to a generation of hard-working, high-aiming young people is proven. It’s time to return to what works: the proven Master Plan for higher education in California. California, with its own resources, can afford to restore top-quality, accessible, affordable college and university opportunity to every qualified student. In fact, Californians can afford nothing less. You can read a summary and download the entire report…
Our previous post covered the Jan. 22 meeting of the Regents’ Committee on Educational Policy. As noted, there was discussion of the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, considered a major accomplishment of Brown’s father when he was governor. Below is a link to Brown’s comments in which he suggested the Plan was now dated. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RmjI4gVync?feature=player_detailpage]
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued a report on UC and CSU funding. LAO is usually viewed as a neutral agency. But it is a component of the legislature. So it tends to favor approaches that add to legislative control as opposed to, say, gubernatorial control. This report is no exception. LAO seems to want to return to what it terms the “traditional” approach to funding, but with bells and whistles added to monitor legislative goals. The traditional approach seems to be one focused on undergraduate enrollment. But in fact the tradition – such as it is – has…
The cash statement from the California state controller for the first seven months of fiscal year 2013-14 is out. Revenues are up about 1% from last year at this time. That gain is not very good. However, it may be largely due to an aberration last fiscal year when there was a surge of personal income tax revenue in January 2013. The surge seemed to have something to do with antics back then in Washington over fiscal cliffs, etc., which might have resulted in some tax changes (but didn’t). The current DC crisis de jour is the debt ceiling, but…
