Wrong Direction

In yesterday’s LA Times, Patt Morrison interviewed former UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale. Most of the interview dealt with other matters. But below is an excerpt on UC:

What do you make of what’s happening to the University of California?

We had this great public university, but you didn’t have to insert the word “public.” [It was] able to compete with the best of the privates. We’re losing that. We may already have lost it, in large measure. Students now pay more in tuition fees than the state provides. The resource gap is too great. It’s not as if all the fine professors suddenly will leave for private universities, [but] when you’re trying to recruit new people, they’re going to have this in mind. Graduate students will consider going where they can get a better financial package.

What can you do about this? You could have more state funding; a friend of mine said that’s called faith-based funding. You could have less cuts. You could have a greater degree of what’s called privatization. You might [accept] more out-of-state students — there’s a $22,000 premium for out-of-state students. You could have higher fees and higher aid. No one of these things would do it. It isn’t as if there’s nothing you could do, but they’re all politically difficult.

[The education master plan] has served this state extraordinarily well — the education level of the citizenry, the ability to maintain fine research universities, to have the kinds of jobs and economic growth California has had. If we want to maintain that excellence, it’s going to cost more.

I’m not badmouthing the University of California, but all of the signs for the future are in the wrong direction if it’s to continue to compete with the best of the privates. It will still be a leading public university, but that shouldn’t be good enough for us…

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-morrison-albert-carnesale-070211,0,6989366,full.column