News

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Columnist Peter Schrag on Privatization at UC

Byuclafaculty

Berkeley: A privatized public university? (excerpts) Sacramento Bee, Feb. 12, 2011 Peter Schrag A year ago, when the University of California announced sharp boosts in tuition, staff furloughs and other measures to cope with declining state funding, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis and other UC campuses seethed with protests. Among the loudest complaints from students was that the higher costs would make it financially impossible for them to continue at UC. The most common refrain was the call to protect what the demonstrators called “our university.” But this summer and fall, after Berkeley included some 900 fewer California residents in…

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Baseball Strikes Out at UC-Berkeley

Byuclafaculty

In the continuing saga of athletics at UC-Berkeley, it appears the game is over for baseball. Berkeley has subsidized athletics and is cutting back for budgetary reasons. The article below has the story and updates previous posts.Cal to save 3 sports, cut baseball, gymnastics John Crumpacker, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 12, 2011 An effort by Cal sports supporters and officials to save five teams ended Friday with mixed results. UC Berkeley announced that men’s rugby, women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse would remain as varsity programs, less than five months after Cal announced the teams would have to be cut or…

Texas Gov. Perry Proposes Dirt Cheap $10,000 BA

Byuclafaculty

Insider Higher Ed today pointed me to Texas Governor Perry’s proposal for a $10,000 BA. From http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/Perry-proposes-10000-bachelor-degree During his state of the state address Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry said it is time for colleges and universities to lay out a low-cost path to a degree. “It’s time for a bold, Texas-style solution to their challenge that I’m sure the brightest minds in their universities can devise,” said Perry. “Today I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelors degrees that cost not more than $10,000 including textbooks.” It is a goal Perry said could be reached with online courses…

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LAO’s Position is that State Pension Contributions to UC are Voluntary & Should Come With Conditions

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has released a video of about 15 minutes on public pensions. Most of the discussion deals with CalPERS, CalSTRS, and other systems. There are occasional references to UC at various points in the video. However, at the end it is stated that the state at some point should voluntarily contribute to UC but make that contribution conditional on the UC pension being more or less the same as other state systems. Put another way, the LAO’s position is that the state has no legal obligation to contribute at any point. Moreover, the video describes a future…

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UC-Irvine Muslim Students Case: Radio Report

Byuclafaculty

For those interested in the so-called “Irvine 11” Muslim students case, you might be interested in the KPCC Airtalk program of Feb. 7. Below is the text that goes with the podcast. Below that is a link to a podcast of the program. The Orange County District Attorney has charged the so-called “Irvine 11” with conspiring to disrupt a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine last year. In a statement, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas defended the misdemeanor charges against the Muslim students saying “we cannot tolerate a preplanned violation of the law, even if the crime takes…

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UC-Berkeley Plan to Cut Athletics Runs into Hurdle

Byuclafaculty

Facing Title IX Pressure, Cal May Restore the Teams It Cut Katie Thomas, NY Times, 2-8-11 When the University of California, Berkeley, announced it was eliminating five varsity teams last fall, the decision was sold as a necessary sacrifice by a university reeling from severe cuts in state aid. Four months later, the university finds itself in a dilemma caused by a consequence of that decision that has been largely overlooked in the debate over the cuts. The elimination of two women’s teams — lacrosse and gymnastics — threw the Cal athletic department out of compliance with the federal gender-equity…

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Video of Yudof Testimony on Budget Cut at State Assembly

Byuclafaculty

UC President Yudof testified at the State Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Educational Finance last Monday. Below are videos of his testimony and questions-and-answers with assembly members. The video is divided into two parts because of time-limits on Facebook. As a previous post noted, he indicated that there would not be another tuition hike in response to the governor’s proposed budget cut for UC. But that was contingent on, among other things, voter passage of the governor’s proposed tax extensions. Also notable was Yudof’s remark that tuition hikes help low-income students because of the recycling of one third of tuition revenue…

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Yudof: No Tuition Hike This Year If Voters Behave

Byuclafaculty

UC, CSU Avoid Fee Increases Despite Budget Cuts Feb. 7, 2011, CBS Los Angeles SACRAMENTO (AP) — The chancellors of the University of California and California State University systems say they don’t plan to seek student fees increases this year, despite a state budget proposal that calls for deep cuts to higher education. But UC Chancellor Mark Yudof and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said Monday that promise won’t hold if Californians don’t agree to tax extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing for the June ballot… Full article at http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/02/07/uc-csu-avoid-fee-increases-despite-budget-cuts/# Note: There may be less here than meets the eye….

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Crack Up: Campuses Beginning to Resist UCOP’s Allocation of Budget Cut

Byuclafaculty

As things get tough, the notion of a unified UC system ultimately controlled from Oakland is beginning to crack. See the item below. UC Berkeley asked to absorb $80M of Brown’s $500M cut (excerpt) Feb. 7, 2011 | Louis Freedberg | California Watch University of California President Mark Yudof has set a target for the Berkeley campus to cut $80,800,000 from its budget for the coming year, as the 10-campus university system struggles to come to terms with a $500 million reduction in funds proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. A cut of that magnitude would constitute 16.2 percent of the…