News

California Spends About $7 Per $1000 of Personal Income on Public Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

The image above is not too clear. I have put a black rectangle above the bar for California to help identify it. The chart shows – by state – spending in 2009-10 on public higher education per $1000 of personal income. For California, the figure (which includes community colleges) is around $7, somewhat above the U.S. average of $6.60. The data include federal stimulus funds for that fiscal year. You can get a clearer image by going to the source document. The chart is from a College Board report entitled “Trends in College Pricing 2010” (page 19) available at http://trends.collegeboard.org/downloads/College_Pricing_2010.pdf…

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How Green Is My Campus?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed points today to something called “College Sustainability Report Card 2011” which offers web “green” grades for various universities and colleges, including the UCs below. The folks behind the ratings tend to downgrade UCs for having foundations with investments that are not specifically green. The foundation trustees, I am sure, would argue that they are pursuing another type of green. Anyway, the ratings with some explanation are at the web addresses below. The folks behind the ratings are at the “Sustainable Endowments Institute.” It describes itself as follows: Founded in 2005, the Institute is a special project of…

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Two Unclear Issues in the Yudof Pension Proposal Clarified

Byuclafaculty

Our previous post reproduced the letter from President Yudof explaining what he will be recommending to the Regents in mid-November regarding changes in the UC retirement system. (The Regents are expected to make their formal decision in December.) In one sense, the letter was no surprise since it recommended a lower-tier pension for new hires of the defined-benefit variety. Essentially, Yudof is opting for a version of what has been previous termed Option C, a defined-benefit plan that is NOT “integrated” with Social Security (as Options A and B were). The letter, however, makes no mention of the proposal that…

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Letter to UC from President Yudof about proposed changes to UC retirement benefits

Byuclafaculty

October 26, 2010 Dear Colleagues: I am writing to share with you the recommendations I plan to discuss in November with the UC Board of Regents about changes to the University’s post-employment benefits programs. When I established the Post Employment Benefits Task Force, I made clear that the proposed changes needed to satisfy two critical objectives: Help address our financial challenges, and preserve good post employment benefits in support of UC’s commitment to excellence and in recognition of the vital role our faculty and staff play in the quality and delivery of UC’s service to the public. I believe these…

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Credit Card Deals and the University

Byuclafaculty

An article in today’s Insider Higher Ed notes that the Federal Reserve has made available info on deals between credit card issuers and universities. Above is a table from the Fed’s report showing some information on the UC-systemwide alumni group and UCLA and their deals with credit card firms. It isn’t as legible as I would like but you can get the report including the table above at http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress/creditcard/2010/downloads/CCAP_October_web.pdf An excerpt from the article in Insider Higher Ed: Credit Card Companies Pay Millions to Colleges (excerpt) Inside Higher Ed, October 26, 2010 Credit card companies made more than $83 million…

Putting a Price on Professors

Byuclafaculty

Putting a Price on Professors: A battle in Texas over whether academic value can be measured in dollars and cents (excerpt) Wall St. Journal, 10/22/10, Stephanie Simon and Stephanie Banchero A 265-page spreadsheet, released last month by the chancellor of the Texas A&M University system, amounted to a profit-and-loss statement for each faculty member, weighing annual salary against students taught, tuition generated, and research grants obtained. Ms. Johnson came out very much in the black; in the period analyzed—fiscal year 2009—she netted the public university $279,617. Some of her colleagues weren’t nearly so profitable. Newly hired assistant professor Charles Criscione,…

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Final Report from Committee on the Future (Except It is a Draft)

Byuclafaculty

There is now a draft report on the UCOP website – entitled DRAFT final report (so it is final but still a draft?) – from the UC Committee on the Future. There are not a lot of surprises. Recommendations are included to speed up undergrad degrees, make transfers easier from community colleges, pursue online education, change the word fee to tuition, have cohort-based tuition schedules, achieve more efficiencies, do more fund raising, wring more money out of grants, have more out-of-state students who pay full freight, etc. Maybe the most controversial is differential tuition across the campuses. The draft report…

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The Master Plan at 50: Using Distance Education to Increase College Access and Efficiency

Byuclafaculty

The LAO has a new report out on distance learning in higher education and degree programs under the title above. Below is the Executive Summary of that report. Below that is a video presentation related to the report:Distance Education Provides Additional Tool for Advancing Master Plan’s Goals. Fifty years ago, California adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education, a framework document designed to promote universal access for students and cost–effective coordination among the state’s colleges and universities. At the time, postsecondary education generally required students to travel to a campus for in–person classes with an instructor. Today, many students have…

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Important message regarding the likely recommendations of President Yudof regarding the UC pension

Byuclafaculty

Important message regarding the likely recommendations of President Yudof regarding the UC pension. Please note the last sentence (in bold) in the email. Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:17:41 -0700From: Daniel SimmonsSubject: PEB Update Colleagues: There is a light at the end of the PEB tunnel. President Yudof informed me last week that he has reached his decision on the recommendations of the PEB task force recommendations. He will recommend to the Regents that they adopt a modified version of Option C with a consistent 2.5 percent age factor for all employees, an employer contribution of 8.1 percent of covered…

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Islamic Studies at UCLA Going Out of Business?

Byuclafaculty

UCLA’s ongoing suspension of admissions to Islamic studies worries students: Admissions were frozen in 2007, pending a reorganization. But that hasn’t happened, and students fear that the program could simply be allowed to die. Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times, October 25, 2010 For two years, admissions to UCLA’s small Islamic studies program have been frozen, pending a reorganization. Now, students say they fear that the program, among the oldest in the country focused on a scholarly study of Islam, could be shut down. On Friday, several dozen students rallied to support it, gathering outside a meeting of a faculty panel…