CSU

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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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Good News/Bad News on UC Budget

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee reports good news/bad news on the UC budget. Although the article doesn’t say so, part of the funding for UC (and CSU) for this fiscal year is coming from federal stimulus monies which disappear next year. After massive cuts, higher ed funding rises in new California budget (excerpt) Oct. 20, 2010, Laurel Rosenhall A wave of mass student protests, a new lobbying strategy by university leaders, and the governor’s desire to leave a positive legacy in education during his final year in office led to a remarkable turnaround for California’s public colleges in the budget he signed…

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Sales of Class Notes for Slackers Are OK With the LA Times

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on this blog noted that CSU was trying to use a state law to ban commercial sales of student notes from classes. The notion behind the law is that the class materials are the property of the instructor. Today, the LA Times editorializes against the law. Excerpt: The law goes too far… If the notes belong to the students who jotted them down, the state has no business interfering with what they do with them — share or sell (assuming they could actually find a buyer). And copyright laws already exist to protect the professor’s words from…

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CSU Seeks to Ban Commercial Sales by Students of Class Notes

Byuclafaculty

The LA Times reports that a student at Cal State who sells notes taken in classes as a business was warned by CSU to cease doing so on the grounds that the materials are the property of the instructors under California law. Excerpt: Entrepreneur gets a stern lecture from Cal State October 15, 2010, Carla Rivera, Los Angeles TimesRecent graduate Ryan Stevens sought to put his business degree from Cal State Sacramento to use by creating a website where students can buy and sell lecture notes, old homework, study guides and other class materials. The site, NoteUtopia.com, which was launched…

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Despite Apparent Budget Deal, State Continues Indirect Use of UC’s Credit Card

Byuclafaculty

The state has so far managed to avoid handing out registered warrants (IOUs) instead of making payments in cash. As you will recall, a year ago there were such IOUs issued. Part of the way the state has conserved cash is by not having a budget, so that certain payments could not be legally made. And part has been by deferring payments to various entities at other levels of government that it normally would make. Those entities then have to borrow as best they can or use up reserves to operate. Among the programs to which the state has deferred…

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PEB Options vs. CalPERS New Hire Plan? UC vs. CSU? What’s in It for Me?

Byuclafaculty

The governor made pension reform part of the proposed budget deal. Some state unions negotiated two-tier plans with bigger contributions by employees. Under two-tier, new hires get a lower pension; incumbent workers stay in the old plan. However, the big missing piece was the contract with SEIU Local 1000 which has now been negotiated. (The deal has to be ratified by members and approved by the legislature.) The workers involved are under CalPERS and as the deal spreads across other state workers under CalPERS, it might cover CSU. But in the state budget proposal, CSU gets an even more generous…

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UC and CSU Official Responses to Proposed State Budget

Byuclafaculty

Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed: Under the (budget) proposal, the state would rely upon a combination of general funds and federal stimulus dollars to prop up the University of California and California State University. While Schwarzenegger had proposed $305 million in restored recurring dollars for each system, the budget deal would give $199 million in recurring dollars and rely on $106 million in one-time federal stimulus funds to make up the difference, university analysts said. “Our hope going forward is we could make that $106 million a permanent increase to our base, but in a fiscally challenged year like this…

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Early Information on the State Budget Proposal

Byuclafaculty

There is now an official document about the proposed state budget available at: http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/COMMITTEE/STANDING/BFR/_home/2010conf/ConfAgenda10610.pdf from the state Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. There is also a preliminary write up about this proposal at: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/10/budget-details-released.html It is apparent there is a lot of deferral into next year and assumed money from the feds that may not arrive. There is a pension proposal which appears to be CalPERS-only, i.e., not UC. And there is a rainy day fund proposition to be put on the ballot in 2012. There is some additional money for UC and CSU which is said to…

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California Supreme Court Reported Skeptical of Challenge to In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students

Byuclafaculty

A 2001 California law allows students who graduate from a high school within the state to attend any public higher education institution at in-state (resident) rates. Thus, a foreign-born student who was brought to the U.S. illegally and attended a California high school is treated the same for tuition purposes as any other state resident. (Such students are ineligible for various federal assistance programs, however.) A challenge to the law was brought recently and heard by the state Supreme Court. Excerpt from a report on the L.A. Now blog of the LA Times: October 5, 2010 – The California Supreme…

CSU Using Campus-Wide “Value Added” Testing

Byuclafaculty

Recently, the LA Times – in a controversial move – used LAUSD data to calculate “value added” scores on individual teachers. One teacher suicide has been attributed to the publication of his score. A report in California Watch indicates that CSU is using such an approach – not on individual faculty, but on whole campuses. The test seems to involve an essay-type exam given to a sample of freshmen (beginning of program) and seniors (representing the end of the program) to see what difference there is. If seniors do better than freshmen, presumably there is an improvement. How the improvement…