CSU

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A Political Factoid for Today

Byuclafaculty

Question: Can a UC campus foundation give money to ballot campaigns? If so, has it happened? Answer: The UCLA Foundation has twice given money to campaigns for ballot propositions in the past decade. Both propositions involved money for higher ed, including UC. In 2004, the Foundation gave $57,087 to support Prop 55 – a bond measure for education which narrowly passed. In 2006, it gave $87,550 in support of Prop 1D – also an education bond measure but which passed by a respectable 56.9%. Other UC and CSU foundations have made similar contributions. You can find the contribution information by…

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Changing Admissions Standards?

Byuclafaculty

An earlier post on the UC-Berkeley affirmative action “bake sale” controversy noted that the issue that sparked that controversy was a bill – now on Gov. Brown’s desk – that would possibly relax the ban on affirmative action in UC student admissions enacted by voters in Prop 209. However, there are other changes in admissions standards underway that have received less attention in the news media. And another bill on the governor’s desk is involved. See below: UC turns career tech ed-friendly (excerpt) 9/30/11, John Fensterwald – Educated Guess A decade ago, 258 career technical education courses counted toward satisfying…

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Too Far, Too Fast?

Byuclafaculty

You may have noticed in yesterday’s LA Times or other papers that CSU Chancellor Reed said he will NOT ask for a multi-year plan involving scheduled tuition increases: California State University will not seek a second tuition increase this academic year even if it suffers a further $100-million cut in state funding, the system’s chief executive said Wednesday. Chancellor Charles B. Reed, addressing trustees who were meeting in Long Beach, also rejected adopting a multi-year budget that would incorporate annual tuition increases. Some higher education leaders argue that such a move, though controversial, would provide stability and help campus leaders,…

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Golden Silence?

Byuclafaculty

Our colleagues at CSU and the community colleges feel the need to be outspoken about the impact of state budget cuts and possible upcoming “trigger” cuts to higher ed. Somehow, UC is not being quoted in the various news articles about this recent trend in public complaints. Is UC’s silence golden? Contrary to the headline on yesterday’s post on this blog, maybe more needs to be said. Example 1: Outgoing SF State President Slams Governor: Brown “doesn’t seem to appreciate high-quality education in California” Story at http://www.baycitizen.org/education/story/outgoing-sf-state-president-slams/ Example 2: California is witnessing a slow and steady decline of its prized…

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No More Hired Guns?

Byuclafaculty

Governor blasts California universities’ hiring of pricey presidents:Jerry Brown criticizes the trend of paying high salaries to ‘hired guns’ from out of state instead of seeking Californians who might take less Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday criticized leaders of California’s public universities for recruiting highly paid “hired guns” from across the country to run campuses instead of looking for home-grown talent that might be willing to work for lower salaries. The governor said officials at California State University and the University of California appeared in recent salary decisions to have adopted a…

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Higher Ed Dream Act (One of Them) Signed by Governor

Byuclafaculty

Gov. Brown signed AB 130 by Assemblymember Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) – Student financial aid: eligibility: California Dream Act of 2011. The new law allows illegal alien children who have been raised in California to receive financial aid in public higher education institutions (UC, CSU, community colleges). However, the aid to which the law refers is private scholarship money. The issue of such aid has arisen in the controversy over tuition increases at UC. Although the university provides assistance to lower-income students, it cannot do so with public monies including tuition money to illegal alien students. Protests over UC tuition…

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Fee vs. tax

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee today runs an article on a shift in the new state budget towards “fees” and the impact on particular households. Temporary tax extensions ended in the last fiscal year. The legislature raised certain fees as a result. However, as the excerpt above shows, the dramatic fee increases occurred at UC and CSU where tuition went up, not directly by action of the legislature but through the governing boards of the two systems. The full graphic from which the excerpt above was taken and the accompanying article are at: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3790500/california-lowers-taxes-raises.html

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Data on California Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today pointed me towards a report on data concerning higher ed in California from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy (CSU-Sacramento). The report covers the three systems of higher ed (CCs, CSU, UC) although often not breaking out the three separately. For example, the chart above (from Figure 14 of the report) shows that while college-going directly from high school by race is qualitatively in line with stereotypes, the main gap quantitatively between whites, Latinos, and blacks occurs at the K-12 level, i.e., dropouts and late high school finishers. (Asians are substantially above the other…

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Raiding the Bank

Byuclafaculty

California’s University of ATM Joe Mathews, PropZero (KNBC), 7-19-11 California’s public university systems aren’t cash machines. But the state is treating them as such. Consider what’s happened just this year to the University of California and the California State University systems. In March, the legislature and governor took $500 million from each system to balance the budget. Then in June’s budget agreement, the state took another $150 million each. But the withdrawals from this strange ATM doesn’t stop there. The budget includes provisions that could trigger another $100 million each in cuts in the likely event that tax revenues don’t…

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Will There Be an Overflow from the CSU Executive Pay Issue to UC?

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee features a story today about legislative moves to cap executive pay at CSU. As noted in a prior blog posting, the CSU board raised pay of an incoming campus president by $100,000 while approving a tuition increase. UC is mentioned in the excerpt below. In principle, the Regents have constitutional autonomy although the legislature sometimes ignores it or writes bills that impose something on CSU and urges UC to follow. From kitchen tables to Capitol offices, two decisions California State University trustees made earlier this week have left Californians seething. …And now lawmakers are tapping into the…