enrollment

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Tradition!

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued a report on UC and CSU funding.  LAO is usually viewed as a neutral agency.  But it is a component of the legislature.  So it tends to favor approaches that add to legislative control as opposed to, say, gubernatorial control.  This report is no exception. LAO seems to want to return to what it terms the “traditional” approach to funding, but with bells and whistles added to monitor legislative goals.  The traditional approach seems to be one focused on undergraduate enrollment.  But in fact the tradition – such as it is – has…

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Oversize Load?

Byuclafaculty

From the Sacramento Bee: …(T)the University of California’s academic student workers union recently filed a complaint against the UC Office of the President demanding that discussions about class size be a part of their contract negotiations. The union has been bargaining with UC since last summer, and its contract expired at the end of the year… The UC Student-Workers Union, which represents more than 12,000 teaching assistants, tutors and readers across the UC system, is seeking a regular forum to talk about class size with faculty and UC management, said Josh Brahinsky, a Ph.D. candidate in the history of consciousness…

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Dividing the $5 Million Pie for Undocumented Students

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin is carrying a story on its website detailing how the $5 million for undocumented students allocated by President Napolitano is to be spent: [excerpt] …UCLA will receive $848,000 of the total $5 million for undocumented student services and financial aid, the most out of any UC campus, according to the letter. UCLA currently enrolls more than 450 undocumented students, a 65 percent increase from last year. There are about 900 undocumented students in the UC system.  Of the amount allocated to UCLA, $250,000 will provide services for undocumented students and $598,000 will go toward undocumented student financial…

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Community College Transfers to UCLA

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly came across a news article indicating that Santa Monica College provided more undergraduate transfers to UC than any othre community college.  You can find the article at: http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Santa-Monica-College-Number-One-In-Transfers-To-University-Of-California/39064 So he poked around the website for the community college system to find out which community colleges led in transfers to UCLA.  The pie chart above shows the results for all community colleges providing at least 100 transfers in academic year 2012-13.  [Click on the chart to enlarge and clarify.]  More than half of the transfers came from colleges providing under 100 students.  Santa Monica was again the leading transfer…

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Listen to the Regents Morning Session: Nov. 13, 2013 (including the Napolitano speech)

Byuclafaculty

As noted in prior posts, yours truly is out of town and behind on listening to, and recording, the Regents meeting.  I am now current through the morning of Nov. 13.  That was the morning in which UC president Napolitano gave her speech on her goals for UC.  Blog readers will recall that there was supposed to be a similar unveiling of goals in a speech awhile ago, but that turned out to be a booster/dud.  This one was more significant, but more on that below. Again, we provide audio archives of Regents meetings because regental policy is to preserve…

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TA Union Pushes for Lower TA-to-Student Ratio

Byuclafaculty

The labor union representing TAs at UC has gotten some attention in the San Francisco Chronicle to its demands for lowering the TA-to-student ratio.  Excerpt: …The students are asking UC to create a Committee on Class Size at each campus so that problems can be addressed on a continual basis, said Josh Brahinsky, a graduate student in history at UC Santa Cruz who serves on the bargaining team… But UC says class size is not an appropriate topic to discuss with the union.”Issues related to class sizes and quality are academic issues, not bargaining issues,” said Shelly Meron, a spokeswoman for UC… Full…

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Alternative Entrance

Byuclafaculty

From the Daily Bruin: University of California student leaders are proposing a new admissions criterion that would give preference to applicants from low-income schools that have special partnerships with UC campuses. Under the criterion, UC campuses would look at whether an applicant comes from a Title I high school – a school that serves a significant number of low-income students – or a community college with low transfer rates that has a partnership with a UC campus. The partnerships would involve academic preparation and outreach programs that the UC would create for these schools. Students proposing the new factor, including…

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Affirmative Action Case at Supreme Court

Byuclafaculty

Blog readers will undoubtedly know that the U.S. Supreme Court is looking at the constitutionality of  Michigan ballot proposition that bans affirmative action in, among other things, public university admissions.  The Michigan proposition was a copy of California’s Prop 209.  Were the Michigan proposition voided, the same would likely happen to Prop 209.  Most observers seem to expect the court to uphold the Michigan proposition.  Prop 209 followed the UC Regents’ action banning affirmative action in admissions.  (The Regents later repealed their ban after 209 was enacted on the grounds that it was redundant.) Inside Higher Ed has an article…

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Supreme Court Challenge to Michigan Proposition Could Void Prop 209

Byuclafaculty

Prop 209, banning affirmative action in public university admissions, was passed by California voters in 1996.  The final vote count in favor was actually slightly higher than the chart here – from preliminary data shortly after the election – shows.  (54.6% yes rather than 54.5%.)  Prop 209’s history goes back to an earlier action by the Regents banning affirmative action at UC.  (The Regents later repealed the ban but, by that time, Prop 209 took precedence and the repeal had no effect.) The LA Times today carries a report of a challenge at the Supreme Court to a similar proposition…

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The Bus Plan for Higher Ed

Byuclafaculty

The White House released the plan for higher education this morning.  As per yesterday’s post, the plan will be promoted via a presidential bus tour.  Before I get into the plan, I might note that like the Regents and governor, the President is interested in use of technology – think MOOCs – to reduce costs, etc.  And like the Regents and governor, he seems to have problems with his own use of technology.  The screenshot you see here was take 3 hours and 45 minutes after the plan was officially released, but it doesn’t show the plan.  All that was…