State Budget

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Listen to Updated and Complete Audio of May 16 Regents Afternoon Session

Byuclafaculty

Our earlier post of the May 16 Regents meeting did not include the full afternoon session.  Readers of this blog may recall that the meeting was disrupted in the morning and thus created uncertainty as to when the afternoon session would resume.  The Regents cleared the room and went into closed session elsewhere.  As a result, yours truly – who was recording from the live stream – did not know when the afternoon session would begin. [And a repeat of question made several times on this blog before: If the Regents can live-stream and record their sessions, why can’t they…

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UCLA Legislative Assembly to Review Anderson Self-Supporting MBA Proposal

Byuclafaculty

On June 7th, the Legislative Assembly will be taking up an appeal filed by faculty members of the Anderson Graduate School of Management regarding the Graduate Council’s rejection of a proposal to convert the “regular” MBA program to a self-supporting basis. In the Academic Senate letter transmitting this decision to the Chancellor, it is reported that “the MBA proposal in particular revealed significant and deep divisions of opinion within the Senate faculty regarding the advisability of converting programs, and in particular a ‘cornerstone’ program, to self-supporting status. The AGSM faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal, the school’s FEC…

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The UC Budget in the May Revise: Allusion Leads to Illusion

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst has released a summary of its recommendations regarding UC and CSU reflecting the governor’s May Revise budget proposal.  Below, in italics are excerpts related to pension funding for UC. As noted in prior blog posts, in January, the governor designated a sum of $90 million which he said could be used (or not) for UC pension funding.  The problem with that approach is that UC has always been free to allocate what it gets from the state for the pension.  By alluding to use for the pension, the governor triggered a recommendation from the Leg Analyst that…

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UC-Berkeley Chancellor Protests Proposed Constitutional Amendment Pending in Legislature Capping Out-of-State Enrollment

Byuclafaculty

(Any thoughts from UCLA about this issue?) Media Release from UC-Berkeley Below: Chancellor expresses concerns about proposed constitutional amendment Public Affairs, UC-Berkeley, May 24, 2012 A message from Chancellor Birgeneau On May 16, California state Sen. Michael Rubio introduced a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would restrict the enrollment of out-of-state and international students on University of California campuses to 10 percent of undergraduate enrollment. If cleared for the ballot by both houses of the Legislature and passed by voters this November, Senate Constitutional Amendment 22 would take effect in the fall of 2013. Its provisions would mandate…

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Concerns Over Proposed Cal Grants Cuts in May Revise Budget

Byuclafaculty

Cal Grant program faces cuts in governor’s budget (excerpts) Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 2012 Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing to cut a state program that helps thousands of low- and middle-income California university students pay for tuition and other costs.  Under Brown’s revised budget plan, thousands of California college students who start their education in fall of 2013 would either be unable to qualify for a Cal Grant or would receive a much smaller grant than if they had applied this year.  Currently, students who qualify and attend either the University of California or California State University…

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More Ready, Fire, Aim from the Legislature (although UC was amended out)

Byuclafaculty

The pay cap bill described below passed the state senate yesterday. UC was amended out of the original version and – because of its constitutional autonomy – had been subject only to a suggestion. As in the recent tuition-cap bill cited in an earlier post, there is no recognition that rising student fees (said to be the motivation for the bill) are the result of actions by the legislature. Were this pay cap to be enacted, there would be blowback to UC, despite the exemption. An act to add and repeal Section 89517.5 of the Education Code, relating to postsecondary education,…

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Former Chancellor Young Calls for Consideration of Birgeneau Campus Autonomy Proposal

Byuclafaculty

In an email to an organization of former UC chancellors and other officials, former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young calls for serious consideration of the Birgeneau proposals for greater campus autonomy within the UC system by UCOP and the Regents.  In a blog post yesterday, the paper by UC-Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau et al calling for such autonomy was reproduced along with a (negative) response to the paper by President Yudof. Among other changes, the paper proposed campus-level Boards of Trustees.  See:http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2012/05/we-know-view-from-berkeley-from-ucla.html The Young email also refers to long-term funding problems from the state he foresees and suggests that greater reliance on…

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More Pay Less/Say More from the Legislature

Byuclafaculty

Say less or pay more A reporter from the Daily Bruin called my attention to the proposed state constitutional amendment that would cap the proportion of out-of-state admissions to UC.  The proposed amendment caps such admissions at 10% of total, on a campus-by-campus basis.  It would require a 2/3 vote to get to the ballot and that is very unlikely to happen and even less likely to happen in time for November 2012.  There is no quid pro quo in this amendment, i.e., so much money in exchange for the cap. The issue of out-of-state admissions has been raised in…

The Golden Mean

Byuclafaculty

Below is a cross-post from another site – the Employment Policy Research Network – for which yours truly also blogs.  You may have an interest in this item: ===================================== Mitchell’s Musings 5-21-12: The Golden Mean Daniel J.B. Mitchell California, the Golden State, has had well-publicized budget problems for years.  Its formal budget process consists of the governor proposing a budget in January for the upcoming fiscal year which begins July 1.  The legislature is supposed to enact a budget by June 15 and the governor is supposed to sign it, possibly with line-item vetoes, by June 30.  In fact, although…

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LAO Report on the May Revise: UC Barely Exists

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst has issued its evaluation of the governor’s May Revise budget proposal. There is little of direct UC interest in the text. On the other hand, one would be hard put to find anything that would encourage the legislataure to “buy out” a tuition increase as the Regents wanted at their recent meeting.  There is nothing about UC pension obligations.  There might be a bit of relief for Cal Grant students at UC but even if so, the relief would come in future years. The LAO has suggestions for reframing parts of the budget which might free up…