State Budget

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70% Tuition Hike? Thanks for the Suggestion, Joe!

Byuclafaculty

Joe Mathews pens a blog item with a scare headline on tuition and then suggests we put UC tuition increases on the ballot. Thanks for both helpful thoughts, Joe. PS: You can do better. Could a 70 Percent Tuition Increase Be in UC’s Future? PropZero blog of KNBC, Joe Mathews, 1-21-11 At the University of California, there’s a rule of thumb: for every $100 million that the university system loses in public support, fees (now being called tuition) goes up by 7 percent. So let’s do some facile math. With Gov. Brown proposing to cut $500 million from UC (a…

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Regents Contemplate the Budget & Admissions 1-19-11 – Part 2

Byuclafaculty

This posting continues from Part 1. Please see the text of Part 1. Part 6 UC-San Diego / Holistic Admissions Part 7 Holistic Admissions – continues Part 8 Holistic Admissions – continues Part 9 Holistic Admissions / Student Response to Budget Part 10 Budget Part 11 Budget Part 12 Budget Part 13 Budget Part 14 Budget (end of morning session)

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Regents Contemplate the Budget & Admissions 1-19-11 – Part 1

Byuclafaculty

I am going to be posting the Regents meeting audio from the session of 1-19-11, morning. This session was devoted to the budget outlook and a proposal to expand “holistic” admissions. It takes me some time to get the audios in shape for posting. I am going to post four which deal primarily with the budget and one which gets into the holistic discussion. When I have time, I will continue the posting. However, the budget discussion – although no decisions were taken – may well be significant. If you listen to the speeches by Regent Gould, President Yudof, and…

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LAO Perspective on Higher Ed in Governor’s Budget

Byuclafaculty

Below is the report on higher ed and the governor’s proposed budget just issued by the Legislative Analyst. In certain respects, the report tends to minimize the problem. For example, a chart below (Figure 5) shows the budget through the current year but omits the cut for next year. That cut brings the budget down to last year’s. In its earlier report, and now this one, the Leg Analyst repeats the idea that the legislature should tell UC how to make the cuts. At today’s Regents meeting, there was much talk about the budget cuts; the idea that the legislature…

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UCLA Faculty Assn. Chair Dwight Read Suggests a Budget Forum to the Chancellor

Byuclafaculty

Below is the text of a letter sent today by UCLA Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read to Chancellor Block suggesting a budget forum. Gene D. BlockChancellor, UCLA2147 Murphy HallLos Angeles, CA 90095-1405 Jan. 18, 2011 Dear Chancellor Block, As Chair of the Faculty Association at UCLA, an independent, voluntary organization of Academic Senate members on this campus, I am writing to you again about the welfare of the University in the current budget crisis.Governor Brown¹s budget proposal cuts $500 million from UC’s budget if the voters extend tax increases for another 5 years. If this source of revenue fails, there…

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Former Chancellor Young Reviews Funding Options for UC in the Face of the State Budget Crisis

Byuclafaculty

In a chapter for the current edition of California Policy Options, former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young reviews funding options for UC. He discusses status quo funding, privatization, and “modified self-sufficiency” in this chapter and suggests the last as the most viable of the three. California Policy Options 2011 will eventually be available in full on the web. However, you can access the Young chapter at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzVLYPK7QI_4MzhmMjMyMmUtN2Y0Zi00Njc4LWEyMWQtOWE0MWVkMjdlNjY0&hl=en&authkey=CMLHxK4O A related item is an op ed by yours truly in today’s Daily Bruin: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BzVLYPK7QI_4Y2E4OTFjZmQtM2QzNy00NjA2LWI4MDAtZWNkYTRhODdiMWI2&hl=en&authkey=CLeVhc8JAnd finally, if you really want to know more than you should about the way state budget sausage is made,…

State Budget Actions Summary

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee has a nice summary of proposed budget cuts and revenue enhancements in the Brown budget plan at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/05/3301715/state-budget-costs.html There are photos with captions for each action. The info is in the captions. Note: The first photo puts the “deficit” at around $26 billion. Unfortunately, the word is misused in state budget-speak. It is a mix of past negative reserve in the general fund, current problems, and a workload problem for next year if no policy changes. Maybe the cartoon is a better summary. It comes from calbuzz.com. And if you need further instruction:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEYheg3AEWY&fs=1&hl=en_US]

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Yudof on Budget, Privatization, Pensions

Byuclafaculty

There is an interview in the LA Times today (1-15-11) of President Yudof by Patt Morrison. Below are excerpts. …Morrison: You’ve used the Ed Koch line, “How’m I doing?” After 2 ½ years, how’re you doing? Yudof: I think we’re doing well, and I don’t mean to be Pollyanna-ish. We have a $20-billion shortfall, long run, in the pension plan. I think it’s going to take 20 years to dig our way out, but we have a plan. We put the new [student] eligibility standard into effect; it’s going to be a less mechanical admission [process], looking at the whole…

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Headline: UC Berkeley slashes jobs

Byuclafaculty

UC Berkeley slashes jobs (excerpt) San Francisco Chronicle, 1-13-11, Matier & Ross The hammer is falling at UC Berkeley, with word that the university is laying off 150 managers and support staff. The news, which was delivered in a campus bulletin late Thursday, comes just days after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed slashing $500 million from the UC system next year. The job cuts are on top of 600 positions that Cal has already eliminated since last year. Campus officials say they got a jump on the problem last summer when they hired an outside consultant — at a cost of…

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Legislative Analyst Acknowledges UC Pension Issue for State

Byuclafaculty

In his press conference on Jan. 12 on the state budget, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor explicitly raised the issue of state funding for the UC pension. Those who follow that issue know that at one point, the Leg Analyst took the position that the state had no responsibility for the UC pension. After a meeting with UCLA Faculty Association reps, that position changed. The legislature dropped language asserting that it had no liability for the UC pension. Of course, so far, no actual funding has appeared. The relevant part of the press conference is on the video below: