UC

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UC PR

Byuclafaculty

UCOP seems to have mounted a PR campaign through a website at:http://www.onwardcalifornia.com/ I noticed it as a banner ad on the LA Times website.  It loads rather slowly – or at least it did when I clicked on it – so maybe some better web design might be in order.  The actual message is rather vague.  Included is a YouTube video featuring presumably high school seniors signing on to UC websites and finding out that they were admitted.  The video was uploaded last Wednesday so I assume this campaign is relatively new.  The uploader left the “comment” option open and…

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Bay Area Council Business Group Announces Fundraising Campaign for UC

Byuclafaculty

From the Bay Area Council’s website: A “PERFECT” WAY TO LAUNCH AN EFFORT TO SAVE THE UC SYSTEM Recent years have been unkind to the crown jewel of California’s education system, the University of California.  Budget cutting knives have hit the UC system so hard that new studies show the state will be 1 million college-educated workers short of need by 2025.  This will not be good for our members and not be good for our economy.  Bay Area Council Executive Committee member Larry Baer, who happens to also be President of the San Francisco Giants, hosted a launch event…

More Than Budget: UC Opposes Bill Related to Collective Bargaining of RAs on Its Promotional Website

Byuclafaculty

To the left is a partial screenshot of a page from the “UC for California” website http://www.ucforcalifornia.org.  The site has a page urging readers to oppose a bill related to collective bargaining for graduate research assistants.  It is being promoted by a mass emailing coming from advocacy@support.ucla.edu.  This step appears to be a departure from the earlier use of the website aimed primarily at budget issues for UC and support of efforts to increase state budget allocations for the university. The webpage on the left, by the way, doesn’t seem to work properly in Chrome.  I had to use Firefox to get…

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Follow the Leader? Will UC Follow CalPERS on Health Costs?

Byuclafaculty

From the Sacramento Bee: The California Public Employees’ Retirement System plans to raise health care premiums to its members by an average of nearly 10 percent next year, one of the biggest increases in recent years. The increase of 9.6 percent would be more than twice as big as the rate hike that took effect for this year. It would have significant implications for health care affordability in California and beyond. CalPERS is a major purchaser of health insurance; it covers nearly 1.3 million public employees, retirees and their family members… “Wow – that’s pretty high,” said Joanne Spetz, an…

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Two Thirds?

Byuclafaculty

There are two bills kicking around in the legislature that would, if both are passed, provide a $1 billion subsidy for tuition at UC, CSU, and the community colleges financed by a change in corporate tax law.  However, one of these bills – the tax bill – would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature.  Assembly speaker Pérez claims he has the necessary Republican votes, although that seems unlikely.  It is unclear from an account today in the San Francisco Chronicle whether that claim also applies to the state senate: Assembly Speaker John Pérez, who introduced AB1501,…

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Yesterday’s Letter to the Editor by the Chancellor and Senate Chair: What’s It All About?

Byuclafaculty

Some blog readers may have seen a letter to the editor in the LA Times by Chancellor Gene Block and Senate Chair Andrew Leuchter which responded to an earlier op ed in the Times by John M. Ellis and Charles L. Geshekter of a group called the National Assn. of Scholars and its California branch.  Yours truly suspects that many blog readers did not peruse the letters section of the Times this holiday weekend so here is a summary and explainer.  The op ed was based on a larger document published by that group and sent to the Regents.  It…

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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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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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Breaking Up the UC System?

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today has a lengthy article on recent proposals to give the various UC campuses more autonomy. These proposals have primarily been emanating from UC-Berkeley and UC-San Francisco.  The article goes over some of the past statements and documents relating to this issue and provides a review of related developments in other state systems. The article is at:http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/11/university-california-faces-questions-about-its-governance-structure Clearly, breaking up the system would be difficult: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbad22CKlB4&w=320&h=195]

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Trending Down

Byuclafaculty

PPIC has issued a report noting that California enrollments have been dropping at UC and CSU as the state has cut funding and tuition has risen.  The chart above is from that report.  UC and CSU actually have been admitting a higher percentage of high school grads but those admitted increasingly go elsewhere.  Excerpt: California’s financial commitment to higher education has been compromised by fiscal crises and competing state priorities. Despite large increases in the demand for higher education, state general fund spending in this area has declined notably over the past ten years. California now spends more on corrections…