Ms. Whitman’s “Policy Agenda for a New California” recognizes the importance of higher education to California’s future and identifies the problems of declining quality in the face of escalating fees: The University of California and California State University systems are two of our state’s greatest resources. UC is the best public university system in the…
This post has been superseded by updated versions: How much will it cost us to restore public higher education in 2011-12? How much will it cost us to restore public higher education in 2012-13? How much will it cost us to restore public higher education in 2013-14? Raising revenue has become such…
UC Berkeley professor of political science Wendy Brown was among the more than 200 Berkeley faculty members who traveled to Sacramento on March 4. A co-chair of the Berkeley Faculty Association, she gave the following address on the capitol steps during the “Educate the State” rally. Not long ago, California public education was an international…
On January 6, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lamented the disastrous condition of public higher education in California and decried the fact that California now spends more on prisons than higher education. He called for a constitutional amendment to reverse this situation and commit at least 10% of the state budget to higher ed (UC and…
January 8, 2010 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger California Legislature State Capitol Sacramento, CA 95814 To Legislators and the Governor: How much will it cost us to restore public higher education in California? Raising revenue has become such a taboo subject in California politics that nobody has gone to the trouble of actually answering that question —…
December 10, 2009 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Fax: 916-558-3160 Re: Restart funding of UCRP Dear Governor Schwarzenegger, The Sacramento Bee on Sunday December 7th reported that your administration is considering making a contribution of $4.8 billion to the CalPERS retirement fund. There was no mention in that article of your plans for the University of California…
Re: Call to Postpone the UC Regents Vote of Fee Hikes. Dear Legislator, The UC Board of Regents are scheduled to vote on proposed fee hikes for UC graduate and undergraduate students at their meeting in Los Angeles on Nov. 19. The proposed increase of 32% for undergraduates, coming on top of previous hikes, would…
by Bob Meister, President, Council of UC Faculty Associations Professor of Political and Social Thought, UC Santa Cruz (A PDF version of this article is available.) UC feels free to use Educational Fees however it pleases without accountability. That’s why it can pledge “ed fees” as collateral for construction bonds and use them to pay…
by Richard Evans (A PDF version of this article is available.) In a letter to the UC Davis community, Chancellor Katehi and Provost Lavernia declared that we should work collectively “to address today’s major budget cuts, which come as a consequence of the state’s decade-long disinvestment in higher education.” I think there is a more…
California’s public higher education is at a turning point due to the state’s systematic defunding of the Community College, Cal State, and University of California systems. Most immediately, the University of California Regents will vote at their November 17-19 meeting on a proposal to increase student fees by 32% over the next year. This fee increase would…
