That sort of net-tuition-revenue-maximizing thinking is moving many colleges and universities away from the lower income students who are the country’s growth demographic, in pursuit of students able to pay more, with less financial aid. The CED critiqued this mentality in business, in its report, “Built to Last: Focusing Corporations on Long-Term Performance.” But it offers no cautionary note for higher education. The new CED report misses a major opportunity to seize the historical moment. The country desperately needs enlightened business, academic, and government leaders to acknowledge that doing considerably more with no more resources is an emperor that has no clothes.

Read full article [here].
by Gary Rhoades, Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: May 7th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The fasting protest was the latest display of anger at the 23 California State University campuses. The system has lost roughly $970 million in state financing since 2008, and administrators have said they have no choice but to increase tuition… “It’s like they forget that we’re the reason the university exists,” said Sarah Garcia, one of four students at the Northridge campus who is participating in the fast. “What we have now is so much less than we thought we would be getting when we enrolled here.” Ms. Garcia, a sophomore majoring in deaf studies, said she is taking only one required class this semester because she was unable to enroll in any others.

Read full article [here].
by Jennifer Medina, The New York Times.

Posted: May 5th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC Berkeley legal counsel requested that the protesters on UC-owned land in Albany decide by Saturday night to either give up their encampment and engage in a dialogue with the campus or potentially face legal consequences, according to an open letter issued Friday by campus officials.

Read full article [here].
by Christopher Yee, The Daily Californian.

Posted: May 5th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC Davis filed suit Friday against U.S. Bank, alleging that the bank breached its contract by shutting down its branch after repeated Occupy sit-ins there. On March 1, U.S. Bank pulled out of the 2009 agreement, worth an estimated $3 million over 10 years, with the money earmarked for student services. Bank officials said UCD had not done enough to end daily protests at the Memorial Union branch. UCD spokesperson Claudia Morain said the university is seeking lost revenue in Yolo Superior Court because the bank threatened legal action of its own.

Read full article [here].
by Cory Golden, The Davis Enterprise.

Posted: May 4th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The revised policy to be considered Tuesday in Long Beach freezes the base salary of new presidents at the existing level, but allows for higher compensation to be paid by campus foundations. Those privately raised funds typically pay for events and scholarships. If approved, the policy would be revisited in 2014… “I would obviously support a pay freeze,” Lieu said. But he argued that the proposal is still a problem because it lets trustees use foundation money to augment salaries. Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, agreed. “Foundations are meant to assist students and not to ensure campus presidents are living the life of the rich and famous,” he said.

Read full article [here].
by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: May 3rd, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

There has been no attempt to whitewash. There has been no cover-up. Given the nature of large bureaucratic organizations and the overall structure of UC, that fact in and of itself is remarkable. To a large extent, the problems with Linda Katehi are endemic to UC as a whole and will only be fixed by changing the structure of UC and its governance. In many ways, the pepper-spray incident may go down much like the 1968 Parisian Protests, which began as simple student protests but exposed the corruptions and dysfunction of the French Government to the point where it ended up bringing down, remarkably enough, the entire Fourth Republic. On the other hand, it is also worth noting that while to some extent the Chair of Academic Senate is correct that Chancellor Katehi will be more invested in reform than a potential replacement, it is also true that once the light has faded the glare of scrutiny may not be as powerful as it was on November 18 and, remarkably enough, as it still is now. That is due to the faculty who seemed truly disturbed by what they call “the unacceptable treatment of our students by the administrators and the campus police.”

Read full article [here].
by David M. Greenwald, The Davis Vanguard.

Posted: May 3rd, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

At least 17 students at six CSU campuses have gone on a hunger strike. They’re promising to fast until administrators agree to freeze tuition for five years and instead roll back the pay raises for CSU chancellors and presidents. “We’ve gone through many options to make our voices heard by the board of trustees,” Antoine Wilson, a CSU Dominguez Hills business administration student, told the Vallejo Times-Herald. “We’ve held protests, rallies and we’ve gone to board of trustee meetings and they still have ignored us.” In addition, the California Faculty Association, which represents 24,000 CSU employees, announced this week that they voted to authorize a strike.

Posted: May 3rd, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, which represents 24,000 professors, librarians, coaches and counselors in the 23-campus system, said Wednesday nearly 95 percent of members voted in favor of the strike authorization. The union has proposed “rolling” strikes in which groups of campuses would go out on strike for two days each, one group following another.

Read full article [here].
by Associated Press, KGO-TV.

Posted: May 2nd, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In light of this ongoing discussion, it is difficult to blame the bank. Still, Barry Shiller stands by the university’s decision not to use the police to clear the way. “Yes, we do believe it was appropriate,” he said. “Demonstrators were afforded weeks to modify their behavior. When they elected to continue the blockade, they were warned — verbally or in writing, on 11 occasions between February 3 and 27 — that they were subject to possible criminal and campus sanctions.” He does however, concede that the university should have, at the very least, moved more quickly to take the steps that were taken. “Perhaps [we should have] accelerated the steps outlined [previously], moving somewhat more quickly to the above steps,” he conceded.

Read full article [here].
by David M. Greenwald, The Davis Vanguard.

Posted: May 1st, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The new proposal would freeze use of state funds for pay hikes until 2014 while allowing campuses to tap foundation money to give more when “deemed necessary to retain the best leader.” University foundations raise money in a variety of ways, ranging from donations to campus bookstores. It is unclear whether there is any limit to the amount of raise that a foundation could provide. The plan comes as the CSU system could face seven vacancies to fill in the next year, according to CSU spokeswoman Claudia Keith… “Dollars from foundations should be going to provide scholarships and assist students, not to line the pockets of administrators.”

Read full article [here].
by Kevin Yamamura, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: April 30th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.