University of California’s governing board today approved higher fees for 57 graduate professional schools while freezing tuition for undergraduates… If voters reject Proposition 30 – Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax increase – UC will likely raise tuition mid-year. The resolution they approved also gives UC’s formal endorsement of the ballot measure.
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by Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee.
This despite rumors, following Monday’s news of 12 new universities plotting to broadcast free versions of their highly regarded courses, that Washington was going to become the first traditional institution to take the plunge on offering course credit for its MOOCs. Washington is slated to develop 19 courses with Coursera — covering topics in economics, business, biology and computer science — making it the company’s most ambitious partner. “[S]ome of them will offer credit,” The New York Times wrote of Coursera’s new partners in a widely circulated article about the company’s announcement. The article cited Washington, in particular, as planning to offer university credit for its MOOCs this fall, and noted that “other online ventures are also moving in that direction.” The report was the most e-mailed story on the Times’s website Monday, and the detail about Washington offering credit was parroted in several places around the Web. But Szatmary, Washington’s provost, says the university does not plan to offer course credit for its MOOCs.
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by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed.
Fewer Americans believe going to college is worth the ball and chain of student loan debt. In 2008, 81 percent of adults thought college was a good investment. That number dropped to 57 percent, according to a national survey of 3,000 Americans commissioned by Country Financial and compiled by Rasmussen Reports… Regardless of public opinion, a college degree is more closely linked to a comfortable life than ever before. In 2010, 62 percent of jobs required a degree beyond high school, but that’s expected to increase to 75 percent by 2020. The earning power of those degrees will vary greatly depending on one’s major. The Country Financial survey found most people believe parents should be responsible for paying at least part of their children’s college education, but most adults are prioritizing retirement savings (45 percent) over college savings (38 percent), according to the survey.
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by Tyler Kingkade, The Huffington Post.
The California State University system essentially has no way to avoid painful cuts, university trustees were told Tuesday. In a budget presentation that illustrated just how untenable the 23-campus system’s finances have become, administrators told trustees the university risks bankruptcy unless it cuts at least $130 million. “We have to come up with a way to take our spending down, or we’ll be joining our brothers in San Bernardino,” said Chancellor Charles Reed, alluding to the Southern California city’s recent decision to file for bankruptcy… Even the rosiest outlook — the tax measure passes and Cal State keeps tuition at the higher rate — would leave the university with a $177 million deficit this year, said Benjamin Quillian, the system’s chief financial officer. The worst-case scenario would be a $427 million hole, he said.
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by Matt Krupnick, San Jose Mercury News.
Late Monday, I called UC Davis to follow up on the case. To my chagrin, though not to my surprise, Lt. Pike remains on paid leave. The internal affairs process is “a lot more inexorable than anyone realized at the time,” a university spokesman told me. “I don’t know when that’s going to get resolved.” Think about that for a minute. This incident happened eight months ago! In five months’ time, two independent bodies managed to complete an exhaustive investigation into every aspect of the incident. Yet even after an additional three months, the internal affairs process — the investigation, the hearings, and perhaps the appeals — is still not completed for one single individual, whose actions are on videotape. Nor is there any word about when they’ll be complete. As I wrote back in April, can there be any doubt that this system prioritizes the job security of campus police officers above the safety and well being of students, or the need to hold abusive officers accountable? Lt. Pike is still collecting a paycheck after committing the most public of indefensible acts. Imagine the effect of these same job protections on officers whose misdeeds are not captured on videotape…
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by Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic.
UC Riverside’s long-held dream to have a full medical school was badly battered last year when the state refused to pay for it and then national accreditors wouldn’t allow it to open. Those denials were a blow to the UC system’s proud tradition of adding campuses and programs to serve a growing state. Now, UC Riverside is making what national experts say is a rare second attempt to gain approval for a medical school. Campus officials say they have obtained alternative financial backing, worth about $10 million a year for a decade, from private donors, local government and the UC system in hopes that the medical school can enroll its first 50 students in fall 2013… UC’s medical centers and its health education programs constitute about half of the system’s $22-billion annual budget. Some skeptics say that UC is in a new era of limits and that even noble causes must be put on hold to preserve the academic quality of its 10 campuses at a time of rising tuition and cutbacks in undergraduate course offerings.
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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.
Campaign for College Opportunity finds that every $1 invested in producing college graduates returns $4.50 in added tax revenue and savings in social service spending. The public’s investment is totally paid back by the time the graduate reaches age 38, according to the study. So where do we get the money? The recession has taught us that the personal income tax is too volatile to maintain a high-quality education system. How could Proposition 13 be redesigned to help us produce more future homebuyers and taxpayers? This should no longer be a question that produces a political death sentence. That was before and this is now. Let’s get talking. Our inherited old narrative operates in counterproductive ways, misdirecting us from solutions to our most serious problems, and it is ill-suited to fostering hopeful opportunities.
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by Dowell Myers, The Sacramento Bee.
California State University trustees will vote next week on compensation packages for seven campus presidents, including three who would make more than their predecessors because they’re slated to receive salary supplements from campus foundations. The pay packages meet the terms of CSU’s new executive compensation policy, but have angered the faculty union, which is planning to protest at Tuesday’s meeting. The policy was established after public outcry last year when CSU hired a new president for San Diego State and paid him $100,000 more than his predecessor. It calls for paying new presidents a base salary no more than that of the person they are replacing, and allows for a supplement of up to 10 percent paid from campus foundations.
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by Laurel Rosenhall, The Sacramento Bee.
California voters know their K-12 schools will see dramatic cuts and perhaps the nation’s shortest school year if they reject a November tax increase. Now, the University of California has revealed its stake in the election: a 20-percent tuition hike for its nearly 182,000 undergraduates. UC’s annual cost could bump to $14,670 a year — one more threat among many if Gov. Jerry Brown’s sales tax and tax on the wealthy fails. California State University students would see their tuitions leap 5 percent to $6,120 a year… UC administrators noted in a report to the Board of Regents that even the best-case scenario would require “moderate” tuition increases of about 6 percent in each of the next few years.
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by Matt Krupnick, The San Jose Mercury News.
In approving a new budget for 2012-13, the Legislature agreed to allocate $125 million to UC in exchange for a tuition freeze. The budget also assumes that voters will approve the tax measure placed on the ballot by Gov. Jerry Brown. And if they don’t, UC has been told it will receive an automatic midyear cut of $250 million. So just in case, UC President Mark Yudof is telling the regents just how much of a tuition increase would be needed next winter to make up that potential hit. “It’s $375 million – obviously a huge hit,” said Steve Montiel, UC’s spokesman. Tuition and mandatory fees currently top $13,000, not counting room, board and books. With the increase, the annual figure could approach $16,000.
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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.