Suicide is the dark side of the student lending crisis and, despite all the media attention to the issue of student loans, it’s been severely under-reported… Koch originally borrowed $69,000 in 1997. The majority of that money was loans for law school, seemingly, he says, to “better myself.” After he graduated from Touro Law School, Koch struggled to find steady employment and eventually he defaulted on his loans. He was immediately slapped with $50,000 in penalties. For years, he had been filling out deferment forms every six months to buy himself more time but in 2009, Sallie Mae declared him in default. At the time of this writing, Koch owes over $320,000. That sounds staggering but it’s hardly unusual. Once a person defaults on a student loan, the balance grows exponentially, with interest compounding on interest, penalties and fees. By the time he “retires,” in 23 years, Koch figures he will owe close to $1.9 million. He can’t get even subprime credit, he tells me, and it’s not like there’s any way out of his trap: student loan debt cannot be absolved through bankruptcy.

Read full article [here].
by C. Cryn Johannsen, The Huffington Post.

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

As California cut millions from community colleges in recent years, City College of San Francisco dipped deeply into reserve funds to keep itself afloat… City College “has been ineffective in developing and implementing a comprehensive budget planning system that addresses its lack of resources and declining budget,” the study says. The commission isn’t expected to yank City College’s accreditation when its report is made public. But the college may be placed “on sanction” – a watch list – for failing to satisfy all accreditation criteria, from financial planning to leadership.

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

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

The UC regents are scheduled to meet in mid-July and had been expected to raise tuition by 6%, or $732 more a year, bringing in-state undergraduate tuition to $12,924, not including other campus fees and room and board. However, the state Legislature put both pressure and a financial sweetener in the budget to avoid tuition hikes if voters approve a tax increase measure in November. As a result, UC President Mark G. Yudof has decided not to ask the regents next month for a tuition hike, spokeswoman Dianne Klein said. “We will not recommend a tuition increase. We will recommend we take the deal,” Klein said. She noted that the UC regents will have final say on tuition levels no matter what Yudof suggests… If voters in November reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s ballot measure to raise some taxes, UC students could face “double digit” percentage tuition increases, Klein said. If the tax measure fails, UC would not only lose that $125 million but would also see a further $250-million cut in state revenues, according to the budget plans.

Read full article [here].
by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: June 28th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Now, a day after the senate helped engineer a reversal in the Board of Visitors’ decision to force Teresa A. Sullivan from Virginia’s presidency, it seems the provost was right. The Faculty Senate here has transformed itself into a major player, the guiding force that galvanized alumni, students, and community members in demanding that the university bring Ms. Sullivan back. “This is the making of our Faculty Senate,” says David W. Breneman, a professor of education economics and public policy who is widely respected here and has been at Virginia since 1995. That the senate could so quickly become a force to be reckoned with has shocked even faculty leaders themselves. At the beginning of the Sullivan controversy, Mr. Cohen discovered that the group didn’t even have the authority to send mass e-mail messages to professors on campus. They were hardly calculating leaders, ready to do battle. But when a battle came to them, they found a way to assemble their voices and fight back.

Read full article [here].
by Robin Wilson, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: June 27th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The University of California is seeking ways to admit more transfer students from the state’s community colleges but is hampered by a lack of resources, President Mark G.Yudof said during a presentation Wednesday to local community college leaders. “I’m a big believer in community colleges,” Yudof said at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District. “I’d like to increase the transfer rate and we could add 20,000 or 30,000 more students if we got more funding.” … For fall 2011, about 31% of UC’s incoming California students transferred from community colleges… Yudof also addressed concerns that not enough Los Angeles students are gaining entrance to UCLA, a school he called the most popular public univesity in the nation. “What we can’t do is just open the doors,” Yudof said. “But there has to be a special place for Angelenos and if we’re not accepting enough transfer students we’re willing to have discussions with [UCLA Chancellor Gene Block] about opening the doors.”

Read full article [here].
by Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: June 27th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California university leaders are warily watching a tuition freeze plan that would cost the schools — and students — dearly if voters reject November’s state tax initiative. Legislators were scheduled late Tuesday to debate the proposal, which would give $125 million each to the University of California and California State University systems in 2013. But the universities would lose that money if they raise tuition for the 2012-13 school year or if the tax initiative fails… If voters reject the November tax initiative, the universities would lose the $125 million boosts and each see their budgets cut by up to another $250 million. The cuts would likely lead to double-digit percentage tuition increases for the spring terms.

Read full article [here].
by Matt Krupnick, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: June 26th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

…cutbacks in public funding nationwide have led to skyrocketing tuition increases and unsustainable growth in student debt loads. These “solutions” make it far more difficult for moderate-income students to get higher educations, curtailing their future prospects and ensuring that society won’t benefit from their full range of skills and talents. This is in direct opposition to the mission of public universities, which were designed to expand access, not limit it. There’s been a real impact. The CSU and UC systems had 50,000 fewer students enrolled in 2011 than they did in 2010. Unfortunately, privatizing more and more university operations doesn’t guarantee lower tuition, either. In addition to being in direct opposition to the mission of public universities – which are, after all, meant to be “public” – privatization increases the likelihood that a public university will charge students close to what they would pay at a private one. That’s no way to build a well-educated workforce for the future.

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

Posted: June 26th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California’s public universities could lose out on an extra $125 million in state funds if they hike tuition in the fall under a budget agreement that legislative leaders have reached with Gov. Jerry Brown. Lawmakers and the governor have no authority over tuition. The deal represents a bold attempt to use the state budget in their ongoing effort to force the University of California and California State University systems to keep the price of higher education in check. Details of the plan, which is expected to pass the Legislature in coming days, were released by the Assembly on Monday. The proposal includes significant caveats.

Read full article [here].
by Anthony York, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: June 25th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . 1 Comment.

An editorial published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, based on an Associated Press article about UC’s pension program, missed the essential fact that while other governments search for solutions to the pension problem, UC has taken action. These changes were made in highly public forums and covered extensively by the press, but your editorial writer somehow managed to miss them. Here’s what readers should know: UC and its employees have been steadily escalating contributions to the pension fund. By next July, contribution levels will be equal to our ongoing costs. UC has modified its pension program for future faculty and staff to make it less costly, and we now are in talks with our unions over those changes…

Read full article [here].
by Lawrence Pitts, The Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Posted: June 24th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

While the school was stunned by Sullivan’s ouster, a plot to force her out had been building in secret for months, according to emails released by UVA at the request of the Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper. Members of the board, steeped in a culture of corporate jargon and buzzy management theories, wanted the school to institute austerity measures and re-engineer its academic offerings around inexpensive, online education, the emails reveal. Led by Rector Helen Dragas, a real estate developer appointed six years ago, the board shared a guiding vision that the university could, and indeed should, be run like a Fortune 500 company. The controversy, which threatens to seriously damage one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious public universities, has implications beyond its own idyllic, academic refuge. For some, it is emblematic of how the cult of corporate expertise and private-sector savvy has corralled the upper reaches of university life…

Read full article [here].
by Zach Carter and Jason Linkins, The Huffington Post.

Posted: June 24th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.