The state budget will freeze tuition rates for the state’s two university systems if voters approve tax hikes in November, University of California student groups said this evening. Charlie Eaton, a leader with the UC student workers’ union, said Capitol officials told him that the budget bills will add $120 million each for the UC and California State University systems to avoid tuition hikes. But that is contingent on voter passage of Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hikes in November, he said. The tuition freeze announcement could not be immediately confirmed by Capitol officials. Lawmakers have yet to make budget language publicly available.

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by Kevin Yamamura, The Sacramento Bee.

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

The University of California thinks it might save $10 million a year after about 3,000 people were “voluntarily de-enrolled” from benefits coverage. Facing deep cuts to its budget due to California’s fiscal implosion, UC has looked for many ways to cut costs. It hired Secova Inc. to help it save money by slimming down the number of people covered in its benefits plans as family members of faculty, staff and retired employees.

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by Steven E.F. Brown, San Francisco Business Times.

Posted: June 21st, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC officials want the state to make pension contributions, as it does for the California State University and California Community Colleges systems. But the state, facing its own financial problems, hasn’t provided money for UC pensions for more than 20 years… The roots of UC’s pension problems began more than two decades ago when administrators decided to suspend contributions. The pension fund appeared to be overfunded, and the cash-strapped state was cutting UC funding. University administrators finally took action to address its ballooning retirement obligations in 2010 after stock market losses in 2008-09 left the UC retirement fund dangerously underfunded. UC and its employees resumed making payments to the UC Retirement Plan in 2010, with contribution amounts steadily increasing each year. The university system is increasing the retirement age for future employees by five years, which will reduce the amount UC subsidiaries will need to contribute for pensions. UC is also aiming to rein in costs for its retiree health program by raising the eligibility age and reducing the percentage of the insurance premiums it covers.

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by Terence Chea, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: June 19th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC Berkeley ranks among the five best universities on the planet in part because an engineering researcher there has no trouble finding the gravity study he needs from the 1970s. An art historian doesn’t have to be in Japan to lay his hands on a 128-year-old Kyoto guidebook. And a French scholar can examine a certain 16th century manuscript on European literary academies, no problem. Yet the great university’s libraries are in trouble… Berkeley has reduced its library spending by 12 percent since 2008, even as the University of Michigan, its main public competitor, has spent 24 percent more. Berkeley now spends about $50 million to Michigan’s $64 million – and has lost 70 of its 400 library professionals. An additional 20 positions will be kept vacant after retirements over the next three years…

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: June 18th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California’s public universities aren’t the most expensive in the country to attend – some are even among the cheapest – but they do have the fastest-rising tuition, according to a U.S. Department of Education ranking of college costs released Tuesday… Although no public university in California appears on the list of schools with the lowest tuition, students at six CSU campuses pay some of the lowest net prices in the country: Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles, Fullerton, Bakersfield, Fresno and Polytechnic-Pomona. At the same time, California’s community colleges post the lowest tuition in the country. While the national average is $2,721, community college tuition in California ranges from $624 to $814.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: June 13th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The more that foreign and out-of-state students register at the University of California and higher tuition and fees are pushed, the more legitimate it becomes for taxpayers who built and still largely fund the 10-campus system to wonder who it will belong to in the future. It’s a question that got new force early this month when UCLA officials voted to take their graduate school of business private, making it depend solely on a variety of grants, plus student tuition and fees. No one knows if the UC system will remain as it has been for more than 70 years — the single biggest incubator for upward mobility of young Americans — or if it will become a playground for the rich of California and other places. But all indications at this moment are that UC campuses are gradually going to cater more and more to the wealthy.

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by thomas d. elias, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: June 12th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In its report, the campus Police Review Board committee said members were particularly disturbed by the repeated striking of some protesters during the Nov. 9, 2011, crackdown… In an addendum to the main report, committee member Eve Weissman was more critical of the administration. She said school officials were heavily influenced by an unfounded belief that outside elements were behind the day’s actions and questioned the legal basis for removing the tents. “Campus leadership’s preparations for and response to the day’s action was unjustified, inadequate and irresponsible,” wrote Weissman, the board’s graduate school representative. The five-member Police Review Board committee, led by Berkeley law professor Jesse Choper, investigated the incident at the chancellor’s request.

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by Terence Chea, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: June 6th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Kendall Williams, a senior at Mayfair, had his heart set on attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next fall. He and nearly 37,000 others applied. With good grades and an interest in science, the school seemed to be a perfect fit. He was rejected. Just 11,533 made the cut. “I was really shocked,” he said. “I really didn’t think I wouldn’t get accepted.” He soon began receiving emails from Northern Arizona University, asking him to apply. His friends encouraged him look at Arizona State University as well. Quickly accepted to both, he visited the campuses with his family. He chose Northern Arizona on the spot.

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by Stephen Ceasar, The Los Angeles Times.

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

Under the proposal, the Anderson School of Management would no longer receive state funding, instead relying on tuition, donations and fundraising, like private schools. However, it would keep its affiliation with UCLA… The idea has been under review since October 2010 by UCLA’s Academic Senate. After the Graduate Council rejected the idea in a 7-3 vote, a group of Anderson faculty successfully appealed to allow a vote by the 120-member Legislative Assembly. If the assembly approves the idea, it will be presented to the University of California Academic Senate and the Office of the President for further review.

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by AP Staff, The San Jose Mercury News.

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

…the other part of the student debt crisis is all of the debt that students aren’t taking on because they’re not going to college. College grads still earn more, work longer, and are employed at higher rates than everybody else. Their investment — that is, their debt — benefits the country at large in the form of a more-skilled workforce, higher productivity, higher GDP, more taxes, and so on. Newspapers can’t report on this part of the student debt crisis, because there is no headline statistic to report on. You can’t put a number on how much money some promising inner-city student is giving up in lifetime earnings by not attending college or how much it’s taking away from federal income taxes through 2030. But just because those statistics are invisible don’t mean they’re not real. Here’s a statistic that is real: More than 50% of 21-year-olds in America today have dropped out of the college-graduation track, either by not finishing high school or by not going on to college. That is a blight worth talking about. This group, too, is hobbled by a great debt.

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by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic.

Posted: May 14th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.