But even before students began calling for Chancellor Linda Katehi to be held accountable for the actions of the school’s riot-equipped police, another criticism had dogged Katehi since her hiring in 2009. Like her fellow UC chancellors, Katehi’s $400,000 base salary makes her a bona fide 1-percenter, earning more than double the salary of Gov. Jerry Brown. Have chancellor salaries always been this high… after a generation of relative stability, chancellor pay has rocketed upward in the last two decades… Kerr singles out former UC Senior Vice President Ron Brady for pegging the pay of top administrators to private sector standards, instead of to state public servant pay. Brady and other UC brass, Kerr acidly observes, stood to profit handsomely by this line of reasoning.

Read full article [here].
by Paul Collins, Slate.

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

The impossible has happened: Harvard College is now thousands of dollars cheaper than Cal State East Bay for middle-income California students. So is Princeton. And Williams College. And Yale. Top private schools, with their generous aid, have been among the most affordable options for poor students for a few years, but rising tuition has only recently sent California State University and University of California prices shooting past the Harvards and Yales for middle-class students. The revelation comes as thousands of college and university students on Monday march to protest budget cuts in Sacramento that have forced up tuition and shaken campuses. It’s almost unthinkable in a state that once practically gave away college educations. “We are coming close to pricing out many of our middle-class students,” said Rhonda Johnson, Cal State East Bay’s financial-aid director. “Now we’re seeing a disadvantaged middle class.”

Read full article [here].
by Matt Krupnick, The Santa Cruz Sentinel.

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

The new medical college at UC Riverside will not get state money to fund equipment, faculty and students until the state budget situation stabilizes, Gov. Jerry Brown told a Riverside newspaper… UCR officials have yet to convince the state university system to fund the new Riverside medical college, at a time that the UC system is raising tuition and cutting student services. That has led to a $10 million per year local fundraising effort to get the college up and running with a limited enrollment of 50 students. University Chancellor Timothy White told the Press-Enterprise that the medical school would be the UC system’s first in 40 years, and would be an economic stimulus to the Inland Empire.

Read full article [here].
by staff, Valley News.

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

There’s no doubt that community colleges, Cal States and UC campuses have been clobbered by California’s budget problems. You might think private colleges and universities are unaffected – but you’d be wrong. They – and particularly their low-income students – will be hurt badly if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed 40 percent cut to the size of Cal Grants for students at private institutions takes effect. That means a student at the University of La Verne/Redlands whose family income is low enough to qualify for a Cal Grant of $9,708 this year would get just $5,472 for 2012-13. That could be devastating for a student who’s already living on the edge financially, from a family that can’t afford to pay or borrow more. That could push the student out of the private school, with its smaller class sizes, and into a public university – which actually costs taxpayers more – and where there’s a good chance the student wouldn’t get into the classes he or she needs. Or it could even push that student out of college altogether, which costs all of us in term of future workforce and economic vitality.

Read full article [here].
by The Editors, The San Bernardino Sun.

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

A college degree is still valuable in today’s world, at least for those who can manage to get it. The numbers show a conflicted yet striking pattern. Real earnings for men, 25 to 34, with bachelor’s degrees are down 19 percent since 2000, and for female college graduates of that age they are down 16 percent since 2003. Yet the wage differential between college graduates and high school graduates — the college premium — is growing. Thirty years ago, college graduates made 40 percent more than high school graduates, but now the gap is about 83 percent. Even a cashier with a college degree makes more than a cashier without a college degree.

Read full article [here].
by Tyler Cowen, The New York Times.

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

Supported by a host of faculty and staff, several hundred UC Santa Cruz students gathered at the base of campus Thursday for a largely peaceful Occupy Education demonstration against state budget cuts and the university’s handling of the losses… Campus officials said there were no arrests or serious injuries, though at least one student hurt her head and knee when a vehicle attempted to drive through a blockade of demonstrators at the main entrance, an incident witnessed by a Sentinel reporter and the top campus official monitoring events, Executive Vice Chancellor Alison Galloway. Police said the Ford Mustang made contact with three other students as it rolled through the crowd, revving its engine a couple of times before plowing into the students. The Sentinel observed the car coming to a stop only after students jumped on the hood, banged on the windows and threw a hot-pink paint ball on the windshield.

Read full article [here].
by J. M. Brown, Santa Cruz Sentinel.

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

More than 50 students converged on campus for an Occupy-style Thursday afternoon. They demanded an end to budget cuts and called for equity — administrators shouldn’t get pay raises as students lose class options… The rallies build momentum for the March 5 protest in Sacramento, when students and education leaders from around the state will occupy the Capitol. The action is organized by the Sacramento Labor Council. Fresno State will send a bus of participants.

Read full article [here].
by Heather Somerville, The Fresno Bee.

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

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently argued with President Obama’s desire for every U.S. student to obtain the opportunity to go to college. “What a snob,” he said. “There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day, and put their skills to test, who aren’t taught by some liberal college professor (who) tries to indoctrinate them. I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.” These comments are not only problematic on a singular level, but they are also reflective of dangerous ideas about higher education that make it a class issue.

Read full article [here].
by Krystie Yandoli and Kayla Yandoli, The Huffington Post.

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

Thousands of U.S. college students will walk out of class Thursday in a coordinated day of protest against what may be another year of significant higher education budget cuts by state legislatures. College students have organized a national day of action with student groups, unions and local Occupy Wall Street offshoots as well as the Occupy Colleges group. Students nationwide will protest ever-increasing student debt and continued budget cuts. In addition, they’ll raise awareness of campus-specific issues… In California, where students have been demonstrating since 2009 against raising fees, laying off staff, hiring outside contractors for services and partnering with U.S. Bank to turn student ID cards into debit cards, a coalition of unions and student groups are protesting at 20 campuses. A unifying goal is to build support for a ballot initiative that would raise taxes on millionaires that organizers said would increase state revenue and curtail further budget cuts… Community colleges in the state are watching for further cuts after the campuses were forced to reduce already enrolled spring semester classes at the last minute. Over the last decade, the cost of attending California’s community colleges has risen four-fold, and 30 years ago attending school there was free.

Read full article [here].
by Tyler Kingkade, The Huffington Post.

Posted: February 29th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In an apparent concession to thousands of academics who have rallied against its “exorbitantly high pricing,” the scholarly publishing juggernaut Reed Elsevier on Monday withdrew its support of the Research Works Act, a bill that would have preempted the government from mandating public access to federally funded research published by commercial publishers… Elsevier’s concessions and the subsequent death of the Research Works Act are being hailed as a victory for the 7,500 academics who pledged to abstain from submitting or editing articles for the company as part of a boycott. Still, some of the boycott’s original supporters say they are not ready to lay down their arms. The company’s decision to stop lobbying for the Research Works Act was not a sign of shifting principles, they say, but an attempt to break a wave of bad press generated by the boycott by abandoning a piece of legislation that was not likely to go anywhere anyway.

Read full article [here].
by Steve Kolowich , Inside Higher Ed.

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