Prop. 209 “imposes unique political burdens on minorities” and violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection, Brown’s lawyers from the attorney general’s office told the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which will hear arguments Feb. 13. The suit was filed in 2010 by 46 minority students and an advocacy group. Brown was originally a defendant, but he has switched sides, joining the plaintiffs, who are seeking to allow consideration of race in admissions at the University of California.

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by Bob Egelko, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: January 17th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

States have cut funds for public research universities by 20 percent in constant dollars from 2002 to 2010, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the National Science Foundation. The report, “Science and Engineering Indicators: 2012,” is a compendium almost 600 pages long of scientific trends in the United States and around the world. The agency releases such data every two years. The findings in this year’s report demonstrate a continuing trend in scientific innovation. While countries like China and India have increased their spending on technology and education, the United States has found itself hamstrung by a weakened economy since 2008.

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by Emma Roller, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: January 17th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

For the second time this month, a state senator has introduced legislation to limit executive raises at the California State University system within two years of a tuition increase or no boost in the allocation it receives from the state. Base pay for newly hired executives would also be limited to 5 percent more than what their predecessor received… To promote his bill, Yee also cited large salary increases for UC executives. UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, for example, was hired in 2009 at $400,000, or 27 percent more than her predecessor. The UC regents have raised tuition steadily since 2007. But unlike CSU, which would be required to cap executive pay if Yee’s bill became law, UC is autonomous from the Legislature. Under the bill, lawmakers would only recommend to UC that it cap executive salaries.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

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

A new state Senate bill aims to prohibit pay raises for top University of California and California State University executives in years of state budget cuts or when tuition and student fees are increased. Senate Bill 967, introduced Friday by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, also seeks to cap the salaries of newly hired administrators to no more than 105 percent of their predecessor’s pay… Yee introduced a similar bill in 2009 that passed in the state legislature, but was later vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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by Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register.

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

The University of California on Thursday reported a 13 percent increase in the number of students applying for undergraduate admission, fueled by a surge in applications from out-of-state students and a new policy aimed at expanding the applicant pool… The overall increase was driven by a 56 percent spike in freshman applications from nonresident students, both domestic and international. The university received 33,000 applications from out-of-state students, up from about 21,000 last year. In recent years, UC has stepped up recruitment of nonresidents who pay $36,000 in annual tuition, compared with $13,000 for residents. Currently, about 7 percent of UC undergrads are from outside California. The number of California residents applying for freshman admission rose by almost 10 percent to more than 93,000, even though the number of students graduating from the state’s high schools remains the same, officials said.

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by Terence Chea, The San Jose Mercury News.

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

The governing body of California’s community colleges placed its stamp of approval on a set of sweeping changes to the system Monday night in a meeting in Sacramento… under these proposals, junior colleges would have to begin gearing things such as courses offered, class schedules, and class selection in favor of people who have an “immediate plan.” In other words, people who plan to do one of the following things would be favored in getting into the classes they need: those who want to transfer to a four-year institution, join the workforce, graduate with a certificate, or graduate with an Associate degree.

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by staff, KGET-TV.

Posted: January 10th, 2012, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The common wisdom is that universities, bloated with tenured professors, are ripe for a market correction; “higher-education bubble” now has its own Wikipedia page. Yet a deeper dig into the numbers—itemized in a pair of studies by the College Board and the foundation-funded Delta Cost Project—shows that the bubble is actually a pair of unrelated phenomena: Call them the Great Harvard Chase and the State-Funding Plug Pull… And it’s not faculty salaries that are to blame: The Delta Cost Project, a just-completed five-year effort to track college spending, found that average full-time salaries at public universities have remained flat since 2002, while pay has increased only slightly at private institutions. And fobbing off more courses on low-cost adjuncts and part-timers has likely led schools’ faculty costs to go down, if anything.

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by Neil deMause, The Village Voice.

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

At California’s community colleges — the nation’s largest system of higher education, serving a quarter of community college students nationwide — an estimated 200,000 students will be turned away from classes next school year, according to the state community college chancellor’s office, following state cutbacks of nearly 20 percent across the entire system. That amounts to more than 7 percent of the entire state’s community college student body, and that does not count those who gave up on plans to enroll due to the difficulties of securing classes… The for-profit college programs that have been absorbing the resulting overflow of students are on average more than five times as expensive as their community college counterparts, according to a Senate report that examined such schools nationally.

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by Chris Kirkham, The Huffington Post.

Posted: December 30th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately is looking at the stunning success of the West’s reigning education superpower, Finland. Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer, most of the discussion seems to be missing the point… one of the most significant things Sahlberg said passed practically unnoticed. “Oh,” he mentioned at one point, “and there are no private schools in Finland.” This notion may seem difficult for an American to digest, but it’s true. Only a small number of independent schools exist in Finland, and even they are all publicly financed. None is allowed to charge tuition fees. There are no private universities, either. This means that practically every person in Finland attends public school, whether for pre-K or a Ph.D.

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by Anu Partanen, The Atlantic.

Posted: December 29th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The failure of our elected officials to make higher education the priority it once was means we at Fresno State face unpleasant alternatives. Our daily reality at Fresno State and in the California State University system is working to provide the best education possible for students as disinvestment ravages an academic system once a symbol of California’s commitment to its future: quality, affordable, accessible public higher education for its best students. Businesses moved here or stayed and so did people, because of that commitment.

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by John D. Welty, The Fresno Bee.

Posted: December 27th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.