David Crane has spent less than five months as a University of California regent, but he has already attracted a decade’s worth of opposition. The San Francisco investor, Stanford University lecturer and political adviser was appointed to the UC board by outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in December, and he has attended meetings as a voting regent since then. But he has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, and several groups are pledging to prevent that confirmation… An online petition opposing Crane’s appointment — started by UC Berkeley professor Christine Rosen — had gathered more than 1,500 signatures through Friday.

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by Matt Krupnick, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: May 13th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Guilty verdicts for practicing journalism are the stuff of authoritarian nations and now, apparently, UC Berkeley. A campus disciplinary panel has concluded that journalism student Josh Wolf should not have been inside Wheeler Hall on Nov. 20, 2009, during an 11-hour student occupation even though, the panel acknowledged, he was filming the protest as a journalist… For UC Berkeley and its students, Wolf’s guilty verdict also raises questions about First Amendment rights, whether punishing one journalist leads others to censor themselves — known as the chilling effect — and who is a journalist in the first place.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: May 6th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

If the $500 million cut already made to the university earlier this spring were to double to $1 billion under an all-cuts budget, Yudof said the 10 campus system would be put on a path that could lead to a mid-year tuition increase next January, employee layoffs, program closures throughout the university and – ultimately – a doubling of tuition to $20,000 a year… The senate budget committee also heard testimony from several Silicon Valley business leaders who all credited the state’s public universities for producing the human capital that tech start-ups rely on for success, a rare pairing of public and private interests before the committee.

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by Javier Panzar, The Daily Californian.

Posted: May 6th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

It’s become more fashionable than ever to equate higher education with homeownership: once a rock-solid piece of the American Dream, now a fool’s bet and a sad reminder of overinflated expectations. But in reality, demand for an American-style college education, and the long-term value of said degree, is unlikely to decline any time soon… Global demand for education keeps growing–it’s on track to double over the next 10 years, to over 225 million students worldwide. According to UNESCO, India would have to build a new campus every two weeks between now and 2025 just to meet the demand. And the U.S. model is still the most desirable internationally. U.S. private universities are expanding overseas from Abu Dhabi to Singapore to meet this growing global demand…

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by Anya Kamenetz, Fast Company.

Posted: May 2nd, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown said UC tuition could double. Thursday, Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, mulled closing a UC campus to preserve the flagship institutions. And through it all, UC administrators have remained mum on these kinds of radical proposals, only saying that "all options are on the table." These political figures – who, because of the university’s constitutional autonomy, do not have the direct authority to close a UC campus or raise systemwide tuition levels – have suggested the most controversial changes to university operations in the face of the potential $1 billion funding reduction to the university. Testimony at a Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review meeting Thursday heard drastic ideas, including the closing of a campus and the reorganization of the UC’s research enterprise, raised as cost-saving measures in the event that $14 billion in revenue from Brown’s proposed tax extensions are not realized.

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by Jordan Bach-Lombardo, The Daily Californian.

Posted: April 8th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

"We have a real crisis now," UC President Mark Yudof told the regents during a wide-ranging discussion of financial options for the nation’s premier public university, which expects its state funding to be cut by half a billion dollars even if the tax extensions are approved. "We cannot engage in wishful thinking." Yudof said he isn’t planning to ask for another increase in tuition, which went up 32 percent this year and will rise an additional 8 percent in the fall. That increase will bring annual tuition to $11,124. But if the tax extensions stall and UC’s budget shrinks by nearly $1 billion, "all bets are off," Yudof said.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: March 17th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

"The painful truth is that we are at the point of compromising educational quality," UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal told the Board of Regents. He was among several campus leaders who gave the board forecasts about reduced class offerings and staff layoffs that are likely next year… But even that, officials said, would make up only a small part of the $500 million that Gov. Jerry Brown has suggested cutting from UC’s budget. That amount could double if his plan to extend several temporary taxes fails.

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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: March 17th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

College students from around California staged a mass rally and protest at the state capitol Monday over budgets to education. This happened as talks stalled between Gov. Jerry Brown and the Republicans he’s trying to persuade to vote for his plan. California college students protesting at the capitol urged lawmakers to put Brown’s proposal to extend the expiring taxes on the June 7th ballot. If they don’t, higher education would take another $1 billion hit and community colleges could see tuition go up from $26 a unit to $66 a unit, a cost that some say would make degrees unaffordable. "Over 400,000 students will be lost, and that will be a travesty not only to those individuals, but the entire state of California," said Alex Prader from Student Senate for CA Community Colleges.

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by Nannette Miranda, KGO-TV.

Posted: March 15th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The state’s two largest and successful pension funds have issued statements this week attacking the report on pensions released two weeks ago by the Little Hoover Commission. The Commission, stacked with appointees of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, issued a series of recommendations that have stirred controversy in Sacramento… "Our conclusion is that implementing the recommendations made in the report — even if it were possible to do — would likely weaken, rather than strengthen, retirement security for California

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by Steven Maviglio, California Progress Report.

Posted: March 14th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

An expected 20,000 community college students were marching to the State Capitol Monday morning to protest budget cuts and tuition and fee hikes at California’s community colleges… To close the state’s $26.6 billion budget deficit, Gov. Brown has proposed lopping community college funding by $400 million and boosting fees again. There are 110 community colleges. The governor’s spending plan also cuts the budgets of the California State University and University of California systems.

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by Sharon Ito, News 10/KXTV.

Posted: March 14th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.