While all schools cannot pass their own budgets until the state comes to a decision on their own budget, Gould said IVC is preparing for three different best-to-worse case scenarios. "The key to our final budget recommendations is whether or not the extension of taxes get on the ballot and if they do, whether or not they pass," he said… Gould said pink slip notices for employees are also likely to come in March as required by law since IVC and employee bargaining units have yet to come to any agreements. "It’s the last thing that I want to even consider because it means we’re taking more and more from our students, which is the worst thing we can possibly do when education is more important in times like this," he said. Gould said it is too early to tell whether layoffs will be coming for full-time faculty but adjunct faculty, who are renewed each semester, are likely to be affected.

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by Roman Flores, Imperial Valley Press.

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

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have unveiled a spending bill for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year that would slash $100-billion from the president’s budget request. The measure, which the House is expected to take up this week, would cut millions of dollars from federal support for research and student financial aid. The student-aid reductions would trim the maximum Pell Grant by 15 percent, or $845, from the $5,550 available to the neediest students now, and make 1.7 million students ineligible for Pell Grants, according to Mark Kantrowitz, who publishes FinAid, a Web site that gives financial-aid advice. If enacted, the reductions would be the largest cut in student-aid funds in the history of the Pell Grant program.

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by Kelly Field, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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

Neither of these data points will be welcome by people who simply believe that government is too costly and too wasteful. And it goes without saying that of the three hundred thousand or so state employees, surely someone must be overpaid and/or working in a position that’s not needed. But as generalizations go, the facts suggest state employees are neither overpaid nor excessive in numbers. This is not to say that governments shouldn’t revisit such issues as pension reform or health care costs; they should just as that has been done in the private sector. But governments need to be sure that their changes to employee packages are not overdone.

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by Larry Gerston, NBC Bay Area.

Posted: February 10th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UCLA is not unique in feeling the crunch in the humanities, particularly in languages. Ruiz, a member of the Board of Directors for the American Council of Learned Societies and other national associations, sees reports that point to a distressing national trend driven by dwindling resources and limited enrollment. The University of Albany, SUNY, for example, announced last October that it was suspending all new admissions to its French, Russian and Italian programs, along with other areas of study, and phasing them out. In 2008, USC announced it was dismantling its German Department, eliminating the major but continuing to offer a basic language instruction program. "It’s a storm raging across this country. Things are really bad. And the humanities are getting it in the neck," Ruiz said… "For every 10 faculty who retire or leave, we are able to hire only three or four people to replace them," said Stowell. "So the sad truth is that most faculty who leave won

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by Staff, UCLA Today.

Posted: February 9th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

From students’ perspective, community colleges are no longer able to offer the access to an education that they have long promised, says a report released on Wednesday… The situation may only grow worse, as two-year colleges have warned, amid repeated budget cuts and increased demand from a financially needy population. State community-college directors have predicted that their states’ contributions will continue to fall even as enrollment rises. A budget proposal in Texas, for example, threatens to deny any funds to four community colleges. In other states, including Iowa and South Carolina, community colleges are now getting more money from tuition than from state contributions. The national "Community College Student Survey" is new, so it’s unclear whether students are having a harder time getting classes than in the past. But it’s clear that many are feeling squeezed out.

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by Elyse Ashburn, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: February 9th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UCLA will be asked to absorb $96 million of the $500 million in proposed state cuts to the University of California system, according to a new target set by UC President Mark Yudof… As Yudof’s proposal stands, UCLA will experience the largest burden of the cuts, with UC Berkeley possibly absorbing $80.8 million and UC Davis taking $70 million in cuts to its budget. UCOP spokesman Steve Montiel said, however, that these cuts are only preliminary figures. Ultimately, the figures are contingent on how much can be cut from the Office of the President, and, as with other proposed cuts under Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan, the extension of tax hikes by California voters.

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by Nicholas Greitzer and Sonali Kohli, The Daily Bruin.

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

The chancellors of the University of California and California State University systems said Monday that they don’t plan to seek student fees increases this year, despite a state budget proposal that calls for more than $1.4 billion in combined cuts to higher education. But UC Chancellor Mark Yudof and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said their promise won’t hold if Californians don’t agree to tax extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing for the June ballot… The chancellors of all three systems testified at a budget hearing in Sacramento, where they said they are prepared to make deep cuts to administration, teaching staff and services for students. They warned, though, that California’s renowned higher education system is being jeopardized and they are likely to continue to turn away hundreds of thousands of students.

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by Juliet Williams, The Mercury News.

Posted: February 7th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

"We’re saying, ‘I don’t like it. I don’t want to do it, but I’m willing to do it for the CSU if there is a future to reinvest in California and have a conversation about what kind of California do we want for our kids, what kind of economy do we want, what kind of people do we want in the work force," Reed said. "So this one time, sure. I’m willing to sacrifice because every public agency is going to have to sacrifice something." The UC cuts, Yudof said, would probably mean "fewer students. It means a smaller faculty because, remember, a lot of our costs are labor costs, the instructional costs are high, I think you don’t have as much to offer in student services. You might have to trim the programs." "I hate it," Yudof added. "You know, our campuses are prepared to take another 30,000 to 40,000 students. They feel they have the room for them if we had adequate finances to do it."

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by Jack Chang, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: February 7th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC President Mark Yudof testified today before the state Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education to outline the impact of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget — which would cut $500 million in state funding to the UC — and lobby committee members for decreasing the proposed cut to the university. "Adjusting for inflation, state investment in UC students is less than half of what it was 20 years ago," he said at the hearing. "If trends are not reversed, we will soon approach the day when we will be forced to tell qualified California high school graduates that there no longer is a place for them at a UC campus." According to Yudof, the university currently operates on the same budget as during the 1998-99 fiscal year — while serving 73,000 more students.

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by Jordan Bach-Lombardo, The Daily Californian.

Posted: February 7th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

It wasn’t until after she graduated in 2008 — two years and $30,000 in student loans later — that Miller learned the state university wouldn’t take her credits from Everest, a unit of Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. "I got completely taken advantage of, and now I’m struggling to pay the bill for it," said Miller, now 26. "I got sold my degree by a used-car salesman. I got a lemon."

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by Walter Hamilton, The Los Angeles Times.

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