A state lawmaker says he’s found a way to give California’s cash-strapped colleges and universities nearly a billion extra dollars a year – but those schools, at least for now, are saying "no thanks." Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, a Fremont Democrat running for state attorney general, is pushing for an oil severance tax to benefit higher education… The current proposal gives UC 30 percent of the estimated yearly revenue of $900 million, or $270 million per year. CSU would get 60 percent, or $540 million. Community colleges would get just 10 percent, $99 million, because they already have a dedicated source of state funding under voter-approved Prop. 98. All three school systems say another concern is that if state lawmakers think higher education is adequately funded from oil money, they would withhold funding from other sources.

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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: October 12th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Ken McNeely, California president, AT&T: I absolutely agree. As a large employer in the state, we’re simply not able to get the qualified applicants that we need. I think we’ve lost a generation. I think we’re ready for a complete overhaul, and I think something has to happen, or businesses are going to go where they can find the talent that they need; and, unfortunately, that may not be in the state of California. It may not be in the United States.

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by Marshall Kilduff et. al., The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: October 11th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Several hundred UC Berkeley students took over the anthropology library for 24 hours this weekend to protest UC-wide budget cuts, in particular Saturday closures of small campus libraries that students use for studying and research. Organizers said nearly 300 students – along with dozens of supportive staff and faculty members – showed up at the anthropology library shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, when the facility was scheduled to close for the weekend… UC Berkeley administrators closed all but two of the campus’ 20 or so libraries on Saturdays this year to save money.

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by Erin Allday, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted: October 11th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In response to this attack on education we are calling a "study-in" on Friday, Oct. 9, at 4:30 pm in the anthropology library in Kroeber Hall. On this crucial weekend before midterms, when the doors of many campus libraries are supposed to close, we will say NO! We will stay, we will keep the doors open-and we will study for our midterms. But we want to be clear that we’re not "taking over" the library. We are actively consulting with staff to ensure that the library and its contents remain safe, and our "cleaning commission" will make sure that we leave things in even better order than we found them… So let us be very clear that the "real problem" isn’t just the elected legislature in Sacramento, but the unelected UC administration. The Board of Regents is an undemocratic body, directly appointed by the governor and not subject to university oversight.

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by Eli Friedman, The Daily Californian.

Posted: October 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Most people, I suspect, still have in their minds an image of America as the great land of college education, unique in the extent to which higher learning is offered to the population at large. That image used to correspond to reality. But these days young Americans are considerably less likely than young people in many other countries to graduate from college. In fact, we have a college graduation rate that’s slightly below the average across all advanced economies. Even without the effects of the current crisis, there would be every reason to expect us to fall further in these rankings, if only because we make it so hard for those with limited financial means to stay in school.

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by Paul Krugman, The New York Times.

Posted: October 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Although Harvard University is still ranked number one in the table of the world’s top 200 universities – for the sixth consecutive year – American supremacy seems to be slipping. While the US still has by far the most institutions in the top 200, with a total of 54, it has lost five institutions from the top 100 and four have dropped out of the top 200 altogether. The country’s decline comes amid improved showings by institutions in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia. Philip Altbach, director of the Centre for Higher Education at Boston College in the US, says several factors are behind the surges by Asian institutions. "These countries have invested heavily in higher education in recent years, and this is reflected in the improved quality in their top institutions," he says. "They have also attempted to internationalise their universities by hiring more faculty from overseas."

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by Phil Baty, Times Higher Education.

Posted: October 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Ninety-six percent of over 10,000 union employees, faculty and students at the University of California (UC) have voted that they have no confidence in the leadership of UC President Mark Yudof… Although each of the unions involved in the vote have various reasons for their lack of trust in Yudof’s competency, they agree on several points. Many UC employees and their representatives believe that Yudof is using the budget crisis as an excuse to move the university in the direction of his and the other regents’ priorities, at the expense of students and workers.

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by Molly Carter, City on a Hill Press.

Posted: October 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Rogers said she discovered irregularities in the first-year progress report, including instances in which Peterson "improperly claimed work that was never done." Rogers also alleges that Peterson took Rogers’ own data and research, funded by a different source, and passed it off as work done under the federal grant. In October 2007, Rogers filed a whistle-blower complaint with the university… In 2008, Peterson cut Rogers’ pay by 20 percent, saying that "her work no longer fit the funding’s statutory mandate," the lawsuit states. When UC auditors discovered problems with the grant, the suit says, only Rogers’ pay was cut while other employees were "kept whole from other funding sources." … A bill on the governor’s desk by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would give UC employees the same protection as other state employees under California’s Whistleblower Protection Act.

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by Marjie Lundstrom, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: October 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A table of leading world universities shows a fall in the number of North American universities in the top 100 from 42 in 2008 to 36 in 2009… Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of Universities, said: "The broad message of these tables is clear – the leading UK research universities are held in high esteem internationally. "But countries like China and Korea, which are investing massively in their best institutions, are snapping at our heels. "The precise accuracy of league tables like this can be debated, but there is no mistaking the alarm bell warning that our success is at risk if we as a nation don’t take action to fight off such fierce competition."

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by Staff, BBC News.

Posted: October 7th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The University of California San Diego is blunting the damage from $84.2 million in state budget cuts with a plan to borrow nearly half that amount from internal funds… Drake declined to provide details on the source of the loan or its terms. The university won’t pay interest on the loan, Drake said, but will give up money it would have earned in an interest-bearing account… UC officials in Oakland said they are unaware of any UC campuses using loans to deal with funding cuts, but campuses can make that decision on their own. "We don’t know about any loan at UC San Diego," said Steve Montiel, spokesman for the UC Office of the President. "But we and the campuses aren’t ruling out any financial options these days." UCSD Academic Senate Chair Bill Hodgkiss said the university will have five years to pay back the loan.

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by Eleanor Yang Su, The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Posted: October 7th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.