Alexander Grant’s unfortunate death is the result either of deferred maintenance or the result of excavation on a plaza and concession stand on the north side of the Greek Theater. Either way, UC is responsible… I looked at the downed tree that Killed Alexander Grant before it was removed. It should have been a crime scene. This tree had its entire east side root system sheered off in a vertical cut maybe two feet from the trunk, and the tree fell directly West, North. Someone had buried the tree’s trunk up six feet with excavated soil. I could find no evidence that the university reduced the size and weight of the tree to compensate. This goes beyond deferred maintenance to official neglect.

Read full article [here].
by Hank Chapot, The Berkeley Daily Planet.

Posted: January 11th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

“There is the ever-present tendency here in the State Capitol to adopt the corporate notion that if you want to do anything you have to measure it,” he said. As he has done throughout his governorship, he returned to what he thinks is the key to a good education: the relationship between the teacher and student. “I think the emphasis on the teacher and the living role that they encounter in the classroom is most important, as opposed to this obsession with more and more metrics, collected over more and more years, to attempt to shape policy but which in many cases do not.”

Read full article [here].
by Louis Freedberg, Ed Source.

Posted: January 6th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In the past, pursuing a PhD was a generally debt-free endeavor: Academics worked their way toward their degree while working as teaching assistants, which paid them cost of living and remitted the cost of tuition. That model began to shift in 1980s, particularly at public universities forced to compensate for state budget cuts. Teaching assistant labor was far cheaper than paying for a tenured professor, so the universities didn’t just keep PhD programs, but expanded them, even with dwindling funds to adequately pay those students. Still, thousands of PhD students clung to the idea of a tenure-track professorship. And the tighter the academic market became, the harder we worked. We didn’t try to break the system, since that’s not how we’d been raised. We tried to win it.

Read full article [here].
by Anne Helen Petersen, Buzz Feed News.

Posted: January 5th, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The longer the shutdown goes on, the more likely it is that research and education programs on campuses will not receive funds on the schedules they have planned. Lobbyists for research institutions also warned about the impact of the shutdown on future grants. Agencies have extensive peer-review processes involving agency officials and outside teams of experts who gather to review applications. Agency officials field questions all the time about preparing grant applications. None of this will take place while these government agencies are shut down.

Read full article [here].
by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: January 2nd, 2019, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The university was poised to lose access to Elsevier’s journals when its five-year contract ends on Dec. 31. But on Friday [12/21] afternoon, the adversaries agreed to extend the deadline for one more month… As America’s largest research university system, UC believes it has the leverage to alter the century-old subscription model and accelerate open access. Its 10 campuses account for nearly 10 percent of research produced in the U.S.

Read full article [here].
by Lisa M. Krieger, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: December 25th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California ranks near the bottom of all states (47th) in the share of recent high school graduates who enroll in four-year colleges or universities, transfer to a four-year college or earn 60 transferable credits within six years. If we are going to close this gap, the work cannot begin in higher education. We know that children who enter kindergarten unprepared and cannot read at grade level by the third grade are more likely to end up in the prison system than enrolling in college. The gap must be addressed in a coordinated way across the entire continuum of our education system, from pre-Kindergarten through post-secondary education and into the workforce.

Read full article [here].
by Lenny Mendonca and Pete Weber, Capitol Weekly.

Posted: December 24th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Median wages in the state have fallen in the last two decades for every education level except those with a bachelor’s degree and above, according to the report. Which is why getting more low-income Californians to complete college is important if the state wants to make a dent in its poverty rate, which is the highest in the nation… Researchers concluded a family’s income is still a key factor in whether or not a student goes to college… The San Joaquin Valley and the Inland Empire were singled out in a 2017 study for lagging the rest of the state in terms of college completion. “In the San Joaquin Valley, what we saw is the high school graduation rate is actually higher than the state average and the college-going rate is also quite robust,” Johnson said. “But the vast majority of students who go on to college from high school go to community colleges.”

Read full article [here].
by Michael Finch II, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: December 16th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

There is a $44,000 yearly earnings difference between people who have college degrees versus a high school diploma, researchers concluded in a report released Monday. Yet, a significant number of Californians are not finishing college. Employers are already facing a shortage of highly educated workers… The underlying issue noted in the report is the under-representation of groups that are most affected by poverty in the higher education system. African-Americans and Latinos account for a majority of the state’s high school students but do not fare as well at the university level. Researchers concluded a family’s income is still a key factor in whether or not a student goes to college.

Read full article [here].
by Michael Finch II, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: December 16th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Asked what California should do with a revenue surplus in the coming budget recently estimated at $14.8 billion, 57 percent of respondents said that money should go toward “education, health and human services.” The poll did not further break down that category into specific segments or programs. Just 21 percent wanted it to go toward the state’s reserves and 16 percent chose transportation or other infrastructure projects.

Read full article [here].
by Nico Savidge, Ed Source.

Posted: December 12th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Kennerk also said that the university officials are undercounting those affected. Cianca said it is difficult to say how many employees were affected by payroll errors, but as of two weeks ago he believed about 20 grad students at UCSB and 150 at UCLA had experienced problems. He said he didn’t have numbers for Merced or Riverside… Kennerk said around 370 people have filled out an online survey form stating they were affected by the payroll issues, and the organizations were working on ways to reach out to them… The UCSA wants the UC system provide restitution for late fees and other financial repercussions resulting from missed paychecks. The UC system is researching whether that is possible.

Read full article [here].
by Andrew Sheeler, The Sacramento Bee.

Posted: December 2nd, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.