As fall enrollment reaches a new record, some of Cabrillo College’s 17,000-plus students are sitting on the floor or being turned away from packed classes.That’s because the college has cut at least 100 courses to address a 5 percent cut in its base budget. The $3 million loss in state funding agreed upon by lawmakers this spring dropped the 50-year-old college’s budget to $59 million at a time when out-of-work residents are seeking new vocational training. But what college officials hadn’t anticipated was that legislators in July would cut an additional $1.2 million for disabled and poor students, as well as programs geared toward keeping students on track to graduate or transfer to a University of California or California State University campus.
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by J. M. Brown, The San Jose Mercury News.
Posted: September 13th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Why are faculty considering a walkout? This year’s 40 percent reduction in state support for the University of California and California State University systems caps years of cuts. In 2001, California spent $22,300 per student in today’s dollars; today, we spend half as much. Many faculty see a walkout as the only way to be heard, to focus attention on the harm the state – not the faculty – is doing to students. Washington Monthly recently rated three UC campuses in the top five nationally in service to the nation. California’s educated work force, our high-tech industry, our advanced agriculture and medicine all spring from research and teaching at UC and CSU. As top students and faculty look elsewhere, will our cutting-edge industries remain? While the budget crisis has accelerated the process, we are also victims of a fundamental shift in vision by UC leaders.
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by Richard Scalettar, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: September 13th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
These cuts come at a time when the need for access to California’s colleges and universities has significantly increased. A recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California predicts the state will face a shortage of a million college-educated workers to keep California’s economy and businesses going by the year 2025. Just as an increasing number of California workers are being displaced by the state’s recession-plagued economy and are seeking retraining, public colleges and universities have been forced to turn away students and increase costs to those who are admitted. We have reached a critical turning point for California’s higher education institutions and the Californians we serve. Business as usual is not an option. It is time for all of us — faculty, students, staff and administration — to confront these challenges head on and focus our collective energies on reengineering and innovation to ensure our future success.
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by Hamid Shirvani, The Merced Sun-Star.
Posted: September 12th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The University of California is closing its government internship program in Sacramento, at least temporarily, as part of an aggressive effort to cut costs. Faced with a $1.15 billion budget shortfall over two years, UC is trying to close the gap with program cuts, a fee increase, furloughs and other measures. The university expects to save as much as $1 million a year by suspending its academic programs at the UC Center Sacramento, said Peter King, a spokesman for the UC Office of the President. The center’s research component will remain open, but with a much smaller staff.
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by Melanie Turner, The Sacramento Business Journal.
Posted: September 11th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Aly, a professor of management, operations and marketing at CSUS since 1989, took over as dean two years ago at the request of President Ham Shirvani. He said he got positive performance reviews from the administration and support from his colleagues. But a problem arose when each department had to make cuts because of the state budget crisis. Aly said he consulted with the business faculty and came up with a plan that included taking $150,000 from the university’s successful — and self-sustaining — executive MBA program and using it to keep other classes afloat.
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by Patty Guerra, The Modesto Bee.
Posted: September 10th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
"It doesn’t make good economic sense when money is tight for the public universities to increase compensation for executive officers, while furloughing faculty and reducing their salaries," said Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, who chairs the Assembly Education Committee. "Everyone must do their share of shouldering the burden of tight times." If signed into law, SB86 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would prevent CSU from raising executive pay and increasing perks such as housing or car allowances in years when the university gets less money from the state than the year before. The bill treats UC more delicately because of the university’s unique constitutional autonomy. Lawmakers would merely "request the regents to not increase the monetary compensation" of executives when times get tough.
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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: September 10th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
They estimated that for each $1,000 increase in tuition there was a 3.5 percent decline in six-year graduation rates and 4.5 percent in the four-year rate… But the most important message from this study is that students, no matter what their test scores and grades, should attend the best school they can get into. The authors say these students shouldn’t worry about being what affirmative action proponents call "mismatched." The real danger is being "under-matched." The more selective the school, the better are their chances for success… Lest you think this is just another thumb-sucking study by academics, consider this: According to the Labor Department, workers who graduate from college earned an average of 54 percent more than those who attended college but did not graduate. And that figure lasts a lifetime.
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by Staff, The Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
About 700 staff members will not return to SDSU due to recent budget cuts. This has resulted in fewer and larger classes. The CSU Board of Trustees has decided to implement mandatory faculty furlough days in order to save money. All professors and teaching staff will suffer a 9.23 percent salary loss from taking off a required nine days this upcoming year.
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by Staff, The San Diego Entertainer.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Enrollment in California’s community college system could surpass the 2 million mark each semester by 2016, a new report predicts. A report from the California Postsecondary Education Commission, released last week and presented during the commission’s quarterly meeting Tuesday, showed a steady increase in demand for education at the state’s 110 community colleges, including Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College. This year, the state’s community college system had 135,000 more students than in the previous year, or a 5.1 percent increase.
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by Maria Ines Zamudio, The Salinas Californian.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Galatolo predicts that some of the state’s community colleges and K-12 districts will actually go broke as state budget problems continue into the foreseeable future. However, he says his college district’s finances can weather the storm. Also, some of its bond-funded construction and remodeling can continue. The college district receives most of its money from local property taxes, a stable income source that the state has begun to covet and tap, calling the money "loans." The state legislators who voted for these takeaways have essentially begun to remove education as the top state priority and put it on a back burner. The opportunities for a perfect storm in California have begun to appear. If the state releases 27,000 prisoners (some of them habitual criminals) due to overcrowding, and you add those to the 10 percent of California adults who are unemployed, and mix in thousands of high school grads who can’t get into college due to overcrowding or unaffordable tuition (and can’t find a job), you have an unstable society.
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by Bil Paul, The San Jose mercury News.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
