Understanding a public agency’s budget can be a daunting task for citizens. And often, that’s exactly how the government wants it. But no state agency’s books should be shrouded in secrecy or purposely overcomplicated. That would include what many in the state refer to as California’s "second government" – the University of California, Cal State University system and the California community colleges. We didn’t know – did you? – that 20 percent of the CSU’s $6.7 billion budget is out of the public view because that money is being run through foundations and auxiliaries, according to state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo. That amounts to $1.34 billion – a hefty chunk of change. Under present law, foundations and the like do not fall under the California Public Records Act. So if you wanted to know how that portion of the budget was spent, the CSU Chancellor’s Office is under no legal obligation to tell you.
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by The Editors, The Pasadena Star-News.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
But here’s the rub: while the state has had its good and bad years, and while the CSU students and campuses have taken hits before, the state never made up for those hits when the good times returned. State support for education has continually declined, with student fees having gone up by 32 percent just since last fall. Fees at the universities are increasingly out of the reach of ordinary working students, while quality faculty are being stifled and driven away by increasingly difficult working conditions. This is not the recipe for creating a population ready to serve the needs of a 21st century California.
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by Donald Barrett, North County Times.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
SF State’s faculty, aware of the severity of California’s fiscal situation, is opening up a wave of dialogue with students about the current budget cuts and furlough days… "This is a great time for students who are going to be angry, confused and frustrated to learn more about what has caused their pain and suffering," said Tom Thomas, an associate professor in the College of Business. "A state that used to have one of the very best higher education systems in the world is falling into tatters. A good way to channel that frustration would be to engage in a discussion of why this is happening and how we got here." Thomas said the California budget crisis is something that has been brewing for decades, not months or years.
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by Natalie Leal, The Golden Gate Xpress.
Posted: September 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The Humboldt Chapter of the California Faculty Association (CFA) is asking faculty members to share a student complaint form with their students titled "Got Classes? We don’t." It is an effort to gather more specific information from HSU students about which classes were cut from their departments and more information on overcrowded classes. They will then forward copies of the complaints to HSU President Rollin Richmond, CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, Gov. Schwarzenegger and state legislative leaders. Angela Pine is a Wildlife senior and a student intern with the Humboldt Chapter of the CFA. She is networking with professors and students to compile complaint forms from HSU students to be submitted by the end of September. She said the complaint form is being filled out by students at universities across the state and thousands have been collected from larger universities. Here at HSU, Pine said they have received about 150 forms, but she is confident that more will come in over the next few weeks.
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by Sara Wilmot, The Lumberjack.
Posted: September 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
How did this unhappy scenario transpire? Beyond the current economic collapse there are a number of mega-causes. For one, rising costs for prisons and Medicaid, along with mandates for funding K-12, have squeezed out support for higher education. The UC and CSU systems, have a low status as "discretionary" funding since there are no constitutional mandates to keep higher education afloat-this at a time when the state’s population continues to grow. Additionally, the inability of lawmakers to manage the state has magnified the problem. Prudent budget cuts, along with marginal increases in state revenues in better economic times, would have mitigated the huge cuts we now face. Our state budget has been held hostage by anti-government conservatives empowered by the two-thirds vote to pass a budget in the state assembly. There is more blame to go around; but the fact remains that a small group of politicians in conservative districts have been running the budget show.
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by John Douglass, The Daily Californian.
Posted: September 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Our state’s leadership in biotechnology, computer technology, aerospace, finance and other high growth sectors today is largely attributable to our past commitment to higher education. Multiple California generations have grown up with the keen understanding that if they study hard and play by the rules, our state will make sure that a quality career-building education awaits them when they finish high school. Will students now working their way through California public schools have that same understanding? That’s up to us. Since 1990, student fees at UC and CSU have increased more than fivefold. In 1980, 18 percent of our state budget was invested in higher education. Today, we’re at 10 percent. Because of budget cuts approved by the state legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger, nearly 50,000 qualified students were denied admission this year to a UC or CSU campus. Those students are our state’s future nurses, teachers, engineers, inventors and entrepreneurs. As a student, you should be outraged. As a resident of California, you should be alarmed.
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by John Garamendi, The Daily Californian.
Posted: September 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The University of California is one of many public institutions battered about each year by the unpredictability of the state budget and the laws that govern it. Russell Gould — former director of the state’s Department of Finance and the new chairman of UC’s governing board of regents — says he’s tired of it. "We can’t keep limping along," Gould said before a recent regents meeting. "We need to forge a new path."
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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: September 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
A generation ago, California spent about half what it does today AFTER adjusting for both inflation and population growth. And yet, we had the finest highway system in the world and the finest public school system in the country. California offered a FREE university education to every Californian who wanted one. We produced water and electricity so cheaply that many communities didn’t bother to measure the stuff. Our unemployment rate consistently ran well below the national rate and its diversified economy was nearly recession-proof… California’s borrowing costs now exceed the budget of the entire University of California… Although there are many obsolete, duplicative or low priority programs and expenditures that the state can – and should – do without, there aren’t enough of them to come anywhere close to closing California’s deficit.
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by Congressman Tom McClintock, Hometown Station AM 1220.
Posted: September 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Angry because they are being forced to accept furloughs, some professors at California State University plan to take their frustrations out on their students, a spectacularly dumb move by supposedly smart people… Two of the three demands that walkout supporters are pushing – no furloughs or pay cuts for UC employees earning below $40,000, and full disclosure of UC’s budget – may have merit. The university should consider them. But the last demand, that UC bow to an Academic Senate recommendation that would allow professors to schedule six to 10 teaching-day furloughs over the course of the academic year, punishes innocent students. That’s not fair.
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by The Editors, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: September 5th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Instead of providing creative progressive solutions which strive to maintain the excellence of the university, UC leadership has only offered us tuition hikes and devastating cuts that threaten the stability of the university. The impact of these changes may well be permanent… Despite the recent letter sent out by the UC system-wide Academic Senate claiming that faculty across the ten campuses support Yudof’s actions, this is far from universally true. There is concern about the salary cuts, but many faculty are even more worried about the ways in which UC Office of the President (UCOP) has violated the principle of "Shared Governance," which is central to the operation of the university… Many faculty are outraged over the wholesale circumventing of their input. Additionally, there has not yet been full disclosure concerning the budget. We are asked to accept UCOP analysis of the budget situation on blind faith, without being able to engage in a discussion of funding priorities. Many faculty are demanding greater transparency on budgetary issues.
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by Ricardo Gomez, Viola Tang, Tanya Smith, and Shannon Steen, The Daily Californian.
Posted: September 4th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
