The UC budget represents only $3 billion of the state’s budget, but its economic, educational and health benefits are enormous. The UC system employs 170,000 faculty and staff; it educates 220,000 students; its five medical centers serve more than 3.6 million patients each year; and for every dollar it receives in state research funding, it secures six more in federal and private research dollars. Cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from California’s public universities would be an unmitigated disaster. It would result in huge losses in tax revenues for the state and a decline in the quality of healthcare, and it would eventually lead to nothing short of the dismantling of quality public higher education in the state
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by Laila Lalami, The Nation.
Posted: June 12th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Since 1955, this program has opened doors for hundreds of thousands of young Californians who could not otherwise afford to attend college. These are not supplicants looking for charity. These are bright, hardworking Californians who in high school earned a place in one of the state’s colleges or universities. They don’t need a handout. They simply need a hand up.
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by Richard Blum, The San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: June 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Proposed state higher-education cuts will exacerbate a projected shortage of college graduates and imperil California’s long-term economic future, a new report says… If California cannot produce more college graduates, businesses that need highly skilled workers will leave the state and others will not locate here, said David Stewart, dean of the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at UC Riverside. "In my view, this is the most severe economic problem California confronts," he said. The shortage of college graduates will worsen California’s budget problems, because they on average make more money than those without degrees, and pay more taxes, Stewart said.
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by David Olson, The Press-Enterprise.
Posted: June 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
More than 80 percent of respondents say the budget crisis and the global recession are major challenges, but 89 percent believe a college education is a good investment, according to the report by Sacramento State professor Amy Liu and her students through the university’s Institute for Social Research. Other findings from the report released Tuesday: More than 90 percent of Sacramento-area residents believe California residents should have access to college education, regardless of the economy or the state budget. Nine of 10 respondents who believe the economy is a "big problem" say college education is a good investment.
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by Staff, The Sacramento Business Journal.
Posted: June 9th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The state’s expanding financial woes may force UC Riverside to cut up to $40 million from its budget — doubling a previous estimate — through employee layoffs, furloughs, eliminating programs and other adjustments, Chancellor Timothy P. White said Friday.
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by David Olson, The Press-Enterprise.
Posted: June 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Cal Poly Pomona President J. Michael Ortiz, in an e-mail Sunday, told students that the governor’s proposed cut to the university of $20 million to $35 million had left him with "no choice" but to shut down the early and late summer sessions. "I’ve spent the weekend reading with great concern your numerous messages of distress over the cancellation of summer classes," Ortiz said. But he stated that the "huge cut" was the equivalent of shutting down three of the university’s eight regular colleges.
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by Gale Holland, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: June 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
One thing that makes UC special is that it has been able to balance academic distinction with its democratic mission and public responsibility. If the Legislature ever got formal control, there’d be no telling what mischief — in hiring, in curriculum, in setting research priorities, in admissions preferences — the currents of political fashion could bring. Given the Legislature’s dim reputation with the voters, the amendment is likely to fail at the ballot box even if it passes out of the Legislature. But it’s a sure sign of the temptations that forever lurk under the Capitol dome, and of the ongoing danger to what may be California’s greatest public asset.
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by Peter Schrag, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: June 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
…the chancellor of the University of California at Riverside has announced that his campus will cut faculty and staff positions by 15 percent over the next couple of years and enroll fewer students in the fall of 2010. In the memo, posted Friday on Riverside’s Web site, the chancellor, Timothy P. White, also said that hiring freezes would remain in place and that employees probably would be asked to take 16 unpaid furlough days – a measure that is expected to be adopted systemwide. The university system is preparing for a cut in state support of about 20 percent in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
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by Josh Keller, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Posted: June 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
It is often difficult for students at California’s crowded universities to find room in enough classes to actually complete a "four-year degree" in four years. Civil engineering student Rocio Portugal, 22, said the cancellation of summer classes at Cal Poly drops her about two quarters behind, and adds further complications to students who planned to spend summertime taking classes required for the classes they planned to take during the fall. Like other parts of the state government, the 23-campus California State University system’s budget is on the chopping block. Keith said it’s impossible to know how deep the cuts will be until the Legislature agrees on a budget, but cuts could range from $400 million to $700 million.
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by Andrew Edwards, The Contra Costa Times.
Posted: June 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Cal Poly Pomona announced Friday that it would cancel its summer classes this year. That’s a reasoned response to expected cuts of $400 million to $700 million in state funding for the Cal State University system for the 2009-10 school year, which could reduce Cal Poly’s funding by $20 million to $35 million… We believe California voters and taxpayers are willing to pay for a safety net for the poor and for the state’s great public university systems, but only if they see the governor and Legislature cut back on expenses that don’t produce returns.
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by staff, The San Bernardino Sun.
Posted: June 8th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
