The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it would reverse affirmative action policies established under the Obama administration. Former president Barack Obama’s policies, which outlined ways that schools could legally use race as a factor in admissions decisions, have not been in effect in California since Proposition 209… Though the UC system does seek to promote “qualitative diversity” through alternative methods such as increasing enrollment from low-income families and families with little college experience, these efforts are far less effective at creating ethnic diversity than race-conscious admissions, according to a 2003 UCOP report about the effects of Prop. 209.

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by Madeleine Gregory, The Daily Californian.

Posted: July 8th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Education analysts, student advocates warn of impending crisis from one-time tax bills individuals may not be prepared to pay off… Students seeking relief on their college and graduate-school debt could be sitting on a hidden tax bomb: Billions of dollars in one-time bills from the Internal Revenue Service for any debt they get forgiven. The tax bills are a feature of the “income-driven repayment plans” that have been offered by the Education Department since 2007. One version of these plans allows borrowers to set their monthly student-loan payments at 10% of their discretionary income. The balances often grow over time because the payments aren’t big…

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by Josh Mitchell, The Wall Street Journal.

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

In its current form, the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill, known as the PROSPER Act, would make higher education more expensive, undermine student aid programs and eliminate important student consumer protections. Under the bill being weighed by lawmakers, some 72,000 University of California students would feel the effect of eliminating the in-school student loan subsidy, an action that would add an estimated $70 million in student loan debt to each new freshman class… the bill excludes mandatory inflation adjustments for Pell Grants, further eroding the value of a grant that has already decreased substantially in purchasing power over time. In 1975, Pell Grants covered 79 percent of the cost of higher education, while today they cover just 29 percent…

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by Janet Napolitano, The Orange County Register.

Posted: June 17th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

For a few days, it appeared that Sacramento’s budget-makers were on the right track, but the final Budget numbers once again fall short when it comes to higher education funding. The Joint Legislative Budget Conference Committee had approved the modest “full funding” requests to enable campuses to increase enrollment and avoid further tuition increases. But that decision didn’t survive the chopping block when Governor Jerry Brown and Legislative leaders hammered out a final Budget deal—leaving UC support basically flat and providing CSU with only a limited boost over the Governor’s May proposal. What additional monies that were provided, relied primarily on one-time funding rather than ongoing support. How can campuses admit four-year students with only one-year funding?

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by Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine, Fox and Hounds.

Posted: June 15th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Both the University of California and California State University systems receive funding increases under the budget agreement, though most of the education bills won’t be voted on until next week. The plan offers a combined $344-million one-time boost to the school systems, as well as new ongoing funding that’s expected to expand enrollment on UC and Cal State campuses while allowing university leaders to keep tuition at current levels.

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by John Myers, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: June 14th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Ditching specialized, upper-division courses in order to free up faculty for general education could give more students access to “bottleneck” classes that they need to graduate, said Newfield, but at the cost of “dumbing down college rather than making it more accessible. You don’t get to the end of the curriculum.” Brown spokesperson Brian Ferguson said the governor made his comments “in jest” but was pointing out that students need a clearer and simpler path to graduation than they currently have. He declined to mention any specific classes or types of courses that Brown would eliminate from his ideal menu.

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by Felicia Mello, Cal Matters.

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

The University of California and Texas A&M University systems are the leaders of a team that was awarded the contract on Friday to run Los Alamos National Laboratory. The two systems will be joined by the research and development organization Battelle in a limited-liability corporation, Triad National Security… The University of California system currently operates the lab in partnership with the engineering and construction firm Bechtel, but their joint-management company has come under fire in recent years for a series of safety and security blunders… Texas A&M threw its hat into the ring in recent months, and eventually joined the California system’s bid… Texas A&M has helped the California system run another national laboratory, Lawrence Livermore, since 2007.

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by Megan Zahneis, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: June 8th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

California’s public universities will get an infusion of cash to increase enrollment, smooth students’ progress toward graduation and repair aging buildings under a state budget agreement reached Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders. The agreement, which still must be approved by the full Legislature and signed by the governor to take effect, boosts annual funding for California State University by $197 million and the University of California by $97 million.

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by Felicia Mello, Cal Matters.

Posted: June 8th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Sadia Kahn ended up at UC Berkeley because of a look her dad gave her. When she was in middle school she told him she wanted to go to Berkeley because she’d noticed adults perked up when they heard the word, but in this case it backfired. “He had the saddest look in his eye,” Kahn recalls. “I think he felt guilty. He knew that was something we couldn’t afford.” Attending a university in California can be a financial burden beyond the means of many college hopefuls. Rising tuition is compounded by the lack of affordable housing in the state and the high cost of living.

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by Vanessa Rancano, Cal Matters.

Posted: June 7th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

We analyzed collective-bargaining agreements ratified between 2010 and 2016 at 35 colleges and universities. Adjunct faculty won salary increases at every institution we looked at. A 2018 survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources shows that U.S. faculty members this year are earning only 1.7 percent more than last year, a figure that is below the current rate of inflation. Unionized faculty have negotiated steady increases that are significantly higher, and some of the steepest gains have come from unions formed within the last few years.

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by Kristen Edwards, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: June 3rd, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.