The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is proposing that Section 9, Article IX of the state constitution be amended to allow the California State Legislature to expel regents following a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature. AFSCME created the proposal in December, after student leaders called on Regent Norman Pattiz to step down because of sexual harassment allegations against him, said John de los Angeles, the union’s communications director.

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by Sydney Coneeny, The Daily Bruin.

Posted: January 9th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The numbers tell the story. California’s high schools are turning out more college eligible students than ever before and our community colleges, the University of California and the California State University system are making headway to accommodate increased demand. The only lagging indicator is State funding for UC and CSU… It is no secret that California has achieved the world’s sixth largest economy in no small measure because of our higher education system. The Golden State’s prosperity is built on innovation, creativity, and technological advancement. Our campuses are the backbone of our economy—turning out the ideas, the breakthroughs and, most importantly, the people who drive our future.

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by Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine, Fox and Hounds.

Posted: January 5th, 2018, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

University presidents say they have been blindsided by charges that they are catering to the wealthy at the same moment that conservatives attack them for elitism, turning their once-untouchable institutions into political punching bags… the sweeping changes to the tax code would still target universities in a way they’ve never been targeted before, taxing the richest private schools’ endowments… Rice University president David Leebron put it this way: “If you go back 15 years, I think universities were held — not where the military is, but pretty much just below that. Now, we’ve fallen a lot.

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by Benjamin Wermund, Politico.

Posted: December 19th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The final draft of the Republican tax bill kills a proposed tax on tuition waivers. It is a big win for grad and PhD students, and higher ed advocates who opposed the measure. House Republicans’ tax bill included a provision that would count tuition waived by universities as taxable income, meaning that graduate students could be on the hook for thousands of dollars more in taxes each year. Approximately 145,000 graduate students could have been affected by the measure. Student groups held rallies and info sessions on campus, blasted the bill on social media, mailed postcards and letters to lawmakers, and hounded Capitol Hill offices with phone calls. And on November 29, students organized a walkout at about 60 universities to protest the measure.

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by Jen Kirby, Vox News.

Posted: December 15th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Lawmakers from the two chambers of Congress agreed to drop provisions that would treat graduate student tuition benefits as taxable income and repeal student loan interest deductions. Both provisions were included in House tax legislation passed last month but left out of a bill that narrowly cleared the Senate Dec. 2. Another provision of that House bill that was reportedly excluded in negotiations would have eliminated interest-free private activity bonds, an alarming prospect for the many private colleges that use the bonds to save on construction of new campus facilities.

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by Andrew Kreighbaum, Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: December 14th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The prospects for higher education are bleak, according to Moody’s Investors Service, a credit-rating agency that on Tuesday changed its outlook for the sector from “stable” to “negative.” In a report, the agency cited financial strains at both public and private four-year institutions, mainly muted growth in tuition revenue. But it also cited “uncertainty at the federal level over potential policy changes.”

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by Adam Harris, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted: December 5th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Graduate students are worried. The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would tax our tuition waivers from universities. For many of us, this would drastically inflate our tax obligations… For good reason, the debate over this proposal has thus far focused on Republicans in Congress. University administrations have urged graduate students to join them in lobbying against the change… It’s not the norm for PhD students to pay any tuition.

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by Sarah Arveson, The Washington Post.

Posted: November 29th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

… “Why does a kid go to a major university these days?” said Antenori, 51, a former Green Beret who served in the Arizona state legislature. “A lot of Republicans would say they go there to get brainwashed and learn how to become activists and basically go out in the world and cause trouble.” … Adjusted for inflation, states spent $5.7 billion less on public higher education last year than in 2008, even though they were educating more than 800,000 additional students, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association… Education advocates worry that conservative disdain threatens to undermine universities.In July, a Pew Research Center study found that 58 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents believe colleges and universities have a negative effect “on the way things are going in the country,” up from 37 percent two years ago. Among Democrats, by contrast, 72 percent said they have a positive impact.

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by Kevin Sullivan, Mary Jordan, The Washington Post.

Posted: November 25th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The University of California Office of the President interfered with an audit of the institution by tampering with the results of surveys sent out to various campuses, an independent investigation is expected to say today. The special investigation into the allegations, which surfaced last spring after the state auditor declared the parts of the audit unusable and tainted because of unauthorized tampering by the Office of the President, is expected to contradict testimony UC President Janet Napolitano gave to lawmakers and acknowledge her role in approving the plan that led to the tampering — though it is not expected to find her at fault. Two of her aides — her chief of staff and deputy chief of staff — resigned earlier this month, more than a year after the original tampering effort first started.

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by Nick Roll, Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: November 16th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Last week, Republicans in Congress proposed a tax on wealthy private-college endowments as part of their make-or-break tax bill. The new tax, if passed, would bring in an estimated $3 billion from 2018 to 2027… It seems improbable, after all, that the narrowly divided Senate would actually pass a tax on endowments… An investigative report this week by The New York Times, based on a leak of offshore financial records known as the Paradise Papers, revealed that dozens of wealthy college endowments use Caribbean islands as offshore tax havens for their investments… Stanford University, one of the schools found to use offshoring, increased its endowment to $18 billion in 2012 from $2 billion in 1977.

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by Charlie Eaton, The New York Times.

Posted: November 10th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.