UC’s operating revenue is estimated to be about $53 billion in 2024-25. Most of that is from the system’s medical services work, including hospitals. Its core mission of educating students, largely faculty salary and benefits as well as financial aid, makes up about $11 billion of the system’s budget. That amount is almost evenly paid for with state dollars and a combination of tuition revenue and other university funds. It’s among the numerous fiscal details that emerged at the regents’ regularly scheduled November meeting, including the revelation that the UC plans to spend $30 billion to repair or replace its increasingly aging stock of academic buildings, medical centers and dorms by decade’s end. And yet, that massive sum falls far short of the 10-campus system’s stated construction needs — a total of $53 billion in projects without a funding source. The building spree is occurring as UC trundles toward a goal of adding 23,000 new California students by 2030 — fueled in part by lawmaker demands that the vaunted system make space for more California high schoolers.

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by Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters.

Posted: November 14th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC officials told regents Wednesday that the 10-campus university system could face a $504.7-million financial shortfall in 2025-26 if the state makes good on warnings earlier this year to reduce higher education funding as it grapples with a budget deficit… In the last several years, UC has been pummeled by demands to open more seats for Californians — including pressure by lawmakers — and has enrolled about 7,800 more California undergraduates between 2022-23 and 2023-24. Preliminary estimates for this academic year indicate campuses enrolled an additional 3,000 students, boosting the total number of California undergraduates to more than 206,000, the most in UC history.

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by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: November 14th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Nearly 60 percent of the roughly 1,100 respondents to an Inside Higher Ed/Hanover Research survey—conducted in the lead-up to last week’s election—strongly agreed that academic freedom in higher education is under threat. Throw in those who say they somewhat agree it’s under threat, and the share grows to 91 percent… Inside Higher Ed and Hanover asked the faculty who had said their sense of academic freedom declined in teaching, research or extramural speech which particular topics they felt less free to discuss. The top three responses, out of roughly a dozen options, were the Israel-Palestine conflict; diversity, equity and inclusion; and federal politics writ large.

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by Ryan Quinn , Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: November 13th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

n contrast to its outspoken advocacy and commitment of resources to Ukraine, UCSF, whose stated mission is to “advanc[e] health worldwide,” has erected a formidable wall of silence around Israel’s genocide. It has ruthlessly policed and punished its own employees, including those who spoke out at the press conference nearly a year ago, who have dared to criticize Israel and to assert the right of Palestinians to exist. “At UCSF we have demanded that our leadership take a principled moral stand and condemn the atrocities in Gaza,” stated Dr. Jess Ghannam, a Palestinian American professor of psychology and global health sciences. “They have refused and instead created an oppressive environment that has targeted Palestinian solidarity communities. We have tried everything to engage the leadership at UCSF but have been met with a stunning silence.”

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by UC People’s Tribunal for Palestine, Mondoweiss.

Posted: November 10th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Trump has indicated one of his most controversial proposals — eliminating the Education Department — may also be one of his urgent priorities. “I say it all the time, I’m dying to get back to do this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” he said during a campaign rally in September. Congress would need to approve eliminating the agency. But it’s unclear if there is enough political will among lawmakers to do so. “So far, it hasn’t looked like even a lot of Republicans in Congress want to do that,” said Jonathan Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, the higher education sector’s top lobby. Sweeping regulatory changes, meanwhile, are all but certain.

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by Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive.

Posted: November 6th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Amid a rise in anti-diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) legislation, students may face more challenges with fewer avenues of support. In a recent BestColleges survey of 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1 in 3 report witnessing or experiencing more discrimination against marginalized groups this year. Simultaneously, about 1 in 10 college students (12%) report DEI office closures at their schools. DEI offices, which increasingly face closures and cuts in federal funding, have the primary responsibility of protecting the interests of students from underrepresented groups. Just under half of students (48%) say they would consider transferring if their college were to abolish DEI initiatives. Another 52% of students say if a college they were considering had abolished DEI initiatives, it would have impacted their decision to enroll.

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by Jane Nam, Best Colleges.

Posted: November 6th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Compared with 2008, at the height of the Great Recession, students by 2022 paid a larger share of their higher education costs while states’ proportion decreased significantly. Those two shifts are the largest in the SHEEO’s study. Students’ share of the total peaked in the last decade at 41.8% in 2013, after which the figure remained above 40% until 2020. Even with the subsequent decline, it still remained 2.7 percentage points above 2008 levels in 2022. The share from states, on the other hand, was nearly 10 percentage points lower in 2022 than it was in 2008.

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by Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive.

Posted: November 5th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A federal judge has permitted pro-Palestine student activists at UC Berkeley to present their arguments in a lawsuit filed against the school alleging antisemitism. Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish advocacy group, filed the lawsuit in late 2023 for what it calls the “longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism” on campus, Daily Cal reports. The group argues UC Berkeley failed to protect students and faculty against antisemitic discrimination and harassment because it did not stop demonstrations or clear a pro-Palestine encampment that called for Israeli divestments. UC Berkeley has argued that interfering with the protests would have violated its students’ constitutional rights. In June, the university filed a motion in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California to dismiss the case. A decision is pending.

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by Amy Rock, Campus Safety Magazine.

Posted: November 4th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Unfortunately, everything from rising student debt to campus culture wars to high noncompletion rates has fueled a narrative suggesting that college may be overrated. And as happens so often in American life, this misperception has had the most damaging impact on low-income young people who stand to gain the most from postsecondary education. After all, an enormous body of economic evidence shows the strong earnings advantage college graduates hold over their peers with only a high school diploma—both immediately after graduation and for decades afterward.

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by Ben Wildavsky and Richard Whitmire , Inside Higher Ed.

Posted: November 4th, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Per the letter, there are “several critical issues with these rate increases,” including that they are “too high,” “unnecessary,” “unethical” and lack transparency: Too high: These increases far exceed annual inflation and follow massive, unprecedented premium hikes in 2024, where one health plan saw premium increases of almost 200%. Unnecessary: The UC is one of the wealthiest university systems in the country, bringing in billions of dollars every year. It pays its health center directors as much as $2 million per year, while many UC workers struggle to get by in an increasingly expensive state. Unethical: UC is increasing rates by more than it needs right now in order to avoid State rate caps that will go into effect next year. Lack of transparency: UC’s healthcare premiums are negotiated and set in secret with no direct input or participation by the employees most impacted by these decisions. When UC negotiates UC Health premiums, it is negotiating with itself, and there is no consumer protection.

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by Monica Stark, The Davis Enterprise.

Posted: November 2nd, 2024, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.