he 10-campus public university system — the state’s third-largest employer — is struggling with worker strikes and contentious contract negotiations, as mounting evidence shows that compensation and benefits for the university’s clerical, administrative and support workers aren’t enough for them to survive on. Many of these workers hold Napolitano directly responsible. “You can’t have a group of employees in the UC system who are food-insecure when we are doing audits and finding that the office of the president is holding on to $175 million,” says State Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D–Los Angeles).
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by Joel Warner, Salon.
Posted: June 11th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
“In the selection of the regents,” says the California Constitution, “the governor shall consult an advisory committee” of 12 people… But six committee members reached by The Chronicle said they are never consulted in the selection of regents — only told shortly before the announcement that choices have been made… “When they (the governor and Senate) appoint millionaires to the regents, they shouldn’t be surprised that their appointees think like millionaires and approve high administrator salaries or $300 dinners. After all, that’s their world,” Stanton Glantz, a UCSF professor and president of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, told The Chronicle. “The same Constitution that granted UC autonomy created a process to find regents who look like the people of California the university serves,” he said. “The politicians need to follow it.”
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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: June 10th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Turns out, the Golden State ranks as the 2nd highest state in which parents must make the most money to live comfortably and pay for their kids’ college. The survey, conducted by the financial website, GoBankingRates.com, shows that Californians need to make nearly $107,000 per year if they want to live a “comfortable lifestyle” while also paying for their children’s college education. The cost can vary widely through the state. For example, a family needs to make at least $110,000 if they live in San Francisco, but that number falls to only $44,000 if they live in a city like Fresno.
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by RJ Johnson, KIISFM.
Posted: June 9th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Thursday’s package reflects more than the $180 billion in general and special fund spending contained in the revised budget Brown released last month, with the exact amount still being calculated… Acting on the findings of a recent state audit castigating UC’s leadership, meanwhile, Thursday’s agreement will pay for the University of California Office of the President out of the general fund. The $296.4 million will replace assessments the office now collects on individual campuses, a situation that the Bureau of State Audits found had contributed to the university’s need for increased tuition.
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by Jim Miller, Alexei Koseff and Taryn Luna, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: June 8th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The University of California will pay up to $210,000 for an independent investigation into a recent state audit that accused the system of failing to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars and tampering with a survey sent to UC campuses that was supposed to remain confidential… UC is asking for an investigation into whether there was interference, if so, why, and who did it. While the audit has sparked calls even among some Democrats for Janet Napolitano, UC’s president, to step down, the regents have generally supported her leadership. The contract does not specify when the fact-finding mission should conclude, but asks Hueston Hennigan and Moreno to “use their best efforts to provide this report by as soon as practicable.”
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by Emily DeRuy, The San Jose Mercury News.
Posted: June 7th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Just 21 percent of the students who enrolled at a California State University campus in 2012 graduated in four years, far fewer than the system would like. Even though the number is low, it’s still up from 19 percent the previous year and higher than the 13 percent graduation rate in 2000. Yet it remains significantly shy of the 40 percent four-year graduation rate the university has set as a target for 2025. Currently, Jeff Gold said, the six-year graduation rate is 59 percent, and 33 percent of transfer students earn a degree two years later, while 74 have a degree four years later.
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by Emily Deruy, East Bay Times.
Posted: June 7th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The Bears reported a deficit of approximately $22 million in fiscal 2016 and will experience comparable bleeding this year… The crunch is largely due to $18 million in annual interest-only payments that are required to service the debt for the Memorial Stadium renovation and Simpson training center project. The task force’s report noted that even if the Bears were to downsize to 14 teams (the NCAA minimum)… the savings might be limited. Operational and capital expenses could be trimmed by an estimated $12 – $15 million, but the lost philanthropy within athletics and across campus would likely be momentous.
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by Jon Wilner, The San Jose Mercury News.
Posted: June 5th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Task Force on Intercollegiate Athletics released its report Monday and could not reach a consensus regarding cutting any of Cal’s sports teams. In the report, the task force recommended an external review of Cal Athletics’ finances and structure, focusing on potential cuts to administrative expenses which are “not directly related to sports programs.” Cal Athletics has come under fire in recent years for its large deficit, which stood at about $22 million in fiscal year 2016. The campus holds more than $400 million of debt after seismically retrofitting California Memorial Stadium and building the Simpson Center for Student-Athlete High Performance in 2012. The athletic deficit has compounded a campuswide fiscal crisis, during which campus administrators have scrambled in recent years to address a structural deficit of more than $100 million.
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by Hooman Yazdanian, Austin Weinstein and Bobby Lee, The Daily Californian.
Posted: June 5th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Gov. Jerry Brown is withholding $50 million from UC in his budget proposal. State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-Azusa) wants to amend the California Constitution so the Legislature controls funding for the UC Office of the President and can reshuffle the Board of Regents. And another state senator, Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) suggests that any time UC pays a certain number of administrators more than the governor earns, it should face restrictions, including on its ability to raise tuition. All of this stems from a state audit — the eighth related to UC in four years — released in late April. It accused UC President Janet Napolitano’s office of maintaining a secret fund of $175 million. The audit also excoriated UC for paying administrators more than other public-sector employees in similar jobs, and accused Napolitano of interfering with surveys that campuses filled out as part of the audit.
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by Karin Klein, Los Angeles Times.
Posted: June 5th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
But a recent move by CSU affecting students transferring from community colleges threatens to undermine community college efforts to do the same. The culprit is Intermediate Algebra, a high-school level course of technical procedures that most college students will never use, either in college or in life. To meet the Intermediate Algebra standard, they are often required to take two years of remedial courses that don’t count for transfer credit at CSU. As a result, every year, more than 170,000 California community college students are placed into remedial math based on how well they do on a standardized test in algebra.
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by Christopher Edley, Jr., EdSource.
Posted: June 5th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
