Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposal calls for withholding $50 million from the University of California until the UC improves its financial accountability and admits more community college transfers. It’s his way of pushing for change despite the UC’s constitutional independence. But the governor has a far more effective tool to overhaul the UC that he has yet to take full advantage of: He could reshape the Board of Regents by filling its four current vacancies.
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by Ben Adler, Capital Public Radio.
Posted: May 22nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
When state Auditor Elaine Howle told a joint legislative committee this month that University of California central administrators had amassed a $175-million undisclosed surplus, paid fat salaries and interfered in her audit, lawmakers cried foul. One compared UC administrators to corrupt officials in Bell. Another called for UC President Janet Napolitano to resign. Some wanted to know whether UC officials had committed any crimes and should be subpoenaed. But UC regents struck a markedly different tone when Howle came to talk to them about the audit Thursday. Regents thanked her profusely for her work and said they would implement all 33 of her recommended reforms for more transparent and effective budget practices. She assured them, in turn, that she’d found nothing criminal or “nefarious” in Napolitano’s budget practices.
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by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: May 18th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
“Seeing how some in the press have characterized it as a slush fund or a secret fund hurt my heart,” Regent Bonnie Reiss said. Regent Sherry Lansing wanted to clear up “distortions” that Napolitano had done anything wrong: “Her leadership of UC has been incredible.” The regents largely steered clear of Auditor Elaine Howle’s assertion that UC interfered in the audit process by consulting with campuses on surveys meant to independently assess the value of its administrative operations. The board voted last week to hire a third-party investigator who will report at its next meeting in July.
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by Alexei Koseff, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: May 18th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
State lawmakers are requiring the university to adopt a nonresident student enrollment policy in order to receive $18.5 million in additional money this year. Under the proposal, nonresident students would be limited to 18% of undergraduate enrollment at UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara and UC Merced. The four campuses at which out-of-state students already exceed 18% — UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UCLA and UC Irvine — would be allowed to maintain but not increase the higher percentage they enroll in 2017-18. Campuses scrambled to admit larger numbers of nonresident students because they pay $27,000 more in annual tuition than Californians.
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by Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times.
Posted: May 17th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Students and union members disrupted the opening of the University of California regents meeting Wednesday, loudly protesting and criticizing officials for raising tuition despite squirreling away millions in surplus funds. UC police ordered the protesters to leave the meeting at UC San Francisco or face arrest. After several warnings, they left, some calling for the arrest of UC President Janet Napolitano. A stream of speakers asserted that a recent state audit finding that UC officials had failed to disclose $175 million in surplus funds indicated there was enough money to raise the pay of low-wage workers and better support students who face hunger and homelessness.
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by Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times.
Posted: May 17th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
UC’s chief negotiator said early March that summer lecturers at UCLA and several other campuses will lose their retirement benefits starting summer 2017. The UC isn’t required to provide retirement benefits under its agreement with the American Federation of Teachers Local 1990, a union which represents UC lecturers and librarians. That’s apparently reason enough for the UC to cut these 15-year-old benefits. These cuts shouldn’t come as a surprise. The UC has historically mistreated its lecturers by providing them meager salaries, slashing their retirement benefits and potentially withholding academic funding from them.
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by The Editorial Board, The Daily Bruin.
Posted: May 14th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
State auditors on Friday provided new details of questionable travel and entertainment expenses approved by the University of California system. The amounts are small compared to the main finding of the April 25 audit that UC’s Office of the President failed to disclose tens of millions of dollars in reserve funds, but the audit said the questioned expenses represent issues that should be addressed… “Our request for this information clearly indicated that we sought all data related to its travel, business meetings and entertainment expenses, yet it only provided us with data relating to $10.4 million in costs — incurred over 5 years,” Howle said.
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by Patrick McGreevy, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: May 12th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Lawmakers from both parties have issued denunciations since the audit. Democrats promised legislation that would criminalize obstruction of the state auditor. Republicans called for Ms. Napolitano’s office to be subpoenaed. One lawmaker demanded she step down.The administrations said to have tweaked their surveys — including the campuses in Santa Cruz, San Diego and Irvine — have so far faced little scrutiny. Some faculty leaders have argued that campus administrators have been cowed by the president’s office, which oversees the system’s $31.5 billion budget. In an essay on the recent turmoil, Christopher Newfield, a professor of American culture at the U.C. Santa Barbara, wrote in part, “Much if not most of U.C. has become a culture of silence, of conformity.” Dianne Klein, a spokeswoman for Ms. Napolitano, rejected the characterization… “I really do not believe that there’s this clicking of the heels and saluting when Janet Napolitano walks in,” she said.
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by Mike McPhate, The New York Times.
Posted: May 11th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
We accept, and already have begun implementing, all 33 recommendations that the auditor made to my office. The recommendations, largely about transparency and best practices, are constructive. They will be implemented thoroughly and on time, and we will report back at regular intervals to the Legislature and the UC Board of Regents. Our progress will be posted on a UC website dedicated to this purpose. I have been privileged to lead the University of California system since September 2013. I’ve made many changes at UC, all of them with the intention of making wise and efficient use of public and private funds, ensuring that programs are well run, and that our stakeholders — students, faculty, staff, the Board of Regents and the public at large — are well served.
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by Janet Napolitano, San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: May 10th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Chris Newfield, a professor of literature and American studies at the Santa Barbara campus, said that state audits can have real power if there is a response from the Legislature, and that the recently concluded one represented a setback for public transparency. “Basically, [Napolitano] was hired because she was a political heavyweight,” Mr. Newfield said. “I didn’t agree with it, but I saw the logic of hiring someone like her. If you think your problem is Sacramento, then you hire a politician to deal with the pols of Sacramento,” he said. “I don’t think that’s worked out.” To regain the trust of the State Legislature, faculty members, and students, Mr. Newfield said it will take full disclosure from the president’s office of what happened with the audit, and a reform process that doesn’t hire outside consultants. Michael Meranze, professor of history at the Los Angeles campus, said the audit certainly has increased skepticism in the Legislature.
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by Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Posted: May 10th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
