In an effort to emphasize the importance of educational facilities, a $2 billion higher education bond bill to improve facilities across University of California and California State University campuses was introduced Thursday. The bill, which is co-authored by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, and Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, aims to improve the quality of higher education facilities at UC and CSU campuses. The bonds have been set to appear before voters in the 2018 general election.
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by Ishira Shrivatsa, The Daily Californian.
Posted: February 22nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Georgia Tech engineering dean Gary S. May has been selected as the next UC Davis chancellor, University of California President Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday. May, 52, would become UC Davis’ first African-American chancellor if regents approve his contract Thursday in Los Angeles. He is expected to start Aug. 1. The St. Louis native has been at Georgia Tech for nearly 30 years. He has written more than 200 technical publications and contributed to 15 books on computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits, on which he also holds a patent, according to Napolitano’s announcement.
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by Diana Lambert, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: February 21st, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
A peculiar thing happened in 2016. While the Dow Jones industrial average grew by almost 5 percent, college endowments saw nearly a negative 2 percent rate of return… A key factor is poor performance by the hedge-fund gurus that institutions have increasingly paid to manage their investment portfolios. Colleges have reason to be angry because hedge funds charge high fees even when they lose money. Colleges and universities spent an estimated $2.5 billion on fees for hedge funds in 2015 alone. They paid an estimated 60 cents to hedge funds for every dollar in investment returns between 2009 and 2015, according to a report by the Strong Economy for All Coalition. These fees helped each of the top five U.S. hedge-fund managers earn more than $1 billion in 2015 despite mixed performance.
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by Charlie Eaton, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Posted: February 20th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Researchers asked respondents to think about 21 components of an online course, such as faculty development, instructional design and student assessment, and how the cost of those components compares to a similar face-to-face course. The respondents — administrators in charge of distance education at 197 colleges — said nine of the components cost more in an online course than in a face-to-face course, while 12 cost about the same. In other words, virtually every administrator surveyed said online courses are more expensive to produce. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, according to Russell Poulin and Terri Taylor Straut, the authors of the study. Producing an online course means licensing software, engaging instructional designers, training faculty members and offering around-the-clock student support, among other added costs, they point out in the report.
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by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed.
Posted: February 17th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
A state assembly bill introduced this month would prohibit California State University and the California Community Colleges from increasing tuition and any mandatory student fees until the end of the 2019-2020 school year. Dubbed the “Student Protection Act,” Assembly Bill 393 cites rising student debt and past tuition increases that outpaced inflation and cost of living as reasons for the proposed freeze. AB 393 also “urged” the UC Regents to “adopt policies that are consistent” with the provisions of the bill.
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by Rosanna Xia, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: February 17th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Today, many families think they can’t afford college for their children, even though they know, as this study shows, that it is key to their economic success. But experience also shows that when states eliminate that worry by making a promise that tuition will be free, enrollment rates soar… Now that we have incontrovertible data showing that going to college is the key to upward mobility and that we know how to do it with reasonable levels of expenditures, California should enact a Promise program to make tuition free for two years at Cal State or any of our community colleges. Without spending very much money at all, such a program would open the floodgates of economic opportunity to families throughout the state and provide California with the workforce it needs to remain competitive in the global economy.
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by Morley Winograd, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: February 13th, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
According to Glantz, the RCHE proposal will eliminate all tuition fees and make college free, while returning state funding and restoring the seats for students who they say were “pushed out of the system.” The California Faculty Association president, Jennifer Eagan, highlighted the story of SF State student, Danny Alvarez, whose mother was afflicted with cancer. Alvarez is studying oncology, hoping to give back to low-income communities with his education. Eagan and others at the meeting in Berkeley agreed “The $48 Fix” could make college free.
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by Jason Rejali, The Golden Gate Xpress.
Posted: February 3rd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
President Trump has asked Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. to lead a panel on reform of higher education regulations… “There’s too much intrusion into the operation of universities and colleges. I’ve got a whole list of concerns. It mainly has to do with deregulation.” … only 38 percent of Liberty borrowers manage to pay down as little as one dollar on their student loan principal within three years of leaving school. What’s more, 41 percent of former Liberty students earn less than $25,000 annually six years after enrolling. This is critical information students and parents deserve to know about Liberty and hundreds of other colleges and universities.
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by Jeffrey J. Selingo, The Washington Post.
Posted: February 2nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Milo Yiannopoulos, a professional provocateur, provoked not only protesters who shut down his speech at UC Berkeley but also President Trump, who suggested Thursday that federal funds be withheld from the campus as a result… UC Berkeley officials declined to comment on the president’s tweet, but spokesman Dan Mogulof said federal funding “provides financial aid to low-income students and supports basic research that supports the greater good, California’s economy and the national economy.” … “I find it deeply troubling that the president of the United States has threatened the funding of a public university to hold it accountable for the actions of outside agitators,” said Ralph Washington, president of the UC Student Association, adding that most of the protesters were students “exercising their right to free assembly.”
Posted: February 2nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The presumption by many proponents of Proposition 13 reform is that it would revert the comparative allocation of state and local spending to how it was before. Thus, state funds would be freed up to better provide for budgetary line items such as the University of California. In fact, this is one reason why so many local governments are in support of such an endeavor. In California, the state pays a larger share of local government costs than other states. Why? Proposition 13’s passage reduced property tax revenue, which previously funded local governments and their school districts in a sustainable manner. Instead of funding its tripartite higher education model, the state offset its deficit by allocating billions of dollars to local governments instead of public higher education.
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by Nathan Glovinsky, The Daily Bruin.
Posted: February 2nd, 2017, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
