“A living wage is really crucial,” she said. “It’s no surprise that the SEIU is simultaneously organizing McDonald’s workers and part-time college teachers.” Beyond any improvements in pay and more predictability in knowing whether teaching jobs will last beyond the academic year, she said a union contract would force schools to be more transparent about their budgets… The number of part-time faculty members teaching undergraduate courses has triggered controversy, particularly as families face higher tuition costs. California Gov. Jerry Brown has called for tenured professors to teach more courses. The part-timers’ median pay per course at all two-year and four-year schools in 2010 was just $2,700, the coalition survey found.

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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: January 3rd, 2015, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Public Policy Institute of California said it concluded faculty salaries and benefits for both the UC and California State University systems have not increased significantly over the past 20 years. Instead, the institute said recent tuition increases have been driven by significant reductions in state support for higher education. Analysts at the California Budget Project found UC tuition and fees paid by students and parents have more than quadrupled since 1990-1991, while state general fund spending per student has recently been at or near its lowest point in more than three decades. Brown, who sits on the regents board and attended the November meeting, contends the UC system hasn’t been frugal enough.

Read full article [here].
by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, KPCC.

Posted: January 2nd, 2015, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Possibly strengthening his sway on the UC Board of Regents, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday named a top aide from his office to serve on the university system’s governing board. Brown’s appointee, Gareth Elliott, 44, has worked as the governor’s legislative affairs secretary since 2011… Elliott fills the final vacancy on the 26-member board, which includes 18 members appointed by governors for 12-year terms. Brown has been slow to fill vacancies, with as many as five empty seats last year. The positions are unpaid.

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by Stephen Ceasar, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: January 2nd, 2015, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Not all of the solutions offered by Sacramento lawmakers are superior. One, by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) is, if anything, worse than Brown’s proposals. He favors a constitutional amendment to strip UC of its longtime independence and give the Legislature significant though vague authority over its operations. If UC were a failure, that might be worth discussing. But despite eroding state support (and despite the decline in quality that will be inevitable if new resources don’t materialize), the university has so far managed to remain one of the most successful public institutions in the state. It provides more financial aid today than in the past and educates more students who are the first in their family to attend college — all while maintaining an outstanding national reputation. Besides, politicians make notoriously lousy overseers for colleges.

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by The Editorial Board, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: December 29th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

The University of California medical centers, which include the state’s five public teaching hospitals, more than doubled their combined operating surplus on higher patient volume and payment rates in their fiscal 2014… Across the system, discharges increased 1.7% while outpatient visits increased 3.8%. Those numbers contributed to an operating surplus of $507.4 million on $8.6 billion in operating revenue for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30. In comparison, the system’s operating surplus was $221.1 million on $8 billion in revenue in the prior fiscal year. All of the UC hospitals, with the exception of Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland, reported higher revenue year over year.

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by Beth Kutscher , Modern Healthcare.

Posted: December 29th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In previous years, more of the system’s nine undergraduate campuses had enough space to offer referrals to qualified students turned down by other UC campuses. UC Santa Cruz, for example, participated in the program until 2002 and UC Riverside until 2010. The Merced campus, which opened in 2005, is the sole safety valve. After being denied entrance last year at the UC campuses to which they had applied, about 11,200 students still were eligible for the system. They all were offered Merced. Only about 210 enrolled there, UC data show. (That came in addition to the 1,620 or so Merced freshman who applied and entered in the more traditional method. UC’s newest campus now has 6,300 students in total.)

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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: December 25th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

A federal agency is investigating a South Bay community college district’s response to sexual assault as a group of faculty whistle-blowers say Evergreen Valley and San Jose City colleges are failing to properly police the campuses, send timely alerts about troublesome incidents, or encourage victims to report their attacks. ” … the district has, for years, failed to provide adequate safety for its students and employees and has continually disregarded serious violent crime problems, especially sexual violence, at the colleges,” reads a complaint obtained by this newspaper, signed by four professors and a student — their names redacted.

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by Katy Murphy, The San Jose Mercury News.

Posted: December 19th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

[T]he increasing focus on timely degrees overlooks the reality that in a system such as the California State University, the nation’s largest, many students are older, have jobs and families and are hard pressed to graduate “on time.” … Gubernat said she fears that education may be moving toward a corporate model, where the bottom line relies on short-term gains and losses, and students are seen as widgets to be turned out efficiently. Brown, for example, has urged more online classes — some developed by for-profit firms — as a quick and less-costly fix. “We’ve sort of given up on the idea of valuing the experience of college that helps someone determine who they want to be and how they want to contribute to society,” Gubernat said.

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by Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: December 17th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Two state lawmakers on Thursday escalated the dispute over University of California tuition increases by putting forth a constitutional amendment that would effectively strip the system of its autonomy. Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, introduced Senate Constitutional Amendment 1, which they hope to place before voters on the November 2016 ballot. SCA1 would give the Legislature new oversight powers, such as vetoing tuition increases and executive pay raises… “This proposal, however, is a distraction from the central issue of the state’s funding of higher education and the goals of affordability and access,” Montiel said. “It’s unclear what the goal is.” Montiel added that the university is already accountable to lawmakers, including regular reports of the budget and in its annual accountability report.

by The Associated Press, Bakersfield Now.

Posted: December 4th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Legislation that was developed by De Leon, his staff and others, and introduced by Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego), “will improve college access, affordability, and help students complete their degrees,” according to a statement released by the president pro tem’s office. In addition to eliminating the UC-proposed tuition hikes, SB 15 would increase UC enrollment by 5,000 students and CSU enrollment by 10,500 students next year… The proposal would cost $342 million next year rising to $434 million in the third year, with money to come from taking $580 million over three years from the Middle Class Scholarship program, a 17% increase in the premium charged to nonresidents attending UC, and $156 million from the general fund the first year, dropping to $66 million in the third year.

Read full article [here].
by Patrick McGreevy, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: December 2nd, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.