Charging full-time students extra for courses their tuition is supposed to buy has set the system on a troubling course, say students and some faculty and lawmakers. And, because need-based state university grants don’t cover the cost of such classes, the policy could harm CSU’s many low-income students, they say. The shift came at the height of the state budget crisis, after CSU’s former chancellor in late 2009 allowed campus presidents to expand their high-cost special classes in the summer. Some students sued in 2010, arguing that state law prohibited replacing, or “supplanting,” regular classes with the special ones. CSU won the case, arguing that it violated no law as long as it didn’t eliminate a required course from regular session, even if it reduced the number of classes for it. Now, the Legislature is considering how to more narrowly define the term “supplant” to prevent CSU from adding special sessions of courses that have been trimmed back in regular session.
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by Katy Murphy, Inside Bay Area.
Posted: August 3rd, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
UC and Cal State students anticipating financial aid from the state’s new Middle Class Scholarship program are going to have to wait until September to learn how much they will receive, a top administrator said Tuesday. As a result of the delays, most students will not be able to apply the grants to their fall-term tuition bills but will be able to use the entire year’s amount for their winter and spring tabs.
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by Larry Gordon, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: July 31st, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
One avenue of increased revenue recently was restricted when the Legislature placed a moratorium on so-called student success fees until January 2016. Opponents of the controversial fees, which are assessed to students in addition to tuition and are in place at 12 campuses, said they violated the system’s commitment to hold student costs steady. The chancellor is required to review the fee policy and recommend changes to the board by February 2015.
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by Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: July 22nd, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Federal and state investigators have long viewed Corinthian, based in Santa Ana, as one of the most problematic players in the troubled for-profit college industry, which has come under scrutiny for predatory marketing. The student loan pipeline fueled the company’s rapid enrollment growth, peaking at more than 110,000 students in 2010. Corinthian charges students up to 10 times the cost of a comparable community college education. That requires many of them to take on more debt than they can repay — leaving taxpayers on the hook for mass defaults.
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by Chris Kirkham, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: July 16th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Coaching college football or basketball at a major University of California campus isn’t brain surgery; it’s much more lucrative. The 15 highest-paid University of California athletic coaches made about $18 million last year, up roughly 50 percent from the prior year. About $14 million of that went to six football and basketball coaches, none of whom coached their teams to a top 10 NCAA ranking in 2013. By contrast, the 15 highest-paid brain surgeons at the University of California at San Francisco earned $9 million last year. U.S. News and World Report this week ranked UCSF’s neurosurgery department as the best in California and the fifth-best in the nation, noting that other neurosurgeons frequently named it “among the best for very challenging patients.”
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by Phillip Reese, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: July 15th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The report found that between 1992 and 2010, test-optional institutions did not see any more gains in low-income enrollment (measured by the proportion of Pell Grant recipients) than test-requiring institutions did. Nor did test-optional institutions see larger gains, on average, in the proportion of black, Latino and Native American students they enrolled… Colleges, not students, are benefiting from test-optional policies, the study argues. Test-optional policies result in higher average reported test scores, presumably because students with scores below a college’s average have no incentive to report them. An institution’s average SAT and ACT scores factor into college rankings systems, such as the U.S. News & World Report’s annual list. Institutions also attract more applications after adopting a test-optional policy. This rise in applications can lead to a perceived increase in selectivity, because a college will admit a smaller share of applicants.
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by Charlie Tyson, Inside Higher Ed.
Posted: June 20th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
A private commission seeking to revoke the accreditation of San Francisco’s community college must review whether the school has made sufficient progress in the last year to void its earlier decision, an appeals panel ruled Friday. The ruling was in response to an appeal by City College of San Francisco, which argued that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges failed to follow proper procedures when it moved to pull the school’s accreditation as of July 31. The appeals panel found no merit to the claims, but said the commission can’t “finalize the termination of CCSF’s accreditation” before completing a new evaluation to determine if the institution now meets standards, based on work that’s been done under new leadership to improve its financial stability and governance.
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by Carla Rivera, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: June 13th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The commission that has tried to revoke accreditation from City College of San Francisco said Friday that an appeals panel has upheld its decisions to sanction the school in 2012 and 2013, but has also sent the case back to the commission for reconsideration based on the work the college has done since then to comply with standards. The decision is significant because an updated review could lead the commission to withdraw its decision to revoke the college’s accreditation… On Wednesday, the commission relented and said it would offer City College two more years to keep its accreditation while the college repairs fiscal and governance problems…
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by Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: June 13th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
McCants told OTL tutors would write papers for him and some of his Tar Heels teammates. During the 2004-2005 season, in which the Tar Heels finished 33-4 and won the National Championship, McCants was the team’s second leading scorer. That team also produced four first round picks in the 2005 NBA Draft. McCants said he would have been ruled academically ineligible for that season if he did not receive the help. Ironically enough, the “paper classes” helped him get placed on UNC – Chapel Hill’s Dean’s List for the 2005 academic year, though he admitted not going to any of his four classes.
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by Russell Westerholm, University Herald.
Posted: June 6th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Many parents have found it easier to qualify for PLUS loans than other loans because income and assets aren’t considered—only credit history counts. Consumer advocates say the proposed relaxation of rules will hurt borrowers and default rates will climb.
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by Janet Lorin, Bloomberg Businessweek.
Posted: May 29th, 2014, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
