New research suggests grocery stores, banks, dentists, universities and big box stores like Walmart should reopen earlier and face fewer restrictions as communities open up after pandemic lockdowns. The study, released on Tuesday, also determined that cafes, gyms, sporting goods stores, bookstores, tobacco and liquor stores should be kept closed until later. The researchers who took part in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-led initiative did a cost benefit analysis of 26 different location types to determine what the tradeoff would be between someone’s relative risk of getting infected during a visit and the importance of that establishment in that person’s life and to the economy.

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by Jen Christensen, CNN.

Posted: June 11th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In the 13 times CFCT polled on free college since December 2016, overall support of state programs making public colleges tuition-free has ranged from 70 percent to 81 percent. In our latest poll, 70 percent of Americans wanted their state to provide free tuition at public colleges or universities to any academically qualified student. Free college tuition also continues to enjoy wide, bipartisan support, a rarity for most issues in our highly polarized political environment. In April’s poll, 81 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Independents support their state providing free college tuition to academically qualified students.

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by staff, Campaign for Free College Tuition.

Posted: June 3rd, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

We recognize that violence is not an aberration of policing; rather, it is the heart of police power, and its trajectory has been racialized from the beginning. The violence of police was never inevitable; it was built over centuries of legal, imaginative, and material practices as a mode of everyday governance for colonialism, indigenous dispossession, and racial capitalism. We invite everyone who works and teaches with us to make their classrooms, their departments, and the university itself into spaces for unlearning the legitimacy of police worldwide. And we call on UCSD to stand by its words with actions of material redress…

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by SDFA board members, The UCSC Guardian.

Posted: June 1st, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

But while there are powerful reasons to believe that white privilege helps those who are borne into prosperous families that haven’t had to fight generations of structural racism, the enrollment numbers at UC’s 10 campuses don’t reflect this. This is why UC’s decision to break with historic norms is potentially a much bigger deal than it may now seem… it’s hardly a leap to wonder if UC will seek an admissions process like those seen at Harvard and other prestigious private colleges that effectively caps Asian American enrollment at about 20%. Last October, a federal judge ruled that Harvard’s policy was acceptable under the U.S. Constitution.

Posted: May 29th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

UC’s net revenues have stagnated for 20 years, have not kept up with the income benchmark, and are far behind enrollment growth. State cuts and quiet general fund erosion have already lowered UC quality. They have lowered it specifically for the most economically and racially diverse population in California memory. Sacramento’s funding practice gives much less per-student educational funding to today’s students-of-color majority than it gave to their majority white predecessors a generation ago–even after we count revenues from tripled in-state tuition. This losing battle has taken place in a state that has seen one of the most intense accumulations of wealth in recorded history… Any state revenue cuts now will directly cut UC quality again. This time, the damage may be irreversible. State government must now reverse the chronic underfunding policy of recent decades. It must keep UC (and CSU) whole for the sake of the state.

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by Chris Newfield, Remaking The University.

Posted: May 24th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Sanders and Biden are creating six task forces — on the economy, education, criminal justice, immigration, climate change and health care — as a core part of Biden’s outreach to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Sanders announced when he endorsed the former vice president last week. The goal is to present a united platform before the convention, influence the kind of personnel who would fill a possible Biden administration and arm Biden with possible executive orders that he could enact quickly should he be elected president.

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by Tara Golshan, The Huffington Post.

Posted: April 20th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

It seems to be the case that our primary method of funding colleges and universities in the United States, one which leaves schools to raise essential revenue through tuition, fees, and other enterprises, has put American schools in a precarious situation. The effects of this may be magnified at schools that depend on high-paying international students for revenue… colleges outside the United States will benefit from any bungled American public health management at this time, as well as during any subsequently slow economic and institutional recovery. If closures continue for as long as some predict, happen inconsistently, or are necessary multiple times in different regions of the country, some U.S. colleges risk losing out on a portion of student enrollment they depend on for revenue.

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by Stephanie Hall, The Century Foundation.

Posted: April 20th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

In a letter sent Saturday to UC President Janet Napolitano, the Academic Senate chair reported unanimous backing from the faculty assembly to keep the controversial tests as an admission requirement, approving a recommendation by a task force this year… The UC system lifted the standardized testing requirement for fall 2021 applicants due to test cancellations amid the pandemic. But that is likely to be a temporary pause, with test scores probably expected for fall 2022 applicants. The ACT still plans to offer a June test, and the College Board, which owns the SAT, hopes to restart tests in August and will do so by fall at the latest, using a digital, at-home exam if needed. Academic Senate Chair Kum-Kum Bhavnani said faculty members were persuaded, if surprised, by the task force’s findings that the SAT test actually helps disadvantaged students gain entry to the selective UC system.

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by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: April 19th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

Last week the University of Arizona sent shock waves across higher education when its president Robert C. Robbins announced a massive furlough, to begin May 11 and extend to June 30, 2021… Like the University of Arizona, flagship universities and major systems were not spared. The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents executive committee approved a furlough policy for its campuses last week. The University of Oregon gave 30-day notice to 282 employees that they were being put on leave-without-pay status. The University of Montana furloughed 63 of its staff.

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by Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes.

Posted: April 19th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.

H.D. Palmer, a Department of Finance spokesman, said all requests for additional funding would be reviewed but that Newsom is preparing a May revision that is essentially flat and “could go further than that” — meaning budget cuts. The state could face a deficit of as much as $35 billion in the near future, legislative analyst Gabriel Petek said Thursday. The impact on UC campuses could be particularly dire. Their unanticipated costs reached about $310 million in March — amounting to about 40% of $775 million monthly revenue in a system with an annual $9.3-billion core budget, according to Christopher Newfield, a UC Santa Barbara professor and systemwide budget expert. Without additional funding, students may face larger class sizes, reduced course offerings, more difficulty getting into needed classes and potentially higher tuition, said Michael Meranze, a UCLA historian who has long studied UC finances. A generation of scholars could be sidelined if UC lacks the funds to recruit them, jeopardizing the system’s renowned innovation and intellectual leadership, he said.

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by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times.

Posted: April 16th, 2020, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.