Continue to reduce enrollment while raising fees?

Since 2001, public investment in the California State University has fallen 21% and University of California has plummeted 30%.

While the University of California routinely points out that it receives the bulk of its income from non-state sources, these funds are almost all for specific research projects or other tasks. State money are the only substantial sources to pay for instruction. As one result of this confused hybridization, the administration acts as if it is no longer publicly accountable.  For example, it sets salaries for top management as if they were a private business.

To partially compensate for state disinvestment, university managers have boosted tuition by over 50% at both UC and CSU since 2001-02 in accordance with a 2004 agreement with Governor Schwarzenegger. (Private donations and federal grants come with strings to particular programs and cannot be redirected to pay the universities’ core costs.) Already, the community colleges, state universities and University of California are canceling classes and reducing admissions.

The math is simple. With less money, the universities can only preserve quality by reducing the number of students or continuing to dramatically increase tuition. University managers may claim they are pragmatically coping with political pressures, but often seem more concerned with their own paychecks and perks than what happens outside their offices.  Students, their families and the rest of California pay when fewer high school seniors go to college, degrees take longer and cost more to earn, and universities can no longer attract the brightest graduate students, researchers and teachers.

Policy consequences for…

Access: Admissions are reduced and capped, regardless of the growing number of California students who have earned a place at universities.

Affordability: Tuitions and credit-hour costs soar.

Excellence: The universities are corroding from within. California can no longer fill vacancies with top research and teaching talent. We are at the tipping point.

Accountability: Nominally under public oversight, university managers operate under private sector rules. Conflicts erupt over sweetheart deals and pay scandals.