10 prestigious University of California research campuses like UCLA and Berkeley and the sprawling, 23-campus Cal State University system. Together they serve more than 600,000 students. This year they had their budgets cut a combined $1.3 billion. "The California prison system is funded higher than both the University of California and the California State University taken together," said Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University system. "Now that is outrageous." At least 24 other states have cut higher education funds this year, but none as deeply as California. [Article]
by Bill Whitaker, CBS News. 2011-08-03
A recent survey of UC Davis undergrads found almost 25 percent "somewhat to very often" skipped meals to save money, and another 25 percent "occasionally" skipped meals for the same reason... California's higher education system is under siege with the recession and state budget deficit tearing into services and sending tuition and fees skyrocketing at an alarming rate. The trend is eating away at California's branding of affordable, quality, public education and its legacy of a highly trained work force. At the ground level, the classroom cuts and fee increases mean financial hardship for students: taking on more debt, dropping majors and minors, delaying graduations or spiking dreams of college education altogether. While college diplomas are deferred or dashed, students take longer to become workers and pay less in taxes if they get a lower-paying job. [Article]
by Anne Gonzales, Comstock's Magazine. 2011-08-02
Some students will start owing more on their loans while they're in school under a last-minute debt ceiling deal to keep the country out of default and reduce deficits by at least $2.1 trillion over a decade... The changes would take place July 1, 2012. For taxpayers, the savings taken from the pockets of students will total $21.6 billion over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. For graduate students who qualify for the maximum amount of subsidized loans, it could tack several thousand dollars to the cost of going to school. [Article]
by Jennifer Liberto, CNN Money. 2011-08-02
Gov. Jerry Brown, who publicly chided CSU trustees for "ever-increasing pay packages" even before they voted to approve the salary of SDSU President Elliot Hirshman, continues to speak out. And at least three legislators are proposing limits on such pay... CSU Chancellor Charles Reed has, in response to Brown's concerns, appointed a committee to study how campus presidents are recruited and compensated in the future. But the committee’s recommendations may come too late to stave off closer legislative regulation of the CSU system. "Generally, when you have the Legislature and the governor on the same page, you make law," Lieu said... "It's the same with the UC chancellors," Brown said. [Article]
by Pat Flynn, The San Diego Union Tribune. 2011-08-01
The removal of classes and student activities from Tolman Hall -- which occurred July 15 -- due to the building's "poor" seismic rating has been the source of recent tension between campus administration and faculty members with offices still in the building... "They said 'why are you all of a sudden panicking? Because you have always been in this crappy building and told that it was rated poorly,'" the staff member said. "Well, now they are pulling people out, so that creates a different kind of division among those who have a right to be safe and those who do not ... I don't see how they can get around that, I mean morally." [Article]
by Noah Kulwin, The Daily Californian. 2011-08-01