Students, staff, and faculty engaged in protest across the UC and CSU systems today. So far I've tracked reports from Berkeley, Channel Islands, Davis, Fresno, Irvine, Long Beach Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma State. I'm sure there will be more news as time goes forward.
Protests in London. Surprise, Surprise, the Police were there as well.
CSU threatens to raise tuition next year by 9%.
Yudof starts to walk back early reports of tuition freeze. Now it depends on receiving large infusion from the state.
Did you notice that the state budget is looking really bad for next year?
The LAO responded to Brown's pension proposal.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Links for November 8
Yudof announced no mid-year tuition hikes. I wonder if he is nervous about protests at the Regents' party next week?
UC Davis plows ahead with plan to increase out-of-state and international students.
Bob Samuels discusses the rising inequality at UC here and here.
CSU faculty, librarians, and coaches to hold 1 day strike at two campuses.
As the CBP notices, some of California's wealthiest are CEOs of corporations that pay no federal income taxes. Somehow I suspect that is not because they don't make enough to pass the threshold for taxation.
Ohio voters reject GOP effort to attack collective bargaining. Even the NYT notices.
Remember all those conservative claims that the poverty statistics overstated poverty? Well the newer method has taken a look--and the numbers are even higher especially among the elderly. Of course you can't convince a University of Chicago economist of the facts..
Check out our new Documents for Dissidence box in the upper right. It provides announcements and background information and analysis that might be useful for upcoming protests.
UC Davis plows ahead with plan to increase out-of-state and international students.
Bob Samuels discusses the rising inequality at UC here and here.
CSU faculty, librarians, and coaches to hold 1 day strike at two campuses.
As the CBP notices, some of California's wealthiest are CEOs of corporations that pay no federal income taxes. Somehow I suspect that is not because they don't make enough to pass the threshold for taxation.
Ohio voters reject GOP effort to attack collective bargaining. Even the NYT notices.
Remember all those conservative claims that the poverty statistics overstated poverty? Well the newer method has taken a look--and the numbers are even higher especially among the elderly. Of course you can't convince a University of Chicago economist of the facts..
Check out our new Documents for Dissidence box in the upper right. It provides announcements and background information and analysis that might be useful for upcoming protests.
Monday, November 7, 2011
The Story that Needs Changing
In the last few weeks I've given a number of talks on college campuses about the self-feeding devolutionary spiral in puliic university funding. I've tried to describe the mechanisms that are continuing to accelerate decline, and identify points of resistance that could help with rebuilding. The goal must remain mass quality rather than limited access to premium content. Our higher ed system is stratified enough as it is, and "private good" solutions only make it worse.
Robert Mejia offers an overview of my "Rebuiling the Public University" talk at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. By coincidence, I spoke in the same room a few hours after UI-Urbana faculty had met their new systemwide president for the first time, and heard him speak directly about his plan to take control of enrollments away from each campus and centralize them systemwide. This struck me as the kind of administrative exercise that makes an executive's mark without improving the institution itself, and that distracts attention from the deeper issues of rebuilding funding and upgrading academic goals.
An example of the deeper issue occurred the day after the coverage of the Illinois faculty meeting, in an article in the Los Angeles Times on how California public universities are leading the way in public tuition increases averaging over 8% last year. The article started with a causal connection between legislative cuts to public funding and increases to student tuition. But it then cited an expert saying that the real problem wasn't public funding cuts but public campus inefficiencies, particularly the inefficiency of faculty who don't teach enough.
My critique of the elements of this damaging story is posted on the University of Illinois Faculty Association page. I would like such critiques to be part of a broader effort to change the public narrative about the everyday work of public universities, so that yahoo solutions can't so easily get dropped into the middle of articles to distract the reader from the real issue.
The real issue is that imposing higher teaching loads and more on-line instruction on public universities won't reverse the relentlessly growing gulf between elite privates and their once-elite public peers. The economists Robert Archibald and David Feldman, in their recent book Why Does College Cost So Much?, note that the inaugural, 1987 edition of the U.S. News and World Report rankings had eight public universities in their top 25. In 2010 the top-25 includes exactly 1 public university (UC Berkeley, at #21).
The rankings are of course rather silly, but they do include measures such a per-student expenditures and average student-teacher ratios. On these measures of quality, public universities have been allowed to decline for decades. The decline is directly connected to falling public funding, which has never been replaced by the private sources so ardently discussed, in spite of the decades their advocates have had to achieve this replacement.
The result is stark, in Archibald and Feldman's terms:
Teaching processes can always be improved, but public university executives need a much tighter focus on closing the funding gap with private universities so that we can close the gap in quality of service. Playing around with alternatives to rebuilding funding will only make the public-private gap that much wider .
Robert Mejia offers an overview of my "Rebuiling the Public University" talk at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. By coincidence, I spoke in the same room a few hours after UI-Urbana faculty had met their new systemwide president for the first time, and heard him speak directly about his plan to take control of enrollments away from each campus and centralize them systemwide. This struck me as the kind of administrative exercise that makes an executive's mark without improving the institution itself, and that distracts attention from the deeper issues of rebuilding funding and upgrading academic goals.
An example of the deeper issue occurred the day after the coverage of the Illinois faculty meeting, in an article in the Los Angeles Times on how California public universities are leading the way in public tuition increases averaging over 8% last year. The article started with a causal connection between legislative cuts to public funding and increases to student tuition. But it then cited an expert saying that the real problem wasn't public funding cuts but public campus inefficiencies, particularly the inefficiency of faculty who don't teach enough.
My critique of the elements of this damaging story is posted on the University of Illinois Faculty Association page. I would like such critiques to be part of a broader effort to change the public narrative about the everyday work of public universities, so that yahoo solutions can't so easily get dropped into the middle of articles to distract the reader from the real issue.
The real issue is that imposing higher teaching loads and more on-line instruction on public universities won't reverse the relentlessly growing gulf between elite privates and their once-elite public peers. The economists Robert Archibald and David Feldman, in their recent book Why Does College Cost So Much?, note that the inaugural, 1987 edition of the U.S. News and World Report rankings had eight public universities in their top 25. In 2010 the top-25 includes exactly 1 public university (UC Berkeley, at #21).
The rankings are of course rather silly, but they do include measures such a per-student expenditures and average student-teacher ratios. On these measures of quality, public universities have been allowed to decline for decades. The decline is directly connected to falling public funding, which has never been replaced by the private sources so ardently discussed, in spite of the decades their advocates have had to achieve this replacement.
The result is stark, in Archibald and Feldman's terms:
In 1980, public universities spend roughly seventy cents per full-time equivalent student for every dollar that private schools spent. By the middle of the 1990s, that figure had fallen to fifty-three cents per dollar. These changes have consequences (p. 237)We already know where the combination of cuts and "efficiencies"is taking us -- towards a class hierarchy of private over public, in which the latter, who teach close to 4/5ths of all college students, are forced to lower quality further while pretending they are not.
Teaching processes can always be improved, but public university executives need a much tighter focus on closing the funding gap with private universities so that we can close the gap in quality of service. Playing around with alternatives to rebuilding funding will only make the public-private gap that much wider .
Friday, November 4, 2011
Links for November 4
In Oakland, Occupy supporters and city officials debated at a public meeting. And you can get more information here.
Assembly Budget Committee expects 5-8 Billion dollar deficit next year.
Students and professors are trying to steer graduates to useful work, offering alternatives to Wall Street.
Silicon Valley Investor donates $150 Million to Stanford Business School for program to fight poverty; proves irony is not dead.
Harvard Students Walk Out of Economics lecture class because they want education not propaganda. Not sure what else they expected from Harvard economics though.
In Texas, one community college system board is debating whether to end tenure, they have already set up rules to punish tenured faculty from "grumbling" about superiors.
Occupy Wall Street is organizing a march against the bogus bank fraud settlement. Greg Palast has the latest on Goldman Sachs' effort to pressure OWS's bank. They are using taxpayer money to do so by the way.
Dean Baker points out that, despite some improvement in the latest job figures, at this pace it will take 33 years for the unemployment rate to return to pre-recession levels.
Thousands are moving their money to credit unions.
NYT tries to claim that poverty isn't so bad. No joke.
Have a good weekend.
Assembly Budget Committee expects 5-8 Billion dollar deficit next year.
Students and professors are trying to steer graduates to useful work, offering alternatives to Wall Street.
Silicon Valley Investor donates $150 Million to Stanford Business School for program to fight poverty; proves irony is not dead.
Harvard Students Walk Out of Economics lecture class because they want education not propaganda. Not sure what else they expected from Harvard economics though.
In Texas, one community college system board is debating whether to end tenure, they have already set up rules to punish tenured faculty from "grumbling" about superiors.
Occupy Wall Street is organizing a march against the bogus bank fraud settlement. Greg Palast has the latest on Goldman Sachs' effort to pressure OWS's bank. They are using taxpayer money to do so by the way.
Dean Baker points out that, despite some improvement in the latest job figures, at this pace it will take 33 years for the unemployment rate to return to pre-recession levels.
Thousands are moving their money to credit unions.
NYT tries to claim that poverty isn't so bad. No joke.
Have a good weekend.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Links for November 3rd
#OccupyOakland closes down nation's 5th biggest port. UCOP appears to have asked its employees to stay away from the office, located near the occupation, and to work from home.
Colorado votes down a tax-increase measure for education. The state governor wants to balance the budget by cutting higher education but much of the legislature is resisting. The governor is a Democrat, and those opposed to higher ed cuts are Republicans.
In Wisconsin, Gov Scott Walker is targeting the UW system, with 7% of the state budget,for 38% of the cuts.
Bob Samuels analyzes UC compensation data, with special attention to salaries over $200,000.
Average student debt is also up 5% this year, to over $25,000. The figures exclude debt incurred by students at for-profit colleges, as only 5 of 471 for-profits reported student debt figures. Parental loans push the average to over $34,000. California remains a "low debt state" (a bit over $18,000) (the report is here).
Higher Ed Watch discusses a cause identified in a recent Department of Education report: "the country’s public and private four-year colleges are now spending a greater share of their institutional aid dollars on trying to attract the students they desire than on meeting the financial need of the low- and moderate-income students they enroll."
Those mulling the fate of public pensions get a good reminder from David Atkins of the incentives in the financial community for putting public assets into play.
Students of management mishaps should make sure they didn't miss this NYT piece on cognitive fallacy: decision-makers routinely ignore evidence of the failure of their decision processes (h/t to Marcia). One apparent cause: "people who face a difficult question often answer an easier one instead, without realizing it."
The three buildings at UC Davis with the top platinum rating from the Green Building Council are Gallagher Hall, home of the UC Davis School of Management,the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, nd the Tahoe Environmental Research Center in Incline Village, Nevada.
Colorado votes down a tax-increase measure for education. The state governor wants to balance the budget by cutting higher education but much of the legislature is resisting. The governor is a Democrat, and those opposed to higher ed cuts are Republicans.
In Wisconsin, Gov Scott Walker is targeting the UW system, with 7% of the state budget,for 38% of the cuts.
Bob Samuels analyzes UC compensation data, with special attention to salaries over $200,000.
Average student debt is also up 5% this year, to over $25,000. The figures exclude debt incurred by students at for-profit colleges, as only 5 of 471 for-profits reported student debt figures. Parental loans push the average to over $34,000. California remains a "low debt state" (a bit over $18,000) (the report is here).
Higher Ed Watch discusses a cause identified in a recent Department of Education report: "the country’s public and private four-year colleges are now spending a greater share of their institutional aid dollars on trying to attract the students they desire than on meeting the financial need of the low- and moderate-income students they enroll."
Those mulling the fate of public pensions get a good reminder from David Atkins of the incentives in the financial community for putting public assets into play.
Students of management mishaps should make sure they didn't miss this NYT piece on cognitive fallacy: decision-makers routinely ignore evidence of the failure of their decision processes (h/t to Marcia). One apparent cause: "people who face a difficult question often answer an easier one instead, without realizing it."
The three buildings at UC Davis with the top platinum rating from the Green Building Council are Gallagher Hall, home of the UC Davis School of Management,the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, nd the Tahoe Environmental Research Center in Incline Village, Nevada.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Links for Wednesday, November 2
Occupy Oakland Schedule for General Strike. Live updates. Other information. Video.
Colorado Voters say no to increasing taxes to pay for education.
Texas Board of Regents invests in company that trolls for course grading data; mandates that campuses sign on to it.
Regional Public Universities are lessening research commitments.
Universities intensify efforts to break into commercial world.
Colorado Voters say no to increasing taxes to pay for education.
Texas Board of Regents invests in company that trolls for course grading data; mandates that campuses sign on to it.
Regional Public Universities are lessening research commitments.
Universities intensify efforts to break into commercial world.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
We Can Restore California's Higher Education...If the Leaders Lead
By Stanton Glantz
cross-listed from KQED
Conventional wisdom says the UC and CSU funding crises are the inevitable result of recession-driven budget shortfalls, and the only solution is to soak students and their families.
But it's bunk. Shifting costs from the public to students is a deliberate act of public policy.
Well before the recession, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the UC and CSU presidents signed the Higher Education Compact. UC and CSU accepted huge cuts in state support and agreed to rapid annual tuition increases in exchange for a broken promise of future financial support.
And, though a Democrat, Jerry Brown is accelerating the transformation of higher education from a public good the people of California provide for the benefit of all to a private good students buy.
This is a radical reversal of the spirit that built California. But what's been done can be undone.
In fact, it would not cost much to push the "reset" button on California's entire higher education system, from community colleges to UC's graduate programs. We can roll fees back to 2000 levels, restore state funding and accommodate the students who've been forced out. And it would only cost the median taxpayer $49.
To today's jaded sensibilities that sounds far-fetched. But it wasn't so long ago that a passion for that kind of thinking built California in the first place.
This affordable "reset" will never happen unless university officials stop acting like highly-paid executives at financially failing corporations, start behaving like stewards of a public trust and start making the case to do it.
cross-listed from KQED
Conventional wisdom says the UC and CSU funding crises are the inevitable result of recession-driven budget shortfalls, and the only solution is to soak students and their families.
But it's bunk. Shifting costs from the public to students is a deliberate act of public policy.
Well before the recession, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the UC and CSU presidents signed the Higher Education Compact. UC and CSU accepted huge cuts in state support and agreed to rapid annual tuition increases in exchange for a broken promise of future financial support.
And, though a Democrat, Jerry Brown is accelerating the transformation of higher education from a public good the people of California provide for the benefit of all to a private good students buy.
This is a radical reversal of the spirit that built California. But what's been done can be undone.
In fact, it would not cost much to push the "reset" button on California's entire higher education system, from community colleges to UC's graduate programs. We can roll fees back to 2000 levels, restore state funding and accommodate the students who've been forced out. And it would only cost the median taxpayer $49.
To today's jaded sensibilities that sounds far-fetched. But it wasn't so long ago that a passion for that kind of thinking built California in the first place.
This affordable "reset" will never happen unless university officials stop acting like highly-paid executives at financially failing corporations, start behaving like stewards of a public trust and start making the case to do it.
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