|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The University of California Board of Regents finance committee Wednesday approved a budget plan that includes steep hikes in student fees, as thousands of students and workers gathered at the system’s Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses to protest the increases.
The committee met at UCLA Wednesday and voted in favor of increasing student fees for undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. The full Board of Regents will vote on the matter on Thursday. The measure is one of several responses to sharp reductions in state funding.
For undergraduate students, the proposal would increase mandatory fees by more than $2,500, or 32 percent by the 2010-11 school year, with some increases taking effect in spring of 2010.
Several thousand students, staff and workers at UC Berkeley kicked off a three-day labor strike and student walkout to protest the fee increases.
About 200 workers began picketing at five school construction sites and five campus entrances, as well as at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station, before sunrise, said Tanya Smith, president of the Berkeley chapter of the University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America Local 9119. The union represents about 800 UC Berkeley researchers and technical employees. Several other unions also participated on the protests.
At about 1 p.m., she estimated 3,000 people had converged on Sproul Plaza for a rally decrying the increased fees.
Marika Goodrich, a UC Berkeley student, said “we’re shutting down the university because they’re shutting us out. Today we refuse to be silent.”
During the rally, protesters chanted, “Whose university? Our university?”
Leslie Sepuka, spokeswoman for the UC Office of the President, said that president Mark Yudof and regents dislike inflicting higher fees on students. However, university leadership is asking students, faculty and workers share equally in the pain of absorbing a $1.2 billion budget shortfall over a two-year period while preserving the system’s academic standards.
“As far as the student unrest, free speech is what the university is about,” she said. “They should be offended — it’s a horrible situation.”
Bay City News contributed to this report.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
I think this is such a tragedy for young people. Some are half way through their education struggling and now they have to fork out more. You know all those fundraisers that Obama had for his election? He should have them now for college students. A lot of people paid a lot of money to get him elected. He should return the favor. Why is education such a hard thing to come by in CA these days?
Well, as a taxpaying mother, I’m miffed that now I’ll be paying more to get my kids in college, however the attached link shows that
Gift aid to students has also gone up.
This website states:
The University also augments its own institutional aid program by setting aside a portion (currently 33 percent) of new fee revenue for need-based grants. (I don’t suppose that would be taxpaying me)
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/accountability/index/2.5
My observation has been that if your parents were hippies, you can get close to a free ride, however if both your parents are working to stay afloat, forget any help. Way to go!
Not everybody can fork out more.
Atlas, you are so right the 33% that is set aside for grants are for free rides for the free lunch crowd. If you’re illegal, a minority prefereable black or mexican, you meet Yudof & Birgeneau number ONE goal….diversity…to the EXCLUSION of MIDDLE-class white males & VIOLATING prop 209, which calls for EQUALITY..equal treatment & standards for all. They OPENLY admit they place diversity ahead of all else. Atlas nailed it… hippie parents making jewelry under the radar, or a single Mom with several kids and those kids luck out. Pity the males from a intact family. Mom & Dad, both working on reduced furlough trying to just KEEP their house & NOT lose their equity. But with 3 college age boys, wITH grades & desire to go to CAL, born in Alameda Co…ZERO assistance for them. I heard Regent Blum 3 weeks ago ARROGANTLY say $80,000. is now the ARBITRARY cutoff !!! This is the BAY AREA not Nashville !! Free-rides up to $80K. Working Mom & Dad together making $120 – 130. paying on a BayArea house can’t send one to CAL, much less 3 ! This week the Regents thought it was quite logical that they get the fee INCREASES, so they would have a bigger pool of grant money…TOTALLY missing the point that the struggling MIDDLE would pay to HELP pay the HIGHER fees for the below $80K. The rich will still go no sweat. The SUBSIDIZED will still go…it all just further keeps out the middle-class. Along with their focus on racist DIVERSITY RECRUITMENT, the MIDDLE-class white male has no chance.
There’s TALK about needing US NEEDING MATH & Science, yet no help for the guys that want that. In my family, the favority class for one is TRIG !. The Asians will get the 4.5 scholarships. The basic 4.0 MIDDLE-class white male is out of luck. He would be so much better off to be poor…so UNfair to him. Of course, if he was a minority & wanted to study social services or african studies, then a free ride would be available. Will that bring everybody TOGETHER or just maybe academia, with all it’s racist social engineering will CAUSE anger & resentment. SO sad they lack the ability to practice EQUAL treatment for all. After all prop 209 calls for EQUAL treatment in all CA public institutions. Since it’s out of my family’s reach ANYWAY, white we continue to play by the rules and ALWAYS PAY for everything, I say cut off ALL funding as long as Cal VIOLATES CA law !
As a proud alum, I need to point out that even with these increases, the UC system, and UC Berkeley in particular, is the best education per dollar on the planet.
Sue, your rant is nothing short of sad. I put myself through Cal, no scholarships, no grants, no help from parents struggling to pay for utilities. I worked and took out loans. Make this a teachable moment for your boys without instilling race bias. If they can get into Cal, they can find a way to pay for it. The American spirit of self-reliance needs to be rediscovered, and should start in your own home.
Education is no laughing matter. I think that sue needs to get off the pity pot, encourage her qualified kids to join the military and serve their country. GO FOR IT SUE!
I have very mixed feelings reading articles about cutbacks in the UC and CSU systems…the irony for us is that we’ve saved enough to send our kids anywhere in the world they want to go to college. But, now that it’s so competitive, they might not have the grades to get in.
Sue,
I was with you until you bagged on single moms with multiple kids. The implication that these dedicated ladies somehow milk the system shows your ignorance. Shame on you. Count yourself blessed that your marriage worked out, or that your husband didn’t die young leaving you with small children to raise alone. Sheesh.
I think the regents should have cut expenses, asked professors to take a cut in salary, and did anything else necessary so that the fees where not jacked up to this degree. AS USUAL YOU HURT THE STUDENTS FIRST. IT IS DUMB!
This CNN article talks about what students are doing to protest the increase:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/20/california.tuition.protests/index.html
To RS:
I think you should talk with people who are actually in the system before you make sweeping statements. Some organizations and/or unions on various campuses have voted in favor of a furlough program which includes a reduction in pay. Although I agree that students are suffering, they are not the first nor the only ones to do so. Many offices and departments in the CSU system are suffering from greatly reduced staff with little change in workload. This means that even though you have to take furlough days, your workload is not reduced even though your pay rate is. You just have a lot more work crammed into the days when you do have to be on campus. This problem is further compounded in cases where positions lost due to retirement are not replaced, leaving everyone left to pick up the pieces and do work that normally they would not be assigned to do.
The faculty also suffer in the sense that in addition to reduced pay, they have larger classes, as individual sections are cut in order to cram more students into existing sections. Pay rate does not, in most cases, depend upon the number of students in the class, so again, the faculty member’s workload increases while receiving a pay reduction.
Students also suffer because they pay higher fees to be in larger more cramped courses. Either that or they have to wait longer to actually get into certain courses. The furlough programs also mean that there is a gross reduction in services offered whether that be counseling, tutoring, or even office hours or time available with the professor. It’s a pretty bad situation all the way around.
Ironically the fees are not the biggest problem anymore. Our daughter has a 3.5 GPA at Las Positas and was told that she may not be able to get in to SJ State because there will be no room. This is her 3rd year at Las Positas because she couldn’t transfer during the spring. If she can’t get into a 4 year college next year she will have to get a full time job with benifits. And we all know how hard that is these days.
I think this trend will continue a long time. As the rates continue to increase, the Univeristy continues to increse the amount of financial aid. I would guess that in the long term, the univeristy ends up with less and less income per student. That along with decreased state funding (which is likely to continue for years) will keep the rates rising and rising and squeezing the middle class.
I don’t think it will be fatal for the the UC system, but I think the schools that do currently have national luster are going to lose some as significant chage for the worse is on the horizon.
Just keep sending the same old type of legislators to Sacramento, and then get ready for another hike a couple of years from now. “I have met the enemy, and it is us.”
Thanks Arroyo! Nail on head! How many UC parents (or students) complaining about higher fees voted for incumbents (Republicrat or Demican) who ran this state into the ground. Fiscal responsibility and proper oversight of the UC system would have California in a surplus and able to temporarily bail out the UC system during lean times. But no, it is spend spend spend, then when the bills come due it is cry whine cry.
Budget shouldn’t be balanced on the backs of students, but they are getting an education in how the real world works.
VOTE THEM ALL OUT in 2010 CA and US Legislature – vote for FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Superior Kay, we all grew up in different times, not with today’s artifical restructuring and social manipulation. To simplify the point it is blatently wrong in today’s economy to assist those that have used the free lunch system for 18 years or from somewhere else, right up to the arbitrary $80K family, and these FEE and TUITION INCREASES to the $90K family, make it impossible for them to attend. The 200K kids will go anyway. The fees prevent the MIDDLE class kid that was never part of any free lunch program is denied, with the 4.0. Minorities get assistance, poor get assistance, rich get to go, fee increases prevent 4.0 math white males from the opportunity. Dad, why were you such a sucker being a wage slave and stupidly paying your taxes and subsidizing the others. Cal doesn’t know the meaning of equality. Cal gives lip service…we pay the taxs but they’ll import the math students from India and China and deny the CA born. It’s wrong..it’s not the Math student’s fault Dad (who pays his own savings & retirement..not a pampered public union) have to live up saving when he got caught in the ’01 dot com bubble, and again now being the sole survivor of his engineer group..with MAJOR pay cut. Why can’t Cal treat everybody ‘equally’ like they are suppose to, by law. As a taxpayer I have no desire to support their discrimatory program. Ca shouldn’t contribute a penny as long as they continue to violate 209 with their social manipulation otherwise known as discrimination.
The US Military is looking for smart students in math to help out with war effort. Do you like the idea? How about your lily white offspring show some loyalty and join up…hmmmmmm?
Oh I forgot, you want the children of “minorities” to die for you and your family while yours get educated. Just think, this is an opportunity for you to put you children in harms way and in the end, the US gummint will give you a folded up flag as a symbol of their sacrifice if they come back in a pine coffin.
I feel no sympathy for you and I strongly recommend that you move up from the middle class to the upper class; si se puede! tee hee hee, tee hee hee…
Sue, Admissions to UC have not changed in the 7 years since I was admitted, so to suggest that my time there was “different” is incorrect. I completed my undergrad and my graduate degree there on my own, and I am very proud of that. Give your boys the chance to be proud of their own accomplishments, and they will become men.
I called your comments a rant because you were clearly not interested in discussion or debate. In both posts you repeat bigoted remarks that did nothing to support your position. The middle class in this country has always forged its own future, so stop whining.
Maybe Cholo is on to something. Maybe West Point will soothe your soul and give your sons a real chance to make their own way in life. Good luck, in any case.
West Point (or any military academy) is harder to get into than any UC
what if you a “4.0” in something…hahahaahahahahahaha…maybe he can’t get into a military academy because he’s not a Muslim!
$3,000,000 in Reckless Spending By UC President Yudof: University of California President Yudof Approves $3,000,000 to Outsource UCB Chancellor’s Job
The UC President has a UCB Chancellor that should do the high paid job he is paid for instead of hiring an East Coast consulting firm to fulfill his responsibilities. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the analysis, hard work and make the difficult decisions of their executive job!
Where do consulting firms like Bain ($3,000,000 consultants) get their recommendations?
From interviewing the senior management that hired them and will be approving their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled government oversight agencies and the public?
Mr. Birgeneau’s executive officer performance management responsibilities include “inspiring innovation and leading change.” This involves “defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment.” Instead of demonstrating his capacity to fulfill his executive accountabilities, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced them. Doesn’t he engage University of California and University of California Berkeley (UCB) people at all levels to help examine the budget and recommend the necessary trims? Hasn’t he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina – which also hired Bain — about best practices and recommendations that might apply to UCB cuts?
No wonder the faculty and staff are angry and suspicious. Three million dollars is a high price for Californians to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ Chancellor is not doing his job.
Please help save $3,000,000 for teaching our students and request that the UC President require the UCB Chancellor to fulfill his executive job accountabilities!
$3,000,000 in Reckless Spending By UC President Yudof: University of California President Yudof Approves $3,000,000 to Outsource UCB Chancellor’s Job
The UC President has a UCB Chancellor that should do the high paid job he is paid for instead of hiring an East Coast consulting firm to fulfill his responsibilities. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the analysis, hard work and make the difficult decisions of their executive job!
Where do consulting firms like Bain ($3,000,000 consultants) get their recommendations?
From interviewing the senior management that hired them and will be approving their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled government oversight agencies and the public?
Mr. Birgeneau’s executive officer performance management responsibilities include “inspiring innovation and leading change.” This involves “defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment.” Instead of demonstrating his capacity to fulfill his executive accountabilities, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced them. Doesn’t he engage University of California and University of California Berkeley (UCB) people at all levels to help examine the budget and recommend the necessary trims? Hasn’t he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina – which also hired Bain — about best practices and recommendations that might apply to UCB cuts?
No wonder the faculty and staff are angry and suspicious. Three million dollars is a high price for Californians to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ Chancellor is not doing his job.
Please help save $3,000,000 for teaching our students and request that the UC President require the UCB Chancellor to fulfill his executive job accountabilities!
Milan Moravec —
Please site your sources for your comments regarding Bain.
…When the highest paid government employee in the entire state is the Cal football coach, we know where our priorities lie…
Bubbles Amador Valley High School Community
See Matt Krupnick’s article in the Contra Costa Times
Now do something about the careless spending of $3,000,000 on consultants when tuition fees are rased 32% and the talent and motivation to identify $150,000,000 in efficiencies can be accomplished by the talented faculty, staff and UC/UCB executive management
Thank-you and cordially
Milan
Regarding the hiring of Bain & Co., please note this quote from The New York Times article of 11/14/2009 by Tamar Lewin:
“When Holden Thorp, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina, was looking for ways to cut the university’s budget, he did what many executives in private industry do — hired a management consultant. The consultant, Bain & Company, came up with recommendations that it said could save the university more than $150 million a year.”
The contract at UC is 2% of the projected savings at UNC. Seems like a bargain to me, and it sounds like a good expenditure in the long run to me.
Bubbles haven’t u heard that we are in a recession? Why spend $3 million when you don’t have to!
The work being done by Bain consultants can be accomplished internally by the worldclass faculty, talented staff, skilled UCB executive management and experienced UCB Academic Senate leadership.
These populations can accomplish the $150 million savings without UCB spending $3,000,000 for consultants.
Total savings for doing the work internally $153 million. A good saving for the short run and long term.
The signs of University of California Berkeley’s relative decline are clear. In 2004, for example, the London-based Times Higher Education ranked UC Berkeley the second leading research university in the world, just behind Harvard; in 2009 that ranking had tumbled to 39th place. Source Forbes
We now have transparency to the disfunctional leadership at Cal. Provost Breslauer and Chancellor Birgeneau need to stop the stonewalling of Operational Excellence (OE) from probing the practices and decision making of the Cal senior management team
Atlas and Sue, you are both right. Get off it Kay…yes our lives use to be easier. Today wed have government interference and PREFERENCES ! Even tho Ca prop 209 forbids preferences, it doesn’t stop CAL with targeted REdistribution, based on everythingh EXCEPT
the competance of the student. Struggling 2 parent family living on ‘reduced furlough pay’….out of luck….they have an asset (but they cannot get an equity loan, since their ‘equity’ has dropped, and their ‘reduced furlough pay doesn’t qualify them) their 3.9 grade kids cannot go…is that FAIR to discriminate against those kids? Dummie, don’t you know there’s a shortage of jobs, and besides Kay, we can’t all be as superior, educated, and special as you. Your arm must be in a sling by now.
I am angry that Cal won’t practice equal treatment and equal consideration for all. They RAISE for some, to give more aid to the “underpriviledged”, a darker color, or a single parent quarantees a ‘free ride’, while turn away a child….becaused parent’s have that house, that would sell for no more than the loan amount…generating zero college funds. Kay you are not dealing with 2010 reality.. Open your eyes to the INJUSTICES that our tax supported ‘social engineering’ institutions perpetrate. Even more sad, is the ones receiving “free rides” aren’t even required to study a viable self-supporting field. Contemplating navels and studing artwork of ancient africa is OK for free-riders…while turning away serious students. If Cal continues to violate our state law, they should not get a penny of tax money. How do you justify discrimination against children, because they have working parents ? Shouldn’t it be based on the STUDENTS AND THEIR GRADES ?
Umm…
Might I ask how many of you haters have even dealt with the application process recently? The only potential “advantage” I had when I applied to Cal was the fact that I was female. Otherwise, I’m white and middle class. I spent my two years at Las Positas and saved myself a few thousand dollars completing my GED. Now, the undergraduate scholarship pays for about 2/3 of my tuition and my parents are paying for the rest (I’m living at home, though, which saves us a HUGE chunk of money).
The majority of students that I know that are receiving “free rides” are kids that are entirely independent, i.e. no help whatsoever from the parents, and they’re working to cover everyday expenses and rent.
And while we’re on the subject of discrimination in the application process, what about those kids that get in on athletic achievement more so than their grades, hmm?
Hey Sue,
Your shift key is sticking.