Dan Walters: California higher ed resistant to change – Sacramento Bee

By Dan Walters / dwalters@sacbee.com

College administrators and instructors – particularly those in public institutions – usually profess “progressive” ideological outlooks.

Oddly, however, they tend to be very conservative, even reactionary, in resisting operational changes. They revere traditional classes in traditional classrooms, calendars organized by semesters and quarters of instruction, lengthy recesses between those periods, curricula controlled by faculty senates – and, of course, tenure.

via Dan Walters: California higher ed resistant to change – Dan Walters – The Sacramento Bee.

Resistance greets pumped-up effort to streamline community college, CSU transfer | EdSource Today

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When a long-awaited and much-needed bill to streamline transfer from community colleges to California State University passed the state Legislature three years ago, it had sweeping support: unanimous approval among lawmakers and a list of backers more than 80 deep. All is not so harmonious for its younger sibling, Senate Bill 440, which would compel campuses to move faster to develop transfer degrees.

Despite a spate of amendments in recent weeks, including several just released Monday, prominent community college and CSU officials and organizations have voted to oppose the bill by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, when it comes up for a hearing Tuesday in the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

via Resistance greets pumped-up effort to streamline community college, CSU transfer | EdSource Today.

EdSource Today: Questions surround bill proposing online course network at colleges

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California could lead the charge in developing a network of online public college courses open to all students enrolled in the University of California, California State University and the California Community College system.

Senate Bill 520, introduced by Senate president pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), would allow the thousands of students shut out of required classes due to budget cuts to enroll in an online version of the course in order to stay on track to graduate or transfer.

via Questions surround bill proposing online course network at colleges – by Kathryn Baron.

SacBee: California fiscal analyst calls for more efficiency in higher education

By Kevin Yamamura

As California receives more tax revenue, the state’s top fiscal analyst Tuesday questioned Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to send more money to public universities without demanding specific improvements.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office portrayed the state’s higher education systems – and particularly its elite University of California campuses – as inefficient programs that must do more to cut costs.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/13/5186018/california-fiscal-analyst-calls.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via California fiscal analyst calls for more efficiency in higher education.

SacBee: Jerry Brown carries the day on online classes at UC, CSU

By David Siders

SAN FRANCISCO – Gov. Jerry Brown anticipated resistance when he announced his plan last week to pressure state colleges and universities to expand their online offerings and reduce costs.

Yet as he traveled to the Bay Area on Tuesday and Wednesday to promote online education, he could hardly have had it easier.

One after another, California State University and University of California officials leaned into their microphones to thank the Democratic governor for the relatively favorable state budget he proposed – and to express their desire to educate more students online.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/01/17/5120340/jerry-brown-carries-the-day-on.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via Jerry Brown carries the day on online classes at UC, CSU.

EdSource Today: University-Udacity partnership brings innovative online courses to students

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In announcing San Jose State University’s contract with the online course developer Udacity to offer three innovative math classes, Gov. Jerry Brown bristled at a press conference Tuesday when the first question from the media was, “How much would they cost?”

After comparing technology to poetry and quoting from Robert Frost in his remarks, the governor was disappointed that the reporter had left the intellectual sphere so quickly to delve into the mundane.

via University-Udacity partnership brings innovative online courses to students – by Susan Frey.

SF Public Press: Tuition Refund Will Net CSU Students $250, but Set System Back $132 Million

A tuition refund of $249 or more per semester that the California State University system is planning to give most full-time students will be a godsend for thousands feeling financially pinched in their academic pursuits.

But the move will also reduce tuition revenues into the system by about 3 percent this school year — money that administrators will have to find somewhere else if they want to avoid further cutbacks.

via Tuition Refund Will Net CSU Students $250, but Set System Back $132 Million.

SacBee: Jerry Brown asks to delay discussion of university fees hikes

By Laurel Rosenhall

For the second time this week, a California university system has postponed a vote on fee increases as Gov. Jerry Brown makes the rounds touting the success of his Proposition 30 tax measure.

University of California regents announced Tuesday that at Brown’s request, they yanked an item from today’s agenda that called for raising fees at several UC professional schools, including schools of nursing, business, law and medicine. Brown, who sits on UC’s governing board, plans to attend today’s regents meeting in San Francisco.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/14/4983919/jerry-brown-asks-to-delay-discussion.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via Jerry Brown asks to delay discussion of university fees hikes.

Dan Walters: CSU plunges overboard into politics

The California State University system has traditionally been the steady workhorse of California higher education, generating the engineers, teachers, accountants and middle-managers that any society needs.

Meanwhile, the more prestigious University of California has been the racehorse, scooping up money from alumni, foundations and corporations, luring Nobel laureates to its faculty, awarding advanced degrees, fostering world-class scientific research and flaunting its constitutional independence from political control. While the state Legislature can mandate policy at CSU, UC answers only to its regents.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/30/4947554/dan-walters-csu-plunges-overboard.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: CSU plunges overboard into politics.

SacBee: Jerry Brown seeks college students’ support for Proposition 30

By Laurel Rosenhall

It’s not often the youngest voters can weigh in on something that will have an immediate and concrete impact on their lives. But that’s the case with a tax measure on California’s Nov. 6 ballot known as Proposition 30.

If it passes, California State University plans to lower tuition in January and send $250 refund checks to students for the higher rate they paid this term. Tuition at the University of California would stay flat for the next semester.

If it fails, CSU plans to admit 20,000 fewer new students for the fall. Cal State tuition is set to go up 5 percent in January, the same month that UC officials have said they would raise tuition by about 20 percent, to around $15,800 a year.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/16/4914620/jerry-brown-seeks-college-students.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via Jerry Brown seeks college students’ support for Proposition 30.

Dan Walters: Educators sullying state law to support Proposition 30

Education Code Section 7054 prohibits K-12 and community college officials from spending public funds “for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure or candidate … .”

The state Supreme Court cited that law three years ago in ruling that it was illegal for a teachers union to use school district facilities to distribute political literature.

Throughout California, however, school officials are sullying the intent of the law by using official communications to plug passage of Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s sales and income tax increase.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/19/4832914/dan-walters-educators-sullying.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Educators sullying state law to support Proposition 30.

KQED MindShift: Will Free Online Textbooks Become a Reality for California College Students?

By Ana Tintocalis

California is one step closer to bringing free online textbooks for state college students, a huge step for the open education movement. A historic bill on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown would give college professors, and thereby students, an option to use free online, customizable curriculum rather than print textbooks, for which students spend upwards of $1,000 per year. The measure establishes the first free digital library for the University of California, the California State University and California Community College systems.

If the bill passes, students of 50 most popular lower-division courses could access the content through an online portal at little or no cost. Faculty members would be able to remix and repurpose the digital content as they see fit, rather than having to rely on print textbooks.

via Will Free Online Textbooks Become a Reality for California College Students?.

Dan Walters: Bill adds a new factor for gaining California university tenure

It may seem self-evident, but it’s nevertheless a matter of state law that teaching is an “essential responsibility,” along with research, for members of the University of California’s faculty and “a primary responsibility” for those in the California State University system.

Those declarations are the legal criteria upon which faculty members are to be hired, promoted and given the much-coveted status of “tenure” in both institutions.

OK so far. After all, what’s more fundamentally important for any public institution of higher education, not to mention the taxpaying public, than teaching and research?

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/05/4787157/dan-walters-bill-adds-a-new-factor.html#mi_rss=Dan%20Walters#storylink=cpy

via Dan Walters: Bill adds a new factor for gaining California university tenure.

EdSource Today: State creating “time bomb” with cuts to higher ed

By Kathryn Baron

Give a dollar to California’s public colleges and universities and receive $4.50 back. Those are pretty good odds, and they’re not from one of those overseas scam emails humbly requesting your help in transferring funds. This more-than-400-percent yield is the net return on the state’s investment in higher education, according to California’s Economic Payoff, one of two reports released yesterday that make the case for a stronger state investment in higher education.

Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in the University of California and California State University and the state stands to make about $10 billion from today’s college graduates when they turn 50 years old. That’s after the students have paid back the $4.5 billion the state spent to help them earn their degrees, according to the study published by the Campaign for College Opportunity.

via State creating “time bomb” with cuts to higher ed – by Kathryn Baron.

SFGate: Online education has teachers conflicted

When the University of California dangled a $30,000 incentive to thousands of professors in 2010 inviting them to create UC-worthy online courses, just 70 responded, and only a few classes materialized.

Faculty members at California State University were similarly skeptical and warned of “Walmartization” last year as trustees charged each campus $50,000 to help fund “CSU Online.”

It turns out that California professors’ wariness of online education is shared by faculty across the country, according to a survey released Thursday by Inside Higher Ed, an online publication widely read by academics.

via Online education has teachers conflicted.

SFGate: State’s college tuition rising fastest in nation

California’s public universities aren’t the most expensive in the country to attend – some are even among the cheapest – but they do have the fastest-rising tuition, according to a U.S. Department of Education ranking of college costs released Tuesday.

Seven University of California campuses and three California State University campuses are among the top 5 percent of public colleges in the nation with the fastest-rising tuition.

UC campuses at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, Santa Cruz, San Diego and Irvine saw tuition increases of 40 to 43 percent between 2009 and 2011, while CSU campuses at Long Beach, San Diego in Imperial Valley, and Chico got tuition increases of 40 to 42 percent in the two-year period.

The Education Department released the list to promote its searchable database as a way for families to get a better idea of the true cost of higher education – and to consider some low-cost schools they may not know about.

via State’s college tuition rising fastest in nation.

Daily Republic: Tuition, competition limit class of 2012 at Fairfield-Suisun schools

FAIRFIELD — High school graduation is looming and for many seniors prompts this annoyingly repetitive question: Where are you going to college?

For most college-bound seniors, they’ve been asking themselves that questions since day one of their freshman year. Some have been planning for college their entire lives.

via Tuition, competition limit class of 2012 at Fairfield-Suisun schools.

SacBee: CSU faculty authorizes strike for next fall

By Timothy Sandoval

California State University faculty announced today that they have approved a measure to give their union leaders the power to authorize a strike next fall that could delay the beginning of school for thousands of students across the 23-campus university system.

At a noon press conference at Cal State Long Beach, the California Faculty Association announced that faculty had approved the measure by 95 percent of those who voted during April 16 through April 27.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/02/4460597/csu-faculty-authorizes-strike.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

via CSU faculty authorizes strike for next fall.

Sacramento Bee Editorial: State leaders must meld on K-12 standards

This year may finally be the time to get a major overhaul in education – simpler, fairer, more flexible and accountable.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/23/4433991/state-leaders-must-meld-on-k-12.html#mi_rss=Editorials#storylink=cpy

via Editorial: State leaders must meld on K-12 standards.

The Educated Guess: STEMing the minority gap

By John Fensterwald – Educated Guess

The gap starts early in elementary school, widens in middle school, and continues, through filters and barriers, on a trajectory of low achievement and missed opportunities. By the end of college, the number of Latinos and African Americans who graduate with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math is a trickle: an estimated 1,688 from the University of California and California State University in 2008.

via STEMing the minority gap – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.