|
In This Issue...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
UC Struggles with Cuts, Fee Increase Protests -- Bigger Worries Ahead
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Driving Impaired: The Costs & Consequences
|
|
|
|
|
UC Struggles with Cuts, Fee Increase Protests - Bigger Worries Ahead
By R.T. Sideman
Predictions like these are looming large at UC Santa Cruz: in the years to come, the university will be transformed to more closely resemble more modest California State University schools as California's premier public university system struggles to retain its star faculty, its research muscle and top students. Classes will be larger and course offerings will shrink.
Observers say that earlier budget cuts, now coupled with a massive 32 percent increase in the cost for students to attend college, will take an irreversible toll on what's considered a crown jewel among the world's public universities.
Frustration and anger have been building since last summer at UCSC and across the 10-campus system as the Univeristy of California(UC) laid off hundreds of workers, imposed unpaid furloughs on non-union employees and reduced courses to close a budget gap of more than $750 million — the result of dramatically reduced funding from California's cash-strapped budget coupled with higher operating costs.
Protests erupted this month when UC's governing Board of Regents voted to raise fees, which are the equivalent of tuition, by about $2,500 per student. A UC education will soon cost three times what it did just 10 years ago.
At UCSC, dozens of protesters occupied the main administrative building for three days before being forcibly removed at dawn on Nov. 22. No arrests were made, but dozens were arrested in similar protests at Berkeley and Davis, according to the UC Office of the President in Oakland.
"Across the UC system we are paying more for less — class sizes are growing, students are being denied access to essential classes, and vital student services are facing cuts," a group of UCSC student protestors wrote in an email. "We want change and are committed to achieving it nonviolently."
Widening the Education Gap?
The protesters said that the higher costs will make it even harder for middle class and poor students to go to college, and will widen the education gap between the haves and the have-nots.
UC has defended the hikes, saying that students simply didn't understand that most low-income students wouldn't be affected by the fee increase. According to Office of the President spokeswoman Lynn Tierney, the university will pick up the entire tuition, excluding living and campus costs, for students whose families earn $70,000 or less and who qualify for other financial aid such as Cal Grants and federal Pell Grants.
About 30 percent of UC students — 53,000 — are eligible for the free tuition, she said.
Third-year UCSC student Evelyn Castle of Orange County will not be immune to the fee hikes.
"Coming from a middle-class family I'm totally screwed because I'm not getting any financial aid," said Castle, 21, who completed a summer internship in Nigeria helping create an electronic records system for medical clinics.
"Now, I'm going to have to take out loans. If I were starting all over, I would've gone to a private school; I would've gotten a better education and smaller classes from a school with a better reputation. If I had to pay the higher tuition for four years at UCSC, there is no way I would've gone here."
Others challenged UC's contention that higher fees would be offset by financial aid.
"The high-fee, high-aid model sounds nice in theory, but research shows that aid levels do not keep up with costs," Cindy Mosqueda, a doctoral student in higher education and organizational change at UCLA, wrote in a blog post.
Tierney, the UC spokeswoman, blamed the cuts in state funding. The state's higher education budget has been slashed by $2.8 billion this year, including $813 million from the university system.
"We have instituted furloughs, had to do cutbacks, had to lay off 2,000 people so far, reduced expenditures, instituted salary freezes, eliminated bonuses and restructured debt — all in an effort to cut expenses," Tierney said in a telephone interview. "But at the same time we've have to increase revenue, and that's why we've had to impose painful student fee increases."
Will Quality Be Maintained?
Despite these actions, the severity of the state budget cuts and the speed with which UC campuses have been forced to absorb them threaten the basic quality of the education being provided to UC's students, she said.
For example, faculty hiring has slowed dramatically and is not keeping up with enrollment demand; course sections have been eliminated; hours of service are being shortened for many programs of importance to students; staff positions are being eliminated and vacancies frozen.
In a statement, UC President Mark Yudof said it was important to view the increases in the context of the overall budget plan and the ongoing financial downturn that has all but paralyzed the state budget process.
"We can no longer tolerate fiscal uncertainty and continual cutting as we wait for Sacramento to navigate through this crisis," he said.
Yudof said there was little alternative to raising fees.
"I know this is a painful day for university students and their families," he continued, "but as I stand here today I can assure you this is our one best shot at preventing this recession from pulling down a great system toward mediocrity. In the long term, that would not be good for the students of today or tomorrow. And it would be devastating for California as a whole."
Top Faculty on the Fence
When Princeton-educated astrophysicist Mark Krumholz started a faculty job hunt, he could've gone anywhere, his colleagues said.
He chose UCSC, where the prestigious astronomy and astrophysics department is nationally recognized. Now, the 32-year-old rookie professor argues that recent pay cuts — coupled with already below-market salaries and potential for additional furloughs — are threatening to create a brain drain, one that could drive out talented young professors such as himself.
"I would very much like to stay here, but I am sufficiently worried about the long-term future of the astronomy department and of this university that I have to consider my options," said Krumholz. "An offer from a fiscally sound university would look very attractive. It would mean not having to worry about scrambling to pay my salary, and that if someone retires, that the position isn't just going to vanish because the campus as a whole is shrinking."
Krumholz has openly challenged the state of California to preserve funding for the sciences at UC or risk losing world-class programs that are already stretched to their breaking point.
"The legislature seems to think of the university as the five-dollar Starbucks mocha that when times are lean you go for the one-dollar cup from McDonald's — and that's completely backward," he said. "The university isn't an indulgence like the five-dollar mocha, it's the five-dollar investment in your retirement account that if you don't make now, you're going to wind up paying much more later."
|
