Lost Trust ~ UC Crisis, Bob Samuels in IHE

Bob Samuel's blog Changing Universities is one of many but still a standout among the websites, mainstream and local news pieces, columns, op-eds and members only listserv ruminations covering the University of California budget crisis and protests. I have been saying, blogging and tweeting so ~ as anyone checking in here regularly can't help having noticed. As president of the University Council-AFT, which represents lecturers and librarians at the University of California, Bob knows the UC system and academic labor in California. He is also on the New Faculty Majority board of directors Today, Bob's column about the UC crisis appears in Inside Higher Ed, which is covering the story better than CHE but, so far, still behind the blogosphere / twitterverse. Titled "Lost Trust," Bob's column analyzes two contrasting narratives to explain the crisis: "There are two main narratives battling to define the current crisis at the University of California . While the California situation is an extreme example of what is happening to public higher education these days nationally, these dueling narratives can be found in many other states as well." Go here for the entire article: http://www.insidehighered.com/ views/2009/ 12/07/samuels  Searching Google News for "University of California budget crisis" yields a flood of stories, 391 and links to hundreds more, from Time Magazine and New York Times to academic and activist blogs and Workers World, from local to international and all the virtual newspaces in between.   Jonathan Kaplan writes in the California Progress Report that the decreasing number of students will affect the state's overall working industry. "Recent budget cuts to higher education call into question the state's commitment to provide its residents with access to a high-quality, affordable college education. In the absence of additional funding, not only will fewer Californians have the opportunity to earn a college degree at the state's public universities, but the state's employers may have an even tougher time finding the highly skilled workers they need to compete successfully in the global economy." Read more in SNN's Calfornia Budget Crisis Diaries (San Diego) LA Pop Culture Examiner, Albuquerque NM, CSU and UC budget cuts hurt starving students and tired teachers California hit by budget deficit, no quick solution in sight in China View's series, Global Financial Crisis LA Times, Educators have the wrong number in answering budget crisis "CSUN President Jolene Koester.... cited a study suggesting that for every dollar the state invests in the Cal State system, $4.50 is returned to local economies because of salaries paid to the workforce." Thank the rich for higher ed fiscal crisis, Op-Ed by Peter Philips, Bemidji Pioneer, Bemidji, Minnesota  Ian Ayres writes in The New York Times that the tuition increases may be "a good thing."  UC budget crisis as Devolution on crack, posted on Square Sunglasses blog

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