Catching up with California: links for September 15 & 16

By Michael Meranze from Remaking the University: excerpts from links for September 15

• The LAT has more info on UCOP's Magic Never-Ending Tuition Machine.
• Community Colleges across the nation face increasing financial strains. So do students.
• California Student Default Rates: They are highest at for-profits.
• SAT scores are down. Whatever that means.

and September 16

• Even the Regents don't seem to buy UCOP's Magic Tuition Machine But they are happy to raise executive salaries.
• Regent David Crane thinks UC should become more like a private university.
• Berkeley Public Education Coalition responds to Tuition increases.
• Regents discuss Graduate Funding
• And the LAO is skeptical that UC needs so much money. (h/t Dan Mitchell)
• Is the renovation of Cal Stadium a huge financial mistake? (h/t Catherine Cole)
• The Defense has rested its case in the Irvine 11 case.
• Cutting Administration may not be everything. But it sure isn't nothing.
• If you want to improve K-12 education you need to work with teachers not attack them

Applications for Unemployment are up, the economy is down, and the political class is pushing for more cuts to government spending. Have a great weekend. More for you to read tomorrow...

NPR.org - California Budget Woes Hurt University System

Not just on the blogs, gone mainstream media and NPR: California Budget Woes Hurt University System. You've been reading about it here (I hope) ~ now LISTEN

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Resist, Mobilize, Transform

Protect Your Education RGB 8.5x11, originally uploaded by Nick Bygon.

Please click through the image above (or link beneath to read Nick Bygon's comments on his poster for the March 4th Day of Action in Defense of Public Education and all Public-Sector Services, supported and endorsed by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California Faculty Association (CFA), AFT 2121, UESF, the San Francisco Labor Council, Community College students and unions, and dozens of public education and public-sector unions.

"Resist, Mobilize, Transform" surely applies to the New Faculty Majority's mission as well as it does to protecting higher education ~ which we, especially as "The New Majority," are part of too.

Do you recall that well-used and by now well worn favorite of pundits: "as goes California, so goes the county"? It's not just an old pundit's tale. California's higher ed dilemma is either coming to your campus or has already arrived.

If you don't feel you can support the proposed actions (not place to tell you what to do or how ~ and vice versa), at the very least you owe to yourself and your profession to be as well informed as possible, which means reading more than just the mainstream media and the established/ establishment academic press.

The following are my personal picks from the many excellent independent online sources out there:

• Remaking the University (Chris Newfield)
• Changing Universities (Bob Samuels)
• How the University Works (Marc Bosque)
• Student Activism (Angus Johnston)
• University Probe (Charlie Schwartz et alia), a critical forum on Research Universities, their finances, their governance... their futures

To be sure there are more ... all worthy of listing. And who knows, may well get their hat tip or even a blogroll of their own.

Do you have favorites to recommend? Please submit them, preferably annotated...

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.