According to Herodotus They Only Needed 300

According to Herodotus They Only Needed 300

“I do not know of any organization that achieves budget discipline from the bottom up. We need to be sufficiently top-down to get the job done. Nobody’s going to volunteer to make the kind of changes that are required.”                   Christopher Edley (94) Some of the discussion on Chris'...

Just Trying to Say that We Don't Care

Just Trying to Say that We Don't Care

UC"s latest image disaster came in the form of what I dearly hope is UC's final 2010 appearance in the California press.  Today's San Francisco...

The LAT, The Regents, and The Conventional Wisdom

The LAT, The Regents, and The Conventional Wisdom

By Michael Meranze With so extensive a demand, it follows that a very large part of our social comment--and nearly all that is well regarded--is devoted at any time to articulating the conventional wisdom.  To some extent, this has been professionalized.  Individuals, most notably the great television and radio commentators, make a profession of knowing and saying with...

The Debt Crisis and the Austerity Trap

The Debt Crisis and the Austerity Trap

State officals are caught in a mental loop, and it is nicely visualized by state treasurer Bill Lockyer's forlorn op-ed in the Los Angeles Times.  Arguing that "California Isn't Broken," and anxious to head off implausible suggestions that the state could default on its debt, Lockyer and coauthor Stephen Levy write, During the current fiscal year, general fund revenues are...

UC Autonomy: Is that Campus Closing?

UC Autonomy: Is that Campus Closing?

The Los Angeles Times reports that there is a growing sentiment among legislators in Sacramento that they should have greater oversight and influence not only in the amount of money that UC gets but in how it is spent.  Strikingly, the three points that seem to have mobilized the greatest concern are the size of executive pay and perks, the continual fee increases, and the...

Rethinking the UC Future (2): the UCOF Report's View of Revenues

Rethinking the UC Future (2): the UCOF Report's View of Revenues

Whatever message the Regents wanted to send by passing the Commission on the Future recommendations, the cuts message is what came through. UC officials are promising less to future students - that's what the reporters picked up. The sacrifice might go somewhere if it were done in an atmosphere of fairness, intelligence, and mutual attention and respect.  The UCOF process...

Educational Dimensions of Italian Riots

Educational Dimensions of Italian Riots

A UC colleague writes from Italy: The riots broke out after Berlusconi's government – which is, among other things, attempting to pass a massive and massively impopular overhaul of the Italian universtity system, under the name of lega Gelmini – obtained a vote of confidence (fiducia) in the Chamber, amidst much manoeuvring, with Berlusconi thus managing to remain in power. The...

Happy Holidays: The Regents Meet

Happy Holidays: The Regents Meet

The Regents met today to discuss UCOF (which they approved) and also President Yudof's Pension proposal (modified to protect the interest of some high earners) which they also approved.  The actual pension proposal is here.  You can also find audio of the Regents meeting her...

Rethinking the UC Future (1): the UCOF Report's Impacts on Students

Rethinking the UC Future (1): the UCOF Report's Impacts on Students

The short, special Regents meeting on Monday, December 13 will consider pension changes and the ratification of the recommendations of the Commission on the Future. Most commentators have found the Report uninspiring. The San Francisco Chronicle focused on elements that will reduce services to and contact with in-state students (more out-of-state students, on-line courses, and...

The Mask of Anarchy (Part II)

The Mask of Anarchy (Part II)

By Michael Meranze Next came Fraud, and he had on, Like Eldon, an ermined gown; His big tears, for he wept well, Turned to mill-stones as they fell. And the little children, who Round his feet played to and fro, Thinking every tear a gem, Had their brains knocked out by them.       Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy As Thatcher’s epigone marshal their forces...

Just in Time for the Holidays

Just in Time for the Holidays

The Commission on the future has released its final report.  You can read it here.  Coverage in the LAT can be found here.  The Sacramento Bee coverage is here.  Check it ou...

The Mask of Anarchy (Part I)

The Mask of Anarchy (Part I)

By Michael Meranze I met Murder on the Way— He had a mask Like Castlereagh Very smooth he looked, yet grim; Seven bloodhounds followed him: All were fat; and well they might Be in admirable plight, For one by one, and two by two, He tossed them human hearts to chew Which from his wide cloak he drew. Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy The dapper Cameron has replaced the corpulent...

The Opposite of Shopping

The Opposite of Shopping

In celebration of having skipped the shopping hell of post-Thanksgiving Friday, I caught up on some tech articles, trying unsystematically to find someone who doesn’t like their iPad as much as I don’t like mine. I ran into David Pogue’s piece about what he’s learned in 10 years of writing his “State of the Art” technology products column for the New York Times. Focusing mostly...

Against the Mind-forg'd manacles

Against the Mind-forg'd manacles

In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice; in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear  ---William Blake Following their very successful demonstration of November 10, where somewhere around 50,000 made their way to London to protest the proposed elimination of governmental support for university teaching and the reduction of the students...

Pop the Mace

Pop the Mace

Bob Samuels reports, "First of all, they voted to change fees to tuition without discussion and with a quick vote. I thought this was a historic move, but the regents did not think it was a big deal. Then  they went out of their way to connect the student fee increase to the need to fund the pension for the workers and the faculty.  Outside students were arrested and...

Regents This Week

Regents This Week

The Regents have some items on their agenda that will reshape the University of California.  Wednesday the 17th at 9:30 the Committee on Educational Policy will discuss the effort now spreading throughout the system to recruit more nonresident students who can be charged more than double in-state fees.  The L.A. Times report repeats without investigating claims that...

Post-Election 2: Laying the Base for University Recovery

Post-Election 2: Laying the Base for University Recovery

What comes next for universities after the Democratic "shellacking"?  Michael has laid out the basic issues, and it's worth adding that the public is going to get what they didn't actually want, and then asking how to make the case for something better. First of all, the Democrats failed to make a case for a major innovation boom, one based on a serious increase in public...

After the Deluge

After the Deluge

It will take some time to grasp the meaning of Tuesday's election for higher education and the state in general.  But it is possible to take some preliminary bearings.  Clearly the biggest victory was the defeat of Meg Whitman.  While Jerry Brown has never shown himself to be a friend to UC, he does not share Whitman's conviction that the state's problems lie in...

London Calling

London Calling

By Michael Meranze London calling to the imitation zone Forget it, brother, an' go it alone London calling upon the zombies of death Quit holding out-and draw another breath --The Clash If Albany’s language departments are the canaries in the coal mine of public education, the ongoing efforts to restructure higher education funding in England are the coal mine collapsing. ...

Class War

Class War

By Catherine Liu We are in the midst of a class war, but only Fox News dares to use that scandalous expression. According to its pundits, it’s the “havenots” with their healthcare reforms and “entitlements,” public pensions and other soul sapping “scams” who are attacking the “haves.” At least Right-wing pundits aren’t afraid of the word “class.” Liberals, Leftists and Progressives...

Lawyers, Money, Hide & Seek

Lawyers, Money, Hide & Seek

By Charles Schwartz, UC Berkeley October 25, 2010 Earlier this year, perusing the published list of reports regularly provided to the Regents by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), I noticed this item, “Annual Report on Use of Outside Counsel,” and submitted a formal request for a copy of that document, under California’s Public Records Act (PRA). I...

Humanities Cuts of Choice

Humanities Cuts of Choice

Budget shortfalls are now frequently being used to justify decisions that clearly undermine educational goals.  In most cases, as in that of the SUNY-Albany suspension of five humanities departments, the few figures given do not offer specific evidence of the stated budgetary need.  In the case of the Browne Report that threatens to cut Britain's public funding for university...

Alternative Pension Politics

Alternative Pension Politics

Despite UCOP's efforts to limit the discussion of Pension reform to PEB's Options A & B they have been unable to prevent alternative approaches from emerging.  The Senate Members of the task force argued forcefully in a Dissent  that neither of the administration's preferred options would maintain staff and faculty quality (an argument developed further by Bob Anderson). ...

Whitman and Pensions

Whitman and Pensions

Meg Whitman raised the issue of UC pensions in her last debate with Jerry Brown arguing that the UC Pension problems were blocking access for students.  Everyone should be aware that she will most likely try to move against the pension systems if she wins.  You can hear the audios at the UCLA FA Blog.  Thanks to Dan Mitchell for catching this poin...

Pension Decision May Be At Hand

Pension Decision May Be At Hand

Gov. Schwarzenegger tried and failed to covert California public pensions to 401(k)s with a special election in 2005. This year, he used the budget negotiations to force permanent reductions in the pension formula for state workers. This was a major reason for the furloughs and IOUs and uncertainty and the rest of it.  According to the California Report Sunday broadcast,...

Losing Greater California

Losing Greater California

The University of California's permanent base budget share of the General Fund for 2010-11 will be about $100 million below expectations. This bring in the budget somewhat below the 2006-07 level in nominal dollars. I'll discuss the UC situation in more detail below, but will start with the overall state situation, which is even worse. Commenting on the new budget and its $1...

Coverage of October 7th Protests

Coverage of October 7th Protests

Huffington Post Daily Cal San Francisco Chronicle KTVU Daily Bruin Daily Nexus UCI New University Live Blog Chronicle of Higher Education  New Faculty Majority Analysis and Lin...

More on UC Regents conflict of interest

More on UC Regents conflict of interest

The Berkeley Planet reports that since 2003 Gerald Parsky, Richard C. Blum, and Paul Wachter, all financiers themselves have steered UC investments and pensions towards risky private equity and real estate instruments. In order to maintain the appearance of propriety, they got UC to hire private money managers with high fees. Not only were private managers paid handsomely, their...

Fall Comes to the U of Washington

Fall Comes to the U of Washington

by Gerald Barnett, Director, Research Technology Enterprise Initiative, UW-Seattle In the State of Washington, funding for higher education is in a free-fall. An August 29 story in the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the State has cut the budget of the University of Washington by 33% or $134m in the past 15 months. But that’s not all, as Governor Gregoire has...

UCRP: Real Questions, False Answers

UCRP: Real Questions, False Answers

 Introduction by Michael Meranze With  the Regents set to take up the UCRP task force report -- and to consider the Senate's Dissenting Statement  as well as a new UCOP Response to the Dissenting Statement --it is more important than ever that the entire university community have the information necessary to debate, and the influence to effect, the future of employee...

Bain's Blow to Berkeley

Bain's Blow to Berkeley

Nothing kills performance like distress.  The same goes for fear, anger, powerlessness, injustice, and a sense of having been screwed over by ignoramuses....

Staffing the Downsize

Staffing the Downsize

As the many comments by staff members to the post Did I miss Something? make clear, the task force on pensions and UCOF are only one strand of the ongoing restructuring of UC.  In multiple departments and offices, especially at Berkeley, staff jobs are being eliminated and downsized while faculty are away, and the attempt to cut costs on the basic organization and staffing...

Did I Miss Something?

Did I Miss Something?

In the latest issue of the Senate Source Henry Powell makes explicit what many of us already suspected--that while the UCOF process is ongoing, President Yudof has told the working groups that their participation will no longer be needed.  Admittedly, this announcement is no great surprise.  But it does raise at least one question.  At the first round of recommendations...

Defining the Pension Funding Gap

Defining the Pension Funding Gap

With the pension report and its dissent now posted, the California Professor concludes, at the end of a helpful analysis, that "these proposals are an effort to replace the furloughs with permanent cuts in total compensation." The Daily Cal summarizes the decline narrative, and includes the kind of odd sound bites that often emerge from our UC Oakland non-campus.  A Senate...

Why Did Mark Yudof Discuss the Pension Report Ahead of its Release?

Why Did Mark Yudof Discuss the Pension Report Ahead of its Release?

UPDATE: The Report of the Post Employment Benefits Task Force has now been posted. So has the 10-page "Dissenting Statement" (without appendicies). Mark Yudof has released a statement about the Task Force report on the UC pension system that has itself not yet been make public.   The Yudof  message contains perfectly OK principles regarding pension attractiveness...

A letter to my students

A letter to my students

by Michael O'Hare, professor of public policy Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere. The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110% because that's what I've learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best job in the world. That's...

Right-Wing Talking Points Are Spreading

Right-Wing Talking Points Are Spreading

By Michael Meranze As some of you may have seen, the Goldwater Institute has issued a new report on administrative bloat in universities.  Not surprisingly, the report points to the incredible growth of administrators (relative to faculty, students, and staff) over the last decade and a half.  But there are several things that should give us pause--especially since...

What Happened This Summer?

What Happened This Summer?

By Michael Meranze Compared to last year, when the University was mobilized around the issues of furloughs and the President’s emergency powers, this summer has seemed quiet. But this appearance is misleading. If nothing quite as contentious as furloughs has been bandied about, the impulse that underlay the expansion of UCOP’s authority has not diminished. We would do well...

Creator of Berkeley's First On-Line Course Tells All

Creator of Berkeley's First On-Line Course Tells All

Dear Dean Edley: I've been following with interest what you're saying in the press about UC online education. I teach Statistics N21, the first online course at Berkeley to be approved by COCI.  It was approved in 2007.  I've been teaching it for four years, this year to 400 students. The current syllabus is here. Statistics N21 a gateway course: probably one...

For Profits and Accreditors Finally Feel the Heat

For Profits and Accreditors Finally Feel the Heat

The Chronicle covers the Senate investigation into the illegal and unethical recruiting practices at for profit colleges and universities. Regulation of the industry was loosened in 2002. As reported by the Berkeley Planet and the LA Times Blum’s firm, Blum Capital Partners, has been the dominant shareholder in two of the nation’s largest for-profit universities, Career Education...

S(L)IDESHOW

S(L)IDESHOW

By Michael Meranze The unfolding summer has made it clearer than ever that the Regents have many plans but no sustainable vision for the future of UC. The plans are direct enough: administrative centralization, staff cuts, increasing tuition for students, a faith-based commitment to a second-tier of online UC education and a lowering of staff and faculty benefits. It is equally...

Unhappy Anniversary!

Unhappy Anniversary!

One year ago this week, the UC Regents approved furloughs for state-supported UC employees, emergency powers for President Yudof, and looked ahead to the fee hikes that would be coming at the November meeting.  The Chancellor's dramatic testimony of cuts to campus operations at the July meeting shocked the Regents and caused Regent Chair Russell Gould to form the Commission...

Delta Cost Project Casts Doubt on On-Line Education Strategy

Delta Cost Project Casts Doubt on On-Line Education Strategy

The Delta Project's new report, "Trends in Higher Education Spending, 1998-2008," has data to fuel a dozen major debates about higher education policy. One finding is particularly relevant to the much-discussed proposal to get UC into the on-line education business. The interest among senior managers in on-line education was wedded in public comments to the belief that UC was...

July Regents Meeting: Presidential Resolution Likely to Decrease rather than Increase Efficiency

July Regents Meeting: Presidential Resolution Likely to Decrease rather than Increase Efficiency

The Finance Committee of the Regents will consider an item at their July 14th meeting called "Adoption of Resolution Regarding Administrative Efficiencies" (F2).  At first glance, it is guaranteed to increase the president's executive authority, but is unlikely to increase UC efficiency. The resolution has the following features: It is the first item associated with the...

The Future of Online Learning at UC

The Future of Online Learning at UC

by Sharon Farmer History, UC Santa Barbara At its April, 2010 meeting, the Systemwide Academic Council of the UC Faculty Senate endorsed a revised version of a pilot project on online learning that had been brought forward by the UC Office of the President and endorsed by the Faculty Senate’s University Committee on Educational Policy.  In its April endorsement, the Academic...

The State We're In

The State We're In

By Michael Meranze July has come again and we are without a state budget. While this fact is no great surprise, the summer of 2010 will not be simply business as usual for UC, California, or the United States. Indeed, one doesn’t have to be a Cassandra to recognize that decisions made this summer will haunt us for a long time. At the state and federal levels Democrats in disarray...

Is California K-12 Our UC Destiny?

Is California K-12 Our UC Destiny?

I love steadily declining educational resources as much as the next person, and very much enjoyed this report just out today, which shows that California after years of striving now has successfully achieved the worst schools in the nation, 44th in this, 46, in that, 50 in librarians pet student - all numbers that make us special.  We are also 50th in class size, having the...