California Budget Cuts Impact UC, Cal State, Community Colleges

[Roger_Dooley]

The massive California higher education system that includes campuses of the University of California, California State University, and community colleges, is under extraordinary pressure due to the state budget cuts. The schools "are already raising fees, dropping courses, slashing enrollment, and compelling employees to take unpaid furlough days. In addition, class sizes are up, library hours are down, and plans for new programs and new schools are on hold."

Budget Cuts Hit California Campuses - The Paper Trail (usnews.com)

[siglio21]

I can imagine OOS public students hoping that this will make their schools have high reputations. These are hardly horrendous cuts, though; I'll take a few more years of budget cuts to really pressure the university on all aspects.

[chaospaladin]

Thanks for the article.

[henryclay]

looks like the governator has done it again O_O

[taxguy]

Rightly or wrongly, he has to do something about the California deficit!

[siglio21]

^I agree, but he should have avoided most of those cuts to education.

[waitingforcal]

"But I look at these trends and ask myself, how long can you reduce course offerings and still hold your head up and say you are still offering students a high-quality education?"

So as a rising high school senior, a person who not only was born in California but has lived in California her whole life, whose parents were born here and lived here their whole lives, and whose maternal AND paternal grandparents moved here as teenagers to start their lives, I have to worry about whether or not the schools I'm applying to will even be AROUND in a couple years?

Does this mean we should apply to more private schools? Or have those been hit just as hard?

[siglio21]

^Don't worry. I'll take some particularily bad years for the campuses to close.

[ParAlum]

The campuses will not close, but the quality of education-especially at the undergraduate level will dramatically decline based on the magnitude of the sudden cuts to the system.

The magnitude of cuts to California's education system is staggering and counter-productive. Graduation from many majors will be nearly impossible in the previous normative 4 year time frame. In addition, the states economy does not need graduates with high debt-it needs qualified educated entry level individuals who can afford to accept entry level positions!

[ripcurl100]

i remember talking about this with someone, defintiely a no bueno

[barrons]

Plans for new campuses and new programs are on hold........

Maybe they should have thought about that 10 years ago.

[HisGraceFillsMe]

These are hardly horrendous cuts, though; I'll take a few more years of budget cuts to really pressure the university on all aspects.

Really?

SSU has dropped tons of classes, laid off several excellent professors, and is not accepting Undergrad transfers. There is also a 16-unit cap on almost all Undergrad students (Hutchins majors, a special program that requires lots of extra classes, get a few more units), and a 17-unit cap on Grad students. Tuition has increased by about $800 per student.

Several classes have been dropped because there were not enough students in the class to merit paying the professor. But all the other classes are full, meaning those students simply lose out.

We get e-mails from the University almost every day explaining to us how the cuts are going to effect us next. If I didn't need to finish Undergrad ASAP to get to Grad School, I don't know that I would continue going to SSU. I really do love it there, but I'm afraid for what's going to get cut next. I've been relatively lucky so far...their Psych department (my major) is very strong, so we haven't had too many cuts.

[LasMa]

Actually, one option under consideration at UC is to close some campuses. Merced is particularly vulnerable, being the newest and smallest UC, but Riverside and Santa Cruz have also been mentioned. Capitol Weekly: One cost-cutting option for UC: close some campuses

The cuts to education, all levels, are deep and painful. But education is not being singled out; virtually all services in California are being cut deeply and painfully. Most state workers are now taking 3 unpaid furlough days per month, a 15% pay cut.

I'm no fan of the governator, but we can't pin this disaster on him. It's the result of the idiotic initiative system we have out here. The voters have appointed themselves lawmakers, with predictable results. For 30 years, we have consistently voted ourselves all kinds of expensive services, and at the same time we have made it almost impossible for the Assembly to raise the necessary taxes to pay for them. It took the recession to expose the house of cards, but it's coming down now with a vengeance, and we have no one but ourselves to blame.

[RileyJohn]

close those stupid UC's down.

Riverside, Merced, and Santa Cruz, that is.

[Kathyc]

This morning's big news is the big raises many of the higher-ups at UC are getting in the face of all of the budget cuts. Where is the shame? No one else in the real world is getting raises!