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Saturday, June 4, 2022

Where will it lead?

You may have seen a recent article in the LA Times - excerpt below - concerning a legislative effort by a Riverside state assembly member to get extra funding for UC-Riverside. It is interesting that in the video of the related news conference, although there are various speakers, you don't see the chancellor of UC-Riverside. And in the article, there is a cautious statement from UCOP that the bill in question is being evaluated.

It's not surprising that UCOP is cautious, since a process whereby each campus goes to the legislative branch to trying to get a larger share of the pie could have unintended consequences. It tends to undermine the constitutional autonomy of UC and the Regents, such as it is. One can imagine scenarios in which inter-campus squabbles over who gets what leads to less funding overall. There is the old adage about hanging together or hanging separately.

From time to time, we have pointed to the need for a renewed Master Plan for Higher Education, since the old 1960 version is clearly eroding. The legislative push for larger undergraduate enrollments is making the need for a new Master Plan more evident.

From the LA Times: Jordan Guillory, a UC Riverside junior, is never sure where his math class will meet. Sometimes, it’s outdoors. Other times, it’s an empty lecture hall. The class never received an assigned classroom as the Inland Empire campus grappled with a 4,450-seat shortfall in instructional space, the second-highest deficit in the University of California system. Guillory, a low-income transfer student from San Diego Miramar College, is already behind schedule to graduate in the expected two years. He wasn’t able to get sufficient advising and missed taking a course in a needed math sequence, which will set back his graduation by at least a quarter. UC Riverside is short more than 700 staff members and 100 faculty members, compared with the UC systemwide average per-student ratios.

And he and other UC Riverside students, faculty and staff endure leaking roofs, falling ceiling tiles laden with asbestos, lead-based paint peeling from walls and power failures that have destroyed laboratory research specimens. Those conditions outrage many campus members and influential supporters such as Assemblyman Jose Medina (D-Riverside). They question why the Inland Empire campus — which educates the system’s second-highest share of California low-income students of color — lacks the resources of other campuses.

About half of UC Riverside students are low-income, underrepresented minorities or the first in their families to attend college. A 2011 state audit found that UC distributed less per-student funding to Riverside and three other campuses with high proportions of underserved students, a finding that led to changes in allocation formulas aimed at more equity. But Medina — and UC Riverside officials — argue that more support is needed. On Friday, Medina plans to showcase new state legislation to dramatically boost support for Riverside and UC Merced, which has the highest share of low-income students of color, through an “Inland Rising Fund” that would pay for more classrooms, labs, faculty, staff and research projects aimed at powering economic development in the often neglected Inland Empire and Central Valley regions. “This is an attempt to level the playing field and do something that has been overdue and is just the right thing to do as well,” Medina said about the funding boost.

The bill establishing the fund was approved in a 74-0 vote by the California Assembly last week and has advanced to the Senate. It does not yet include the $1.4 billion that Medina has proposed. The Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom will need to negotiate the final funding level during state budget talks this month, Medina said, but the joint legislative budget proposal released this week includes an initial $250-million allocation for campus expansion projects at UC Riverside and UC Merced and at least $185 million to fully fund climate initiatives at the two campuses and UC Santa Cruz.

Medina, a UC alumnus and former high school teacher, says the funding boost would be a “game changer” for the state’s inland regions. His funding proposals include support for research into climate change, including a new UC Riverside clean technology park and a UC Merced center for climate and social justice, along with medical education to help train healthcare professionals for the underserved area.

The UC Office of the President is still reviewing the legislation to assess the effect it would have on overall funding for the 10-campus system, which educates 295,000 students...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-03/uc-riverside-enrolls-high-share-of-low-income-students-but-it-faces-funding-inequities.

The bill in question is at:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2046.

A news conference of June 3rd promoting the bill can be seen at:

Or direct to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tko5ZWJlYJQ.

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