Yudof Quits CalChamber Board Over Political Endorsement in Gubernatorial Race

From the PolitiCal blog of the LA Times

Education leaders California Chamber of Commerce board to protest Whitman endorsement (excerpt)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/09/community-college-chief-quits-chamber-board-to-protest-whitman-endorsement.html

[Updated] September 3, 2010 | 12:29 pm

[Updated at 4:40 p.m.] The president of University of California and the chancellor of the California community college system has resigned in protest from the California Chamber of Commerce board of directors after the organization backed Meg Whitman's bid for governor.

Jack Scott, a former Democratic state senator from Pasadena who was appointed as chancellor by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced his resignation in a letter to chamber President Allan Zaremberg after the endorsement vote Friday.
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[Updated at 4:40 p.m.] Mark Yudof, president of the University of California, also suspended his membership on the chamber board last week in anticipation of Friday's vote.

"As the president of a public university, I cannot take sides in electoral politics," Yudof wrote in a letter to chamber president Allan Zaremerg. "I must preserve my politically agnostic status." Yudof said, "it is my hope that in December, the board will find a way to create a category of non-voting, ex officio members, which I would be pleased, if asked, to join."

Charles Reed, Chancellor of the California State University system, also sits on the chamber board. He did not attend Friday's meeting.

The chamber has traditionally stayed out of partisan politics, even though the group is often seen as Republican-friendly. In 2003, the chamber backed Schwarzenegger with its first endorsement for governor in its 112-year history.

Earlier this year, the chamber was forced to withdraw an ad that many members saw as critical of Jerry Brown. Zaremberg claimed the ad was a nonpartisan "issue ad" but agreed to take it down after pressure from chamber members.

-- Anthony York in Sacramento

Some Data to Ponder on the Labor Day Weekend

Below are data from a table from the recently-released "The Digest of Educational Statistics 2009" published by the National Center for Educational Statistics. It shows the estimated rate of 2005-06 high school graduates attending degree-granting institutions, by state, in 2006. Note that California - despite all of the talk we hear about preparing the workforce of the future - is not particularly highly ranked.

The full table is available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_203.asp

United States............. 62.0%

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Mississippi .............. 75.4

New York ................. 75.0

Massachusetts ............ 72.6

South Dakota ............. 72.1

North Dakota ............. 71.9

New Mexico ............... 71.1

New Jersey ............... 70.2

South Carolina ........... 69.5

Georgia .................. 68.6

Virginia ................. 68.3

Minnesota ................ 67.8

Delaware ................. 66.3

Maryland ................. 66.3

North Carolina ........... 65.7

Kansas ................... 65.6

New Hampshire ............ 64.6

Michigan ................. 64.5

Nebraska ................. 64.3

Tennessee ................ 64.2

Indiana................... 63.9

Louisiana ................ 63.9

Colorado ................. 63.6

Connecticut .............. 62.9

Pennsylvania ............. 61.6

Alabama .................. 61.5

Kentucky ................. 61.5

Maine .................... 61.1

Wisconsin ................ 61.0

Iowa ..................... 60.9

Illinois ................. 60.4

Florida .................. 60.2

Oklahoma ................. 59.6

Ohio ..................... 59.5

Wyoming .................. 58.0

West Virginia............. 57.9

Missouri.................. 57.7

Arkansas ................. 56.7

Montana .................. 56.4

District of Columbia ..... 56.3

California ............... 56.1

Texas .................... 55.4

Hawaii ................... 55.1

Rhode Island ............. 54.7

Vermont .................. 54.5

Nevada ................... 52.2

Washington ............... 48.7

Oregon ................... 47.7

Utah ..................... 46.3

Alaska ................... 45.8

Idaho .................... 45.8

Arizona .................. 45.0

Hey Professor! What's Your Bottom Line, Texas Style?

Texas A&M System grades faculty — by bottom line (excerpt)

September 01, 2010, Vim Patel, The Eagle

Frank Ashley felt the shifting winds several years ago: As state officials embarked on accountability measures for K-12 teachers, he said, he told his faculty colleagues that public sentiment would eventually demand such measures in higher education.

Now, Ashley, the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System, has been put in charge of creating such a measure that he says would help administrators and the public better understand who, from a financial standpoint, is pulling their weight.

A several-inches thick document in the possession of A&M System officials contains three key pieces of information for every single faculty member in the 11-university system: their salary, how much external research funding they received and how much money they generated from teaching.

The information will allow officials to add the funds generated by a faculty member for teaching and research and subtract that sum from the faculty member's salary. When the document -- essentially a profit-loss statement for faculty members -- is complete, officials hope it will become an effective, lasting tool to help with informed decision-making.

"If you look at what people are saying out there -- first of all, they want accountability," Ashley said. "It's something that we're really not used to in higher education: For someone questioning whether we're working hard, whether our students are learning. That accountability is going to be with us from now on."

Full story at http://www.theeagle.com/am/A-amp-amp-M-grades-faculty

What Exactly is an Aspirational Graduate Student?

Below is an excerpt from California Watch:

UC commission looks to boost grad student enrollment (excerpt):

Erica Perez, September 2, 2010

A commission that advises the University of California on its long-term goals this week recommended increasing the proportion of graduate students at the UC from 22 percent to 26 percent of the student body.

The 25-member UC Commission on the Future discussed the need for more graduate students at their Aug. 31 saying the move was necessary to serve the university's research mission and educate California's future professors.

Considering the university's tight budget, however, moving to increase graduate students would cost the university hundreds of millions of dollars to recruit the best students with competitive financial aid packages. That makes the commission's goal of increasing graduate student enrollment "purely aspirational," said Daniel Greenstein, the UC's vice provost for academic planning, programs and coordination and a member of the panel.

The recommendation was one of several discussed this week and will be included in a draft report that the commission will review during a meeting Oct. 11.

Full story at http://www.californiawatch.org/watchblog/uc-commission-looks-boost-grad-student-enrollment-4428

Upcoming State Supreme Court Furlough Case Could Have Spillover Effect on UC

The governor has won some furlough cases and lost others in lower court decisions. At issue is his authority to impose the furloughs. The issue is going to be heard at the California Supreme Court next week, Sept. 8. UC furloughs are not part of the case since they were not imposed by the governor. However, if the governor loses, substantial back pay could be owed to state workers who were furloughed. The contrast of back pay ordered for state workers but none for UC would undoubtedly raise pressure on UC management to consider some kind of recompense for its own employees.

Excerpt from the Sacramento Bee:

The stakes. Enormous, starting with the bank accounts of more than 200,000 state workers who have lost nearly 50 workdays and close to a combined $3 billion or so in pay since February 2009.

Then toss in questions about executive authority, the sanctity of labor contracts (do furloughs have to be negotiated or can they be imposed?) and our celebrity governor, and you have a full-blown, precedent-setting case.

"People will refer to this decision for years to come," UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar said.

The hearing. At Wednesday's hearing, each side will have 45 minutes to present its case, three times the usual period for oral arguments.

The court didn't grant the added time because it needs convincing. In fact, the justices have probably already drafted a confidential tentative decision after weighing the reams of documents already filed.

Full article at http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/02/2999835/the-state-worker-schwarzenegger.html

Governor's Press Conference on the Budget Focuses on Public Pensions

The legislative session ended August 31 with votes on Democratic and Republican versions of the budget that were known in advance not to have sufficient votes. Two thirds is required to pass a budget although there will be a proposition on the November ballot to reduce the requirement to a simple majority.

Today, the governor held a press conference. Much of it was devoted to his insistence that a budget deal cannot be reached unless there is pension reform. A link to the press conference is provided below. However, the key point for UC is that we remain in danger of being swept into some broad statewide public pension changes. It remains unclear what the governor has as a bottom line in his demand for pension reform. Various deals have been signed with state employee unions that call for higher employee contributions and a two-tier plan for new hires. But apparently signing such contracts with state unions is not viewed by the governor as sufficient.

When asked if he is calling a special session on the budget - something he said he would do earlier - the governor indicated that he is not going to do so, at least now.

The governor said a variety of things in the press conference including macro prescriptions and interpretations regarding the economic policies of Germany, Britain, etc., which are best discussed elsewhere. Media representatives rarely question numbers put out by public officials and no such questions were asked at this news conference.

The press conference is available at:

More Moving Towards Michigan

Money may not grow on trees. But under the so-called Michigan Model - after a plan adopted by the University of Michigan - out of state students are an attractive substitute for a money tree because they pay full tuition. UC-Berkeley has already headed in the direction of pulling in more out-of-staters. Now it is reported that UC as a whole is likely to be moving in that direction under a recommendation of the Committee on the Future.

From the San Francisco Chronicle (Excerpt):

UC sees money in out-of-state students

Wednesday, September 1, 2010,

Nanette Asimov

Ask any University of California undergrad where he comes from, and the answer - with 94 percent certainty - will be somewhere between San Diego and Crescent City.

That may soon change.

UC should recruit higher-paying students from out of state over the next five years to take the place of thousands of in-state students, an influential commission that advises the UC regents decided Tuesday in San Francisco.

The commission said that UC enrolls about 15,000 California students beyond what the state pays for, and the university would do better financially with more out-of-state students...

Some UC campuses are already adding out-of-state students, notably UC Berkeley.

Its chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, said last week that he wants 20 percent of Berkeley undergrads to be from out of state in four years, up from 11 percent today.

The Commission on the Future is eyeing a similar percent for the rest of UC, but did not provide specifics.

The commissioners did agree that out-of-state students will have to present academic records higher than the median of local students at each campus they apply to.

Full article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/01/BAFR1F6EQV.DTL&tsp=1