Press-Enterprise: Students protest campus cuts
Rallies, teach-ins and class walkouts were held Thursday at University of California campuses, including UC Riverside, to draw attention to state cuts to higher education.
Hundreds of UC Riverside students, faculty, staff, union leaders and alumni gathered to voice anger over decisions earlier this year to increase student fees, decrease enrollment, cut class offerings and lower employee pay.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Protests, Strikes & Labor Disputes, U of California
The Berkeley Daily Planet: Walkout, Rally Hailed as Rebirth of UC Activism
Hundreds of University of California employees, including both faculty and hourly employees, have vowed a work stoppage today (Thursday) to protest low pay for campus workers and higher fees for students.
And, on a deeper level, many of the activists say they’re fighting the privatization of the public university system and the corporate values which, they say, favor profits over people.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Strikes & Labor Disputes, U of California, walkouts
Daily Californian: Crowds Flood UC Berkeley in Protest
Amid shouts of “Whose university? Our university!” and “Lay off Yudof!” thousands of protesters demonstrated on the UC Berkeley campus yesterday against the university administration’s handling of the budget crisis.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Strikes & Labor Disputes, U of California, walkouts
Inside Higher Ed: ’60s Tactics, New Cause
Few think the clock will be turned back to the Berkeley of the 1960s, but the protests planned across the University of California today mark a return to the tactics of another era. This time, however, the cause isn’t free speech or an end to war, but instead a response to the university administration’s budget-cutting proposals.
Today will be the first day of classes for 8 of the 10 campuses in the California system, and protest organizers plan to send an early message that the budget cuts besetting the university have been inappropriately addressed by system leaders. The centerpiece of the planned action is a walkout, which has been supported by systemwide student and technical employee organizations…
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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Media, Protests
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Protests, Students, U of California
News & Observer: Retired profs offer aid
CHAPEL HILL — In February, an association of retired UNC-Chapel Hill professors sought to help ease daunting budget cuts by offering to jump back into teaching, free of charge.
The response from the university, they say, has been underwhelming.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Faculty, North Carolina
The Chronicle: In U. of California Budget Crisis, Some Faculty Members See a Cover-Up
The University of California is dealing with its worst financial crisis in decades and a very uncertain financial future. But its leadership has another problem: convincing many of its employees that the situation really is as bad as it looks.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, coverup, U of California
The Chronicle: U. of California Regents to Consider 32% Increase in Tuition
The University of California may raise its undergraduate tuition by 32 percent by the fall of 2010 to replace sharply declining state support. The tuition proposal, which the system’s Board of Regents plans to discuss at a meeting next week, would raise resident undergraduate student fees by $585 in the spring semester of this academic year and by an additional $1,344 next fall. The university’s professional schools may also turn to unusually large tuition increases to make up for state budget reductions.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Tuition
Star-Bulletin: UH seeks to delay faculty paychecks by 1 day to save cash
The University of Hawaii administration is negotiating with the faculty union to save $12 million this fiscal year through a delay in issuing paychecks.
If the administration and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly can agree, unionized faculty members would see their June 30, 2010, paycheck pushed back to July 1, when the 2011 fiscal year begins. They will also likely see their paychecks pushed back a day for the next four pay periods.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Salary/Economic Benefits, U of Hawaii, Unions
Chicago Tribune: Chicago State gets $40 million surprise
State lawmakers plan funding for a West Side campus that the struggling school didn’t request
The president of Chicago State University was scanning the newspaper before an executive staff meeting when he did a double-take. Frank Pogue learned his South Side school would be building an extension campus on the West Side, and state lawmakers were allocating $40 million for it.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Chicago State U, Government
AP: University leader warns of more steep budget cuts
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—University of California President Mark Yudof warned Thursday that more budget cuts were in store for the 10-campus system when federal stimulus money runs out next year.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, U of California
San Francisco Chronicle: UC to lend state millions to kick-start plans
The cash-strapped University of California – forced to lay off employees, cut pay and offer fewer classes because of deep cuts in state funding – has now agreed to lend the state nearly $200 million.
Seriously.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, capital projects, loans, U of California
Reuters: California public union OKs strike authorization
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California’s largest state employees’ union voted on Saturday to approve a strike authorization measure to protest furloughs of state workers and pressure state officials to ratify its labor contract.
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes
Tagged Budgets & Funding, California, strike authorization, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions
Honolulu Advertiser: As unions struggle, leaders’ pay goes up
Labor executives in Islands averaged 9.4% salary hike last year
At a time of rising unemployment and declining membership at some unions, many local labor leaders took home healthy pay increases in 2008.
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A computer-assisted study by The Honolulu Advertiser found that top executives of the state’s 27 largest unions and labor organizations earned an average of $135,135 last year, a 9.4 percent increase from the year-earlier period.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged Budgets & Funding, pay, Salary/Economic Benefits, Unions
Oregon Daily Emerald: Staff rally against pay freezes, furloughs
Members and supporters of the union that represents classified employees at the University held an on-campus rally Thursday outside of Knight Library, protesting the contract proposed by the Oregon University System for the coming year.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged Budgets & Funding, furloughs, Oregon University System, pay cuts, Protests
Globe and Mail: Staff cuts to boost class size on campus
Services hurt as universities strapped for cash
A wave of staff reductions at cash-strapped universities will mean larger classes and fewer services for students at campuses this September.
The budget squeeze – the result of falling investment income and rising costs, especially for pensions – has left many universities scrambling to find millions of dollars in savings for the coming school year. With salaries accounting for the lion’s share of budgets, job losses are the inevitable result, school leaders say. That’s led to a range of actions to reduce head counts on campus, including layoffs, buyout offers, the cancellation of teaching contracts and hiring freezes.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Canada, class size, Job cuts, staff cuts
Detroit Free Press: Teachers cling to their benefits because it’s ‘one of our perks’
Teachers in the Wayne-Westland school district went on strike last fall for the first time in 36 years. Health care coverage was a key issue.
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In the end, teachers kept MESSA, the health insurance affiliate of the Michigan Education Association (MEA), as their insurer. The district wanted teachers to join a self-insurance plan officials said would give equal coverage at less cost, a claim the MEA disputed.
The New York Times: Union Accepts Furloughs at California Universities
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A union that represents 22,000 faculty members at California State University has agreed to two furlough days a month to help close a huge budget deficit at the 23-campus system, officials said Friday.
Inside Higher Ed: Cal State Faculty Accepts Furloughs
Faced with no good options, a union representing California State University faculty members decided to accept a furlough plan that will reduce compensation by about 10 percent, union leaders announced Friday. The California Faculty Association also questioned Chancellor Charles B. Reed’s leadership, voting “no confidence” in him by a margin of 80 percent. The union represents tenure-track faculty as well as lecturers, who would be most likely to lose jobs if furloughs hadn’t been approved. While the vote indicates some tenured and tenure track faculty essentially voted to preserve other people’s jobs, the measure passed by a significant but not overwhelming margin of 54 percent. The union had criticized Reed for not guaranteeing the furloughs would save jobs, although Reed told Inside Higher Ed he estimated 6,000 positions would be saved if the 23,000 union-represented faculty and other employees took furloughs. The association is affiliated with the National Education Association and the American Association of University Professors, as well as Service Employees International Union.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, California State U, furloughs, pay cuts
Union Tribune: Proposal to shutter some UCs hits nerve
UCSD profs’ letter says not all campuses equal
Online: To see a copy of the letter on budget cuts from UCSD professors, go to uniontrib.com/more/documents
SACRAMENTO – As it confronts an unprecedented financial crisis, the University of California is crackling with debate over some provocative proposals – such as closing one or more campuses – outlined in a letter signed by 21 UC San Diego department heads.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
KPCC: Cal State chancellor says layoffs likely even with furloughs
California State University’s chancellor said today he anticipates layoffs next year even if its largest union agrees to furloughs. KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has more.
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez: During a teleconference, Cal State chancellor Charles Reed said his plan for two furlough days a month would apply to almost all employees and would erase nearly half of Cal State’s $584 million deficit.
Charles Reed: Furloughs save jobs. Furloughs keep people’s health insurance and retirement benefits in place.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, California State U, furloughs, Layoffs
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U. of California Cuts: a Faculty Member’s Dispatch From the Front Lines
The Chronicle: U. of California Cuts: a Faculty Member’s Dispatch From the Front Lines
By Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Budget cuts at the University of California have generated a lot of attention, especially after a plan of across-the-board salary cuts, combined with mandatory furlough days, was recently announced. How will such drastic financial measures threaten the strengths of that system and other large public universities? Are certain fields of study in the humanities and social sciences especially vulnerable to state cuts because those areas of inquiry—even when dealing with topics of broad importance—rarely get large infusions of national, foundation, or corporate monies of the sort that routinely support work done in areas such as engineering and medicine?
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budget cuts, Budgets & Funding, Commentary, U of California