Orange County Register: Capistrano Unified teachers authorize strike
ALISO VIEJO – Capistrano Unified School District teachers, frustrated and angry over a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on them by the school board, have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, union leaders announced Friday.
Nearly 87 percent of the 1,848 teachers who cast ballots over a two-day period ending Friday voted to give their union governing board the power to decide when, or if, they will walk off the job.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged California, Capistrano USD, K-12 issues, Strikes & Labor Disputes
Contra Costa Times: Community colleges may offer bachelor’s degrees
With tens of thousands being turned away from state universities, California lawmakers likely will consider granting community colleges the right to offer a limited number of bachelor’s degrees.
The shift, which has occurred in 17 other states in the past decade or so, would represent a major philosophical change in California, where the three state higher-education systems have clearly defined roles.
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Posted in Academics, Budgets & Funding
Tagged Academics, Budgets & Funding, California, community colleges
Los Angeles Time: Parents in California Start to Mobilize Against Tuition Hikes
The budget crisis afflicting California State University could not have come at a worse time for Berenice Vite and Rafael Curiel, whose son Alonso is a sophomore at Cal State Long Beach. As the university was imposing a 32% student fee hike this year, Curiel underwent two shoulder surgeries and lost his job at a medical equipment firm.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Organizing
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Cal State University, California, parents, Tuition, U of California
San Jose Mercury News: Evergreen College Board backs off plans to lay off workers in wake of chancellor Perez investigation
Facing about 200 angry college employees, the board of trustees of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District backed off plans to lay off 85 workers and 21 managers, saying it would explore other strategies to fill a $3.5 million dollar budget shortfall.
Employees said their jobs should not be sacrificed in light of allegations that outgoing Chancellor Rosa Perez charged the district and its foundation for lavish perks that included overnight stays at San Jose’s luxury Fairmont Hotel, a tour of El Salvador and airfare to Scotland.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged California, Evergreen CC District, Job cuts, Layoffs, Protests
Inside Higher Ed: Religious Meets Litigious
A group that advocates separation of church and state has filed a lawsuit against South Orange Community College District, in California, for opening many of its official events with Christian prayer.
The suit by Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenges prayer at Saddleback College, one of two institutions in the district. It states that, “for years, the trustees, the chancellor, and the president of Saddleback College have routinely held official prayer at numerous events for college students and faculty, including scholarship ceremonies, graduations, and the Chancellor’s Opening Sessions.” These public prayers, the suit further argues, “are insulting to [the] deeply held religious beliefs of some students”; it also states that these prayers make other students “feel like outsiders because they do not belong to the … preferred faith” of the community college.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged California, Legal issues, prayer, Religion, South Orange CC
The Chronicle: California Community Colleges May Adopt Common Assessment by 2010
Community colleges in California will be encouraged to offer a common assessment in mathematics and English for incoming students starting in the fall of 2010, the system’s chancellor, Jack Scott, said today at a news conference. The system’s 110 campuses have long offered dozens of incompatible assessment tests, which Mr. Scott said had wasted money, muddied transfer pathways to universities, and made it more difficult for students to move from one community college to another.
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Posted in Accountability
Tagged Accountability, California, community colleges
10news.com: SWC Professors Won’t Face Charges Over Campus Rally
CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Criminal charges will not be filed against three Southwestern College professors involved in a recent on-campus rally, 10News reported
On Friday, about 300 students and faculty members rallied in protest of the school’s free speech rules.
“I think we’re all here because we love this college,” said Rep. Bob Filner, who joined the rally against Southwestern College’s rules regarding when and where students can gather to protest.
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Posted in Protests
Tagged California, Protests, Southwestern College
IndyMeida: California’s Crisis of Higher Education
On October 21, 2009 – hundreds of students at Fresno State walked out of their classrooms and held a rally at the university’s Peace Garden to protest the massive cuts to higher education and the California State University system. Students voiced their concerns with the unprecedented tuition increases, canceled classes, furloughed faculty and staff, and reduced enrollment opportunities. They then took their message to the sidewalks and streets of the campus calling out to students, faculty, and staff to take a stand and join the walk out. Many did. By the time the march reached Shaw and Cedar Avenues, all four street corners were overflowing with students speaking out on behalf of themselves and the future of higher education in the state. “I hope that this walkout will increase community awareness that the budget cuts to the CSU are delaying our graduations, forcing would-be students out, and creating a precedent that “its ok” to cut education when really funding education gives back in more ways than one,” explained Whitney Thompson, a women’s studies major at Fresno State and a spokesperson for Students for Quality Education, the organization spearheading the event. At the end of the march, the students presented Dr. Welty with a list of demands, which Welty indicated he would address at a later meeting.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, Cal State University, California, Fresno State U, Protests, U of California
California Chronicle: University Administrators Fight to Line Their Own Pockets
SACRAMENTO – University of California and California State University administrators have killed a bill that would have limited executive pay raises during bad budget years.
Despite the fact that the Senate Appropriations Committee found no costs to the bill and the Assembly Appropriations Committee´s analysis estimated a significant cost-savings, the Assembly Appropriations Committee today held the bill on their suspense file without allowing a vote. Normally, the suspense file is used to kill bills that have a significant cost to the state.
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Posted in Administration, Government, Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged California, California State U, 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
Workers World: California budget crisis hits students, education workers
The economic crisis in California spells hardship at the state’s public universities as budgets are balanced through a combination of tuition hikes and pay cuts for faculty and other workers.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged California, economic crisis
Daily 49er: Students unite against fee hikes, layoffs
CSU faculty and students formed a rally Tuesday to give ‘shame’ to the CSU board of trustees
Protesters shouted “Shame on you!” and other slogans at trustees as they entered the chancellor’s office in Long Beach on Tuesday.
Ainsley Sanchez wiped the sweat off her forehead and punched her fists in the air as she marched and chanted alongside students, faculty members and parents who showed up Tuesday to protest outside California State University Chancellor Charles Reed’s office.
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Tagged California, California State U, fee hikes, Layoffs, Organizing, Protests, Students
Times-Herald: CSU fund management questioned
Concerned that California State University foundations may be mismanaged, a state faculty union has urged Attorney General Jerry Brown to launch an investigation.
“The 23,000 members of the California Faculty Association have serious concerns about whether or not the CSU’s various foundations are conforming to proper fiduciary responsibility under state and federal law,” union president Lillian Taiz wrote in a letter this week to Brown.
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Tagged California, California State U, foundations, Investigations, mismanagement, Unions
San Francisco Chronicle: UC chief lays out ‘draconian’ budget cut plan
Facing a loss of $813 million from the state, University of California President Mark Yudof is proposing widespread cuts for UC, including imposing unpaid days off on employees, eliminating jobs and killing out courses.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, California, furloughs, U of California
Sacramento Bee: Furloughs expected at California State University system
The furlough has become an unfortunate reality for many Sacramento area residents. More than 200,000 state workers are now facing a third monthly furlough day. About 18,000 UC Davis employees will probably have to take furloughs starting in August.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Bud, California, California State U, furloughs
Calif. budget crisis forces schools to slash programs, fire teachers, expand class sizes
Budget crisis forces deep cuts at Calif. schools
RICHMOND, Calif. — California’s historic budget crisis threatens to devastate a public education system that was once considered a national model but now ranks near the bottom in school funding and academic achievement.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged Budgets & Funding, California, Job cuts, Layoffs, program cuts
AP: Budget crisis forces deep cuts at Calif. schools
RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) — California’s historic budget crisis threatens to devastate a public education system that was once considered a national model but now ranks near the bottom in school funding and academic achievement.
Deep budget cuts are forcing California school districts to lay off thousands of teachers, expand class sizes, close schools, eliminate bus service, cancel summer school programs, and possibly shorten the academic year.
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Tagged Budgets & Funding, California, K-12 issues
The Chronicle News Blog: 5 California Ballot Measures Fail, Making Deeper Cuts to Higher Education Likely
San Francisco — California voters rejected five ballot measures on Tuesday that were designed to help close the state’s budget deficit, leaving its public colleges and universities facing additional cuts of up to 10 percent in the support they receive from the state.
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Posted in Budgets & Funding
Tagged ballot measures, Budget cuts, California
The Chronicle News Blog: California Attorney General Says Anti-Affirmative Action Measure Is Unconstitutional
San Francisco — A landmark ballot measure banning affirmative action in public hiring, contracting, and college admissions, approved by California voters in 1996, violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal-protection guarantees, Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Wednesday in a letter to the state’s Supreme Court.
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Posted in Legal issues
Tagged affirmative action, California, Legal issues
San Francisco Chronicle: Even in recession, UC spends big on top brass
The University of California’s worst financial crisis in years has not prevented the hiring of high-salaried administrative talent or the awarding of pay raises, promotions and perks to a dozen executives, university records show.
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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits
Tagged Administration, Budgets & Funding, California, Equity, Salary/Economic Benefits
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