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Monday, July 21, 2003
Newsweek does a piece on the financial disaster at Berkeley. It's not very well written. For one thing, it gives the impression that the Regents' move falls totally on Berkeley, instead of being shared by the many many students in the UC system. Unless you already know, it's unclear that the fee raises are for everyone, not just Cal.
The budget woes ate away at the academic hierarchy—affecting the public schools, then community colleges, then the Cal State system. And now, even Berkeley. The stress was clear last week at a San Francisco meeting of the UC Board of Regents, which voted to raise student fees 25 percent (to an average of $5,247 annually for undergraduates)—a measure UC president Richard Atkinson reluctantly supported as a last resort.It also reduces the multitude of areas the cuts affect to two areas: faculty brain drain and minority enrollment. Near the top of everyone’s list of concerns at Berkeley is ensuring a diverse campus. Cutbacks in funds for minority recruiting could make it harder to reach inner-city students, says Berkeley’s chancellor, Robert Berdahl.This is the major concern in a massive budget struggle? I could list a dozen before reaching reduced funding for minority recruitment. After all, any effect that reduced funding has for a marginally productive program will be swamped by the gigantic impact that a 25% fee increase will cause. If Chancellor Berdahl is so concerned about a diverse campus, he would be better off concentrating on holding on to the lower to middle class ones he already has, or on funding programs that allow minority students to attend. Building outreach programs to the inner-city while ignoring the effects of a huge fee increase is not productive. The faculty problem, while a real issue, is more of a long-term concern then an immediate one. No, the immediate issue is the large number of students who received a massive fee increase only a little more then a month before school starts. They're boned. And it doesn't sound like the University is thinking of creative ways-- or any ways!-- to keep them enrolled. Shouldn't this be a vital and pressing issue for the Administration? Do they even have figures on what the dropout rate will be due to this new fee increase? I'm not certain that there are avenues out there to stop student flight, but it's criminal not to be looking into it. (Link via Anthony Paganini) Email This Post! |
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