California Budget Released
Gov. Schwarzenegger (the only guy whose name is harder to spell then our new Chancellor) has released his new budget. Details are all over the place, including this SD Union-Tribune article:

*Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget provides an across-the-board boost in funding for higher-education institutions and has been welcomed by educators who have struggled with years of large cuts.

*California's public college students would benefit from more class offerings, and faculty and staff will catch up on salaries that have lagged behind those at competing institutions.

*While many educators reacted positively to the higher-education budget, student leaders yesterday criticized it for including student fee increases and a potential cut for outreach, which provides college preparatory programs.

*Two months ago, the governing boards for the UC and CSU systems approved 8 percent fee hikes for undergrads and 10 percent increases for graduate students for next year.

*UC undergrads will pay annual fees of $6,770, while CSU undergrads will pay about $3,100. Among peer institutions, UC and CSU student fees are lower than average, though they have been steadily increasing.

*State funding for UC, CSU and community colleges would increase between 5 percent and 5.5 percent over 2004-05.

Instead of offering my own commentary on whether this is good or bad for students/the state/UC Berkeley/education in California, I wanted to see if there were two CalStuff readers interested in doing a little point/counterpoint on this. I figure there will be some takers, as you guys have already begun arguing about it in the comments to an entirely unrelated post.

You can either e-mail me or send me an IM if I'm online (or else call dibs in comments, but include a way for me to reach you), and let me know whether you want to argue the "conservative" or "liberal" side. If I've heard by one person from each side by around 10 o'clock tonight, I'll let the two people know it's on, and then you should have something written by Thursday night to post. Post should be around 200 words, and I'll let you post under a pseudonym, if you desire.

Update: Between when I started this post and finished it, Ben put something up below. Because of all the previous interest in a budget post, now you guys can have two. Enjoy! Opportunity for guest submissions is still on.
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