City News Service is reporting that the UC Board of Regents will vote Thursday on a 32 percent tuition hike that will send fees to $10,302. Today’s committee decision to recommend the hike was disrupted by protesters, some of whom were arrested.
UC officials have said they don’t want to adopt the hike, but see no alternative in the face of major state budget cuts.
More than 60 percent of the public thinks that California’s public colleges and universities are doing well at educating students, but they’re worried about the affordability of higher education and the effect of recent budget cuts, says a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
The survey of 2,502 adult Californians, conducted from Oct. 20 to Nov. 3, also revealed that the majority of respondents think that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature are doing a poor job overseeing public higher education. People were especially critical of the legislature, with only 18 percent approving of the way lawmakers have dealt with issues involving colleges and universities.
In a news release, PPIC president and CEO Mark Baldassare said, “Californians hold their colleges and universities in high esteem. But they’re worried about what’s going to happen next. They’re struggling with a crisis in the economy and a crisis of confidence in their leaders.”
Orange County is home to 11 public schools — UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and nine community colleges. The schools serve more than 125,000 students and represent the three tiers of public higher education in California. All have been subjected to student fee increases, lay-offs or furloughs and program cuts due to state budget problems. The UC Board of Regents is expected to raise fees by an additional 30-32 percent next week. (UCI students to protest fee hikes.)
Click here to read the entire PPIC survey (which has a sampling error of plus/minus 2 percent). Here are some highlights:
Quality of education/performance
Author-attorney John Dean. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons
John Dean, the attorney who helped bring down the Nixon Administration when he cooperated with investigators looking into a political break-in at the Watergate complex, will give a talk titled, “Watergate: The Final Chapter,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11th, in Chapman University’s Sandhu Residence Center. The talk is free and open to the public and coincides with the recent re-release of “Blind Ambition,” Dean’s recollection of the Watergate affair in the 1970s. Dean, 71, also has written other books, including “Worse Than Watergate.” Although he worked for a conservative administration, he has since become a blunt critic of the conservative movement, especially during the presidency of George W. Bush and is a regular guest on Keith Olbermann’s liberal news show on MSNBC.
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Scores of UCI students supported union workers on Sept. 24th when they protested budget cuts being made throughout the UC system. Photo by Mindy Schauer, The Register
UC Irvine students say they’ll stage a rally on campus on Nov. 17th to protest the proposed 32 percent fee hike that the University of California Board of Regents is expected to approve next week when it meets at UCLA. The proposal would increase fees paid by undergraduate residents by at least $1,344.
The Regents are considering the hike to raise money to help balance the state budget. The proposal is supported by UC President Mark Yudof, who describes it as a painful necessity that will help the UC system slash its budget by more than $800 million. About $77 million of those cuts are being made at UCI, where there have layoffs, furloughs and program cuts. (Yudof statement.)
“President Yudof says that financial aid will cover the fee hikes that are faced by students from families that earn less than $70,000 a year. But what about students from families who earn a little bit more?,” says Emmeline Domingo, a sociology and literary journalism student at UCI. “My family makes about $75,000. I’m getting Cal Grants now, but that program might be cut and I might have to take out a bank loan.”
Domingo is helping the Associated Students of UCI (student government) organize the Nov. 17th protest, which will begin at 11:30 a.m. outside Aldrich Hall on UCI’s Ring Road. It’s unknown how large the rally will be, but Domingo said she hoped about 500 students would turn out.
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HEY LAY-DEEE: Jerry Lewis greets a well-wisher at Chapman University on Nov. 7th. Image by Gary Robbins, The Register
Legendary comedian-actor-director Jerry Lewis dropped by Chapman University’s annual scholarship fundraiser, “American Celebration,” on Saturday night, drawing a steady stream of well-wishers during a reception in Fish Interfaith Chapel. The 83-year-old Lewis appeared in good health, and Chapman President James Doti announced during a pause in the evening’s song-and-dance show that Lewis intends to return to film directing next year. Lewis, accompanied by his wife SanDee, received a standing ovation when he was introduced to the audience during the evening performance in Memorial Hall. Saturday’s “American Celebration’ raised $2.2 million for student scholarships. “We had dialed back our expectations because of the economy, but got $2.2 million, which is the second highest in the (28 year history) of the celebration,” said Mary Platt, the university’s spokeswoman. Doti announced the $2.2 million in scholarship money during a dinner party attended by more than 700 people. The dinner was held in a massive tent adorned with 45,000 roses that were provided by an unnamed private donor. Among the people attending the dinner was famed singer-dancer Mitzi Gaynor, who had received a lifetime achievement award from the school earlier in the evening.
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Doti discusses the future growth of the campus during an annual address. Photo by Bruce Chambers, The Register
James Doti, the economist who serves as president of Chapman University in Orange, was paid a salary $440,000 during the 2007-08 academic year, which is $40,000 higher than the salary given to the president of the United States. Doti also received $27,516 in benefits, for total compensation of $467,516, says the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE), which examined the salaries of scores of presidents and chancellors at public and private colleges and universities. (These are the latest comparative figures available.) The study doesn’t mention that Doti lives in a 5,000 square-foot home in Villa Park that’s provided by the university.
UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake also lives in an official university residence. And, during the 2007-08 academic year, he was paid $392,000 in salary, $19,600 in retirement pay and $8,916 to cover car expenses, says the CHE table. Drake’s total compensation was listed at $420,516.
I emailed Doti and asked, “I realize that they are different jobs, but how do you feel earning more, in salary, than President Obama? (His predecessor, George W. Bush, also was paid $400,000 in salary.)
Doti, who has been president since 1991, replied that, “If Obama wants to trade jobs with me, I’ll consider it… even at the lower pay.”
I also asked him why he earned more than UCI’s Drake, whose campus has almost 28,000 students. Chapman has an enrollment of about 6,000.
” I’d rather not comment on salary differences with Chancellor Drake,” Doti said.
Lastly, I asked Doti why his 2007-08 salary was lower than it was a year earlier.
“I’m not sure,” Doti said in the email. “It’s probably due to some things the Chronicle counts in one survey that they decide not to count in the next survey. New federal funding regs are also muddying up the comparisons.”
Sample of total compensation packages of a variety of California colleges and universities, 2007-08 academic year.
| Institution | Total compensation |
|---|---|
| University of the Pacific | $1,350,743 |
| Univ. of Southern California | $1,023,198 |
| Caltech | $803,296 |
| Stanford University | $731,614 |
| Pepperdine University | $526,926 |
| UC Berkeley | $467,556 |
| Chapman University | $467,516 |
| Pomona College | $453,000 |
| UCLA | $445,716 |
| Claremont McKenna College | $436,454 |
| Whittier College | $341,450 |
| University of Redlands | $324,768 |
| Biola University | $323,814 |
| Concordia Univ. (Irvine) | $221,798 |
That same year, the compensation for the president of the University of California system was $434,166. And for reasons not explained by CHE, the figures for Cal State Fullerton were not included in the national survey.
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Chapman University will produce a live public webcast of tonight’s performance of “American Celebration,” a song-and-dance show that’s meant to raise money for the schools’ scholarship fund. The broadcast begins at 8 p.m. Saturday’s performance will not be webcast.
The theme of tonight’s show is “The Eternal Optimist” and it will feature songs from such musicals as “Hello Dolly,” “Mame,” Mamma Mia” and “Annie.” The one hour performance, broadcast live from Memorial Hall, will feature student and alumni performers.
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