Schwarzenegger Promises Funding For Higher Education

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to veto any state budget that does not provide additional funding to higher education, reported the Associated Press.

Schwarzenegger met with a dozen top administrators and student leaders from the various higher education systems in California. The meeting marked the 50th anniversary of California's Master Plan, which greatly expanded the affordability and accessibility of higher education to California residents. The budget cuts now have a gun to the head of the Master Plan, and have all but pulled the trigger.


Schwarzenegger has proposed a $224 million increase in general fund spending to higher education, reports the AP, and has threatened to reject any budget from the Legislature that does not award this money.

"If anyone tries to tinker around with that particular area of my budget, I will not sign the budget," he said in the AP article. In January, the Republican governor proposed a constitutional amendment to set the state's general fund spending at a 10 percent minimum for the UC and CSU systems, it is currently at 7.5 percent.

Over the past five years, students in the UC and CSU systems have suffered an increase of over 60 percent in student fees, according to the AP. Both systems - which combine to serve 3.5 million students each year - have also reduced enrollment, cut courses, and instituted faculty furlough days and pay decreases as a result of budget cuts.

Watergate At CSU Stanislaus

Students at CSU Stanislaus discovered shredded documents pertaining to Sarah Palin's upcoming visit to the campus in a dumpster.




"This in fact is a dark day for the CSU, particularly for the Stanislaus campus," said Senator Leland Yee, quoted in the CFA's newsletter. "To some extent this is our own little Watergate here in California."

The documents, which the university claimed did not exist, included parts of the speaking contract between Palin and the university. The documents were found in a dumpster outside the school's administration building during a furlough day. Although the discovered documents did not reveal how much Palin is getting paid for the event - reported the Los Angeles Times - they did specify two round-trip, first-class commercial air tickets to the event city, a one-bedroom suite, two single rooms in a deluxe hotel, bottled water, and bendable straws.


The Attorney General Jerry Brown will launch a broad investigation into the alleged dumping of the documents, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Brown will also look into whether the foundation uses its reportedly $20 million in assets for educational purposes.


"It is truly shocking and a gross violation of public trust that such documents would be thrown away and destroyed during a pending investigation," said Yee in the CFA newsletter. Yee was already criticizing the foundation for the secrecy of their contract with Palin, and was calling for the disclosure of their finances.

Several students retrieved the shredded documents after one of them received a call that the documents were being destroyed, reported the Times. "We were very shocked that documents such as these that the university had in their possession would be discarded like this," said Alicia Lewis, one of the students who found the papers, in an interview with the Times. "We started making contacts right then to make sure the documents were put in the right hands."

The controversy further exemplifies the need for government transparency and accountability says Yee.


The video, courtesy of Youtube, is the press conference of Yee and two of the students who discovered the documents.
Photo courtesy of the LATimes.com

UCLA Returns Student Fees

Photo Courtesy of Los Angeles Times
The administration at UCLA will return $15 million dollars in student fees that it originally planned to use towards an ambitious renovation of Pauley Pavilion.


The administrators' decision comes days after the Los Angeles Times published an article that revealed the misuse of funds at the UC campus. The article claimed that administrators planned to use $25 million of student fees for the renovation after original fund raising efforts fell short. The renovation, which includes high-definition score board, cushier seats, and expanded locker rooms "seems like a strange priority," said long-time UCLA fundraiser Richard Bergman, quoted in the Times article.

$10 million of the student fees will still be used for renovation to help make seismic improvements to student facilities. How the returned $15 million will be used is still undecided.