What’s so special about UC? Dating from the time of the Master Plan, UC is a one-of-a-kind offering of affordable, quality education at multiple world-ranking research campuses. The top 50 universities listed in U.S. World and News Report have an average tuition cost of $28,321 per year. Of the 13 universities in the top 50 with tuition less than $10,000 per year, 6 are University of California campuses. UCB, UCSD, and UCLA are top in Washington Monthly’s ranking, based mainly on Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), and Research (cutting-edge PhDs). Students of California, many from low-income backgrounds, have been getting an amazing educational opportunity that is only available to the rich elsewhere

The Public Good … Year 2007-2007

California is shifting its priorities By the 2012-2013 fiscal year, $15.4 billion will be spent on incarcerating Californians, as compared with $15.3 billion spent on higher education Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/29/EDGGTP3F291.DTL#ixzz0RsVxXqGm

Historical perspective In 1970, UC received about 7% of the state’s general fund budget. Today, it has fallen to roughly 3%. State per-student funding for educating UC students has fallen from $14,210 in 2000-01 to $10,370 today (inflation-adjusted). From 1984 to 2004, California's population increased 35%, while state funding for higher education decreased by 9%. Higher education is the only major part of California’s budget that grew more slowly than population. Today, less than 20% of UC’s budget comes from the State of California. More than half of UC’s research expenditures come from federal sources, and federal funds represent nearly 20% of grant aid received by UC students. http://www.ucthewayforward.org/budgetfactsheet.pdf

About the UC Budget Crisis 2009 A woman is arrested by UC police after protesting at the Mission Bay campus in San Francisco. Faculty, staff and students are urging a systemwide walkout Sept. 24, the first day of classes for the fall quarter at many UC campuses. (Paul Chinn / Associated Press / September 16)

What crisis? 2010-11 UC Budget Gap $632.6 M Equivalent to: Eliminating State support for 2 medium-sized Campuses Reducing enrollment by 57,500 students Closing UC libraries and public service programs Terminating 8,300 employees Eliminating all core-funded student financial aid http://www.ucop.edu/budget/pres/2010-11/F1-BudgetUpdate-sep09.pdf

Consequences Mid-year fee hike

Consequences Student fees will increase dramatically by 44% by 2010 (making UC have fees in rank of semi-private schools like U of M)

Consequences Staff and faculty at all UC campuses given paycuts from 4 to 10% Top-flight research faculty will be poached Your opportunities to gain first-hand experience (from research to performance art) with top faculty will be greatly diminished

What happens when fee’s go up? When the University of Michigan moved to a semi-privatized model, it relaxed admissions standards to recruit more out of state student who pay much more in tuition. >50% of Michigan’s 2003 freshman class came from families with six-figure incomes in a state where only 13% of families earn that much. The result has been significantly diminished access for the residents of Michigan, especially the most disadvantaged, and a reduction in the quality of the University as seen in its drop in rankings by U.S. News and World Report. http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Understanding-the-Crisis.pdf

Bottom line for you UC is becoming more private and less public, which is bad for ACCESS (it will become a school for the rich and out-of-staters) Your educational opportunities will be impoverished, and this will have an immeasurably profound impact on your future

What you can do Be informed: http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/ Stick up for your education by spreading the word Vote when the time comes! Lots of students don’t vote, and your vote definitely counts … Write your legislator: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/