Spot.Us and Peter Byrne continue to make headway on our investigation in the UC Regents. We now have a coailition of five publishers and 47 individuals who have raised close to $4,000 for our reporting efforts. Next week we will have a blog post update and soon after that – we will release some of the public documents we’ve requested to the internet for all to see (they are, after all, public documents). For now – here’s the latest from the inter-tubes.

An Honest Approach
The Daily Cal
After one day of last week’s meeting of the UC Board of Regents, Vice President for Budget Patrick Lenz dropped a bombshell: UC applicants could be put on wait lists system wide for the first time this spring. Sometimes, the most important part of judging someone’s actions isn’t what they do, but how they do it. And UC administrators did this one all wrong.

Students Defy Attack on Higher Education in California

Anual fees at the University of California in 1979 were $685. Thirty years later, they were $10,302 as the University of California’s appointed regents, who oversee 10 campuses throughout the state voted to raise fees by 32 percent, to begin next fall. Schools throughout the state’s three-tiered public education system—including hundreds of state schools and junior colleges—are also seeing fee hikes and program cuts.

West Coast Lessons: Don’t Give Universities Tuition Authority
Olympia Newswire
The University of California system has had the authority to set its own tuition rates for many years. In November 2009, after the state legislature made yet another cut to its already tight budgets, the UC Regents voted to increase student fees by a whopping 32% — bringing the cost of an undergraduate year at a UC school to $10,300 (and that’s before room, board, and books are included). In contrast, when I graduated UC Berkeley in 2000, I paid $4,400 a year.

Regent’s Meeting: students protest fee hikes

YouTube
Although the protest was late last year, this video was just uploaded last week. The impact of the tuition hikes are still being felt.
Tags: UC

University of California applications set record
The Modesto Bee
University of California campuses from Davis to San Diego saw dramatic increases in the number of transfer students applying for the fall of 2010, fueling a rise in applications statewide to their largest number ever despite steep hikes in student fees, according to data released Thursday by UC’s Office of the President.

‘A Budget You Can’t Believe In’
City on a Hill Press
The UC Board of Regents, the 26-member governing body of the UC system, met yesterday to discuss issues of the newly proposed budget. The regents, who meet six times each year at different campuses, specifically addressed the state’s possible increase in higher education funding. Student presence was markedly low compared to the last regents’ meeting, but UCSC’s Student Union Assembly external vice chair has high hopes for attendance at a March 1 rally in Sacramento. Comparing the governor’s recent proposal to last year’s, student regent Jesse Bernal said, “I wouldn’t say that I’m optimistic, but I’m less disappointed than last year.”

Regents to back UC students protest at Capitol
SFGate.com
After last fall’s angry and at times violent campus protests, it seems unlikely that rival students and leaders of the University of California would stand together to speak out on behalf of UC. But when students hold their big Day of Action in Defense of Public Education on March 4, converging on Sacramento to lobby lawmakers for sufficient funding, several members of UC’s governing Board of Regents and UC President Mark Yudof said Wednesday they’ll be there with them.

UC leaders wary of governor’s budget promises
San Jose Mercury News
University of California leaders on Wednesday expressed skepticism about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, saying he made unrealistic assumptions about federal money and still does not plan to give UC the funding it needs.

Waiting lists to be established at most UC campuses, regents say – latimes.com
Los Angeles Times
The University of California will break with tradition and establish waiting lists for freshman admission as it copes with uncertain state funding, officials said Wednesday.

UC Regents Propose Cutting Enrollment Again
kcbs.com
The state budget crisis is having a significant impact on the University of California, and now regents are taking a close look at lowering student enrollment.

UC regents to OK millions in exec incentive pay
SFGate.com
The University of California’s governing Board of Regents, meeting in San Francisco this week, is expected to formally approve $3.1 million in incentive pay to 38 senior medical center managers who last year met performance goals, ranging from improved patient safety and satisfaction to raising revenue.

Related posts:

1. The University of California – Tuition, Applications and an Uncertain Future
2. A Day of Protests Across California – Public Education Cuts and Tuition Hikes
3. Investigating the UC Regents – Who is Profiting off California’s Education?
4. Bay Area Issues, Links for July 14th, 2008
5. Solar apprenticeship program heats up in California