The Orange County Register has weighed in on the huge tuition hikes going on in California universities (Cal State and UC). The question must be asked; if part of your tuition is going to fund tuition for others, is that considered a fee or a tax? OCR has an opinion.
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/students-309035-fees-pay.html
If I may offer a small correction to the above article; annual tuition in the UC system is more like $30,000, not $10,000+, but who's quibbling? The fact is that the high cost of tuition has much to do with aid to other students, useless programs like diversity, sexual orientation and gender studies, as well as vice chancellors, deans and chairs to administer them at huge salaries, plus lefty teachers to teach them.
That all costs money, folks. Big money.
In the same edition of today's OCR, Michael Barone questions the need to spend all that money for such useless "education" (my words, not his).
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/bubble-309025-college-state.html
And finally, don't forget that new proposed UC graduation requirement; that each student will have accomplished "the cultivation of “a student’s understanding of her or his identity”. (No, that's not a typo.)
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/diversity-diversity-and-not-much-else.html
Can't make this stuff up, folks.
Ironic that the state has money to raise the salaries of college administrators and elected officials, but doesn't have the money to keep tuition low.
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth is the cultivation of identity?
ReplyDeleteCabbie,
ReplyDeleteIt's some department at UC Beserkeley.
Another Foustian laundry list.
ReplyDeleteMost of the programs Gary questions are indeed questionable. But, spending money on absurd programs is a different question than applying tuition to pay another student's financial aid package.
There is some simple arithmetic here, which Gary doesn't bother with:
1) How much is annual tuition?
2) At current pay and benefit rates, cost of food, etc., how much of that is needed to pay for classroom instruction, share of cost in plant maintenance, room and board, etc?
3) How much is left?
4) How much of tuition is supported by scholarships, grants and loans?
5) How much of that comes from bank loans, endowed funds, or non-tuition tax revenues?
6) Is (4) larger than (5)?
If there is money unspent, in the first series, and money not funded, in the second series, then we have a prima facie case that some tuition is subsidizing other tuition. Until the numbers are provided, and verified, we have Gary Fouse spouting politically correct hot air.
P.S. My identity is just fine thank you, I don't need anyone cultivating it for me, nor instructing me how to cultivate it.