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Friday, September 18, 2009

A Private University System of The Future? - The Daily Californian


A Private University System of The Future? - The Daily Californian:

"With foreseeable student fee hikes of 30 percent as well as a turn to out-of-state admissions and online courses to generate revenue-all on top of ill-timed raises for top-earning executives-the university is hardly recognizable as a non-profit educational system. Under UC President Mark Yudof's leadership, the university continues careening off-course, public in name only. Having overseen repeated tuition increases as University of Minnesota president, Yudof was surely hired to bring similar know-how to the university. Yet if California students are priced out of a UC education, what will Yudof's legacy be? On the one hand, Yudof protests he cannot redistribute funds to cover the shortfall in general academic needs. On the other, having gained unprecedented emergency powers from the UC Regents, a move befitting an imperial president, he wields discretionary control over the UC budget. In a system housing the likes of John Yoo, Yudof's contravention of the university's democratic principle of shared governance might come as little surprise. Outraged, even so, 96 percent of UC workers-staff, faculty, students-delivered a resounding vote of no confidence in his leadership last month."