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Talking Points on State Budget Crisis and California Faculty Association Action
from the San Francisco State CFA Chapter
A state budget crisis is now looming over San Francisco State. Students, faculty, staff, and the university community are faced with cuts that could have profound consequences. To take action to mitigate the impact of this crisis, it is essential that members of the faculty have accurate information on how this situation has unfolded and what we can do about it. Below are the key events of the campus budget situation to date and action our CFA chapter has taken to date to stand up for our rights.
These talking points are prepared on November 7, 2008 by the CFA SF State chapter for its department representatives. For more information on them, contact Ramòn Castellblanch, CFA chapter president, at ramonc@sfsu.edu or 415 271-5901.
Key Events:
1. In 2004, over CFA opposition, California State University and the governor reached a 6-year revocable financing agreement for CSU known as the Compact. The compact used over a half-a-billion dollars in cuts to the CSU budget that had been enacted in 2003-04 and 2004-05 as its base; but it promised to provide the CSU a 3 percent state General Fund increase in 2005-06 and 2006-07 and 4 percent increases from 2007-08 through 2010-2011.
2. In 2007, California Faculty Association negotiated 4 years of raises with CSU. However, by state law, CFA had to give CSU the right to reopen negotiations on the raises, if it didn't get expected funding. Since the compact already represented a low CSU budget, CFA agreed that negotiations could be reopened on raises if the CSU budget fell below the compact.
3. In January 2008, the governor proposed a CSU 2008-09 budget $386 million below the compact.
4. The CFA, CSU, and others joined in the Alliance for the CSU to fight the proposed cuts. In line with the alliance at SF State, CFA established the Education Budget Advocacy Committee (EBAC) and visited our legislative delegation.
In the spring, 2008, EBAC also visited our legislative delegation, staged a large all-campus rally, sent hundreds of students to a state capitol rally, ran a fax-in to the governor, and got an op-ed supporting CSU in the SF Chronicle. EBAC extended our alliance to include City College of San Francisco, held a joint rally at city hall and got a resolution from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors supporting CSU.
5. In May 2008, in response to the Alliance for the CSU, the governor restored $97.6 million to the CSU budget, still $228 million below the compact, but enough to maintain the integrity of our academic programs.
6. On July 1, with the 2008-09 state budget not resolved, CSU withheld the 2008-09 contractual raises from faculty.
7. On September 23, the governor signed the 2008-09 state budget; shortly thereafter, CSU exercised its option reopen negotiations on raises.
8. This fall, CFA successfully supported pro-CSU student candidates for office: Assemblywoman-elect Joan Buchanan in the East Bay and Supervisor-elect Eric Mar in San Francisco. EBAC is working to put together a breakfast for reporters to set up better press coverage for subsequence EBAC events. CFA student interns continued collecting cards supporting the Alliance, bringing the SF State total to over two thousand.
9. On October 23, the CSU chancellor gave back $31.3 million of the $97.6 million to the governor; he told CFA this return was mandated when documents (available at http://www.calfac.org/Oct08cuts.html) show that it was voluntary.
10. On October 27, SF State froze spring enrollment; required students to pay for spring before seeing enrollment options. Department chairs move forward in cutting spring sections.
11. On November 5, special session of legislature convened.
12. On November 6, the governor called for an additional $66.3 million cut to the CSU budget, eliminating the $97.6 million May restoration of funds to the CSU 2008-09 budget.
12. On November 17, the first meeting of CSU-CFA negotiators is set to take place.
13. January, 2009: the governor will present his 2009-10 state budget. Given the current state of economic activity and state tax revenues, it could involve even deeper cuts than those of 2008-09.
Fall Action by our CFA Chapter
1. Supporting CFA email-in to chancellor, objecting to his concession of $31.3 million. SF State community members can express our dismay over the chancellor's concession by e-mailing the chancellor via: http://capwiz.com/calfac/state/main/?state=CA.
2. Providing department reps with talking points on budget crisis and CFA. Reps could ask to be agendized for their next department meeting to update their colleagues.
3. Calling a November 13 meeting to discuss campus action on the budget. You can join students, staff, and faculty as we plan action on the SF State campus to stand up for students, faculty, and staff in the CSU budget crisis. The meeting is set for Noon in Rosa Parks E.
4. Flying students and faculty to the November 18 CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach with message: "CUTS HAVE CONSEQUENCES". Our chapter will support flying faculty and students down for the day to represent SF State. In Long Beach, CSU faculty, students, and staff will rally outside the Chancellor's Office from 11 am to 1 PM to testify to the impact of cuts on their work and education. The CSU Trustees and the press will be invited to listen during their lunch break. If you or your students wish go, please contact the chapter office at 8-6232 or cfa@sfsu.edu.
5. Planning a November 19 fax-in to Chancellor Reed at SF State. We will send faxes to the chancellor from the main level of the Cesar Chávez student center all day. Faculty, students, and staff can send faxes and help us send the faxes. For more information, contact Sue Pak, CFA field rep to SF State chapter, at 510 290-4308 or spak@calfac.org.
6. Continuing to enroll members of the campus community in the Alliance for the CSU. You can join via: http://www.allianceforthecsu.org/.
7. Collecting stories on the impact of budget cuts on programs and students for a report to the California Legislative and the media. You forward stories to Alice Sunshine of the CFA at: CutsHaveConsequences@calfac.org.
Tell Congress: Act Now on Economic Recovery
From the NEA
Congress needs to take immediate action on economic recovery. Unemployment rates continue to rise, financial markets are unstable, states facing budget crises are cutting funding for essential services including education, and working families are feeling the squeeze of escalating prices for basic necessities.
Congress is scheduled to adjourn within the next few weeks. Don't let Congress leave Washington without providing fiscal relief for states, helping low-income families and the unemployed, maintaining needed public services, and boosting the economy. Congress should also pass a temporary increase in the federal matching rate for Medicaid, as well as providing additional funds for infrastructure investments such as school construction.
Contact your Representatives in Congress Today!
Tell Congress to pass an economic recovery bill now!
You can also contact your Representatives toll free by calling 1-888-245-0215.
TRANSFORMING HIGHER EDUCATION
From the Department of Education: Spellings efforts
On October 1, Secretary Spellings delivered a major address, entitled "Educating America: The Will and the Way Forward," at the John F. Kennedy Forum at Harvard University. "We need to ask ourselves, is our education system all it should be?," she said, rhetorically. "Is it preparing all of our children for success in college and the workforce? Is it giving them the skills to make a difference in solving the vital issues of the day?.... In all candor, we must answer no." Yes, she continued, some schools are "challenging the status quo," lengthening the school day and year, spending more time on basic subjects, customizing instruction, and paying teachers for results. Moreover, the No Child Left Behind Act is "spurring change and innovation," shifting the conversation from how much we are spending to whether students are actually learning. Nevertheless, "We cannot be content with having some good schools and some bad ones, or a bright future for some and not for others. We live in a global economy -- not a gated community." Therefore, "[W]e need the support of the higher education community," she concluded. "You have a major skin in this game. You pick-up where the schools leave off -- paying the price with remedial coursework and lost opportunities. Over the past three decades, federal investment in higher education tripled. Yet, college enrollment and attainment is virtually flat. In 1975, the U.S. was number one in college completion rates. In 2005, we were number 10.... We may have 'the will.' But it's 'the way' that has me worried."
For further information, please follow this link.
At the forum, the Secretary specifically proposed a dramatic simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which new and returning college students must complete to qualify for a share of more than $80 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study assistance. The current form is six pages long, with four additional pages of instructions, and asks students to answer some 120 questions. The Secretary's new form -- which must be approved by Congress -- would contain less than 30 questions, arranged in eight evident categories, and, coupled with other reforms, provide "real-time" notification of eligibility and financial aid amounts.
For further information, please follow this link
One day later, at Boston's Charlestown High School, the Secretary demonstrated College.gov, the new, student-focused web site deigned to inspire and motivate students to continue their education beyond high school. This site -- a gateway to credible information -- has three main sections: why go to college, what to do to get to there, and how to pay for it. Each section features videos of college students sharing their stories of overcoming obstacles to achieve their dreams. The Secretary also visited Steven Berbeco's Arabic class. Berbeco is one of the Department's 25 Teaching Ambassador Fellows, contributing to and learning about education policy at the national level. James Liou, a Fellow at Boston Community Leadership Academy, attended the event as well.
For further information, please follow this link
Looking for information about individual institutions?
Then explore College Navigator, or College Portrait which includes recent results from one of three standardized measures of learning and also the University and College Accountability Network with the ability to search by an array of variables.
SAFEGUARDING AMERICA'S COLLEGES
The next "Education News Parents Can Use" broadcast (October 21, 8:00-9:00 ET) will focus on preventing and mitigating safety breaches on college campuses and more effectively responding to emergencies if they occur. The U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies have created safety guidance for the K-12 and higher education community based on a common framework. However, the nature of college life -- where students enjoy open campuses and considerably more freedom and privacy rights than younger students -- presents unique challenges. In turn, colleges and universities are encouraged to be thoughtful and comprehensive as they go about creating their own plans to furnish a safe learning environment. The broadcast will: highlight several Department programs available through the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools that seek to enhance safety on campus; discuss the rights students and parents have under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); feature institutions that are leading the effort to enhance campus safety; and supply tips for20parents on the health and security of students.
More information here or to watch watch the archived web casts follow this link.
Fresh Round of State Budget Cuts Hits Higher Education
By ERIC KELDERMAN
From Chronicle of Higher Education
The current fiscal year for most states started at the beginning of July, but colleges and universities are already bracing for budget cuts as state revenue from sales, corporate, and income taxes continue to nosedive in the struggling economy.
In a report released late last week, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research organization in Washington, says that 21 states were expecting budget shortfalls totaling nearly $9-billion for the fiscal year that started July 1-an amount the center expects to grow as the nation deals with the continuing effects of the Wall Street meltdown, the housing slump, high unemployment, and low consumer confidence.
As in the previous fiscal year, when 29 states had to close budget gaps totaling $48-billion, public colleges and universities are sharing across-the-board budget cuts with the multiple agencies that compete for state funds, like prisons, elementary and secondary schools, and health care.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has told public colleges and universities they will lose 5.6 percent of their state funds to help cover a budget gap that has reached $143-million in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
In Pennsylvania, tax revenue is nearly 5 percent below projections for the current fiscal year, and Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, is proposing to cut more than $50-million, about 4.25 percent, from public college and university budgets.
In Virginia, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat, has asked higher-education institutions to pare from 5 percent to 7 percent of their state funds as part of an effort to close an estimated $2.5-billion budget shortfall.
In Utah, higher-education funds are being cut by about 4 percent, or $33-million, at a time when enrollment in the state's colleges and universities has risen nearly 9 percent.
Cuts Up on Cuts
In Tennessee, higher education may have to cut as much as $44-million, about 3.4 percent, from its current budget, which the state had already reduced by $56-million from the previous fiscal year.
In Arizona, a $1-billion package of construction projects approved for this year is stalled in the Legislature, which has put a hold on the money over concerns that lottery sales, scheduled to provide 80 percent of the money, are falling off.
The University System of Maryland would lose just $10-million of its $1.1-billion operating budget, but the state would take back $20-million from the system's bond fund. Community colleges, however, could lose as much as $16-million in state funds under proposed cuts by Gov. Martin J. O'Malley, a Democrat.
The current round of budget-cutting comes on the heels of a tough year for many higher-education systems. Lawmakers in New York, for instance, have slashed 7 percent of the state university system's funds this year, and the previous year cut nearly 4 percent of state appropriations=2 0to the system. Alabama lawmakers cut 11 percent of public four-year college financing last year, and Florida's higher-education funds were reduced by 6 percent.
Many other states already are considering budget cuts for the next fiscal year, as in Nevada, where Gov. James A. Gibbons, a Republican, is proposing a 14-percent reduction in public higher-education funds.
A report last week from the Nelson20A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public-policy research arm of the State University of New York, warns that tax collections in many states could fall even further this year, making a bad fiscal situation even worse for much of the nation. While state income-tax collections in the second quarter of 2008 were 6.6 percent higher than they were for the same period in 2007, state sales-tax revenue dropped 1.4 percent, corporate income-tax collections fell 8.3 percent, and motor-fuel taxes declined by 3.4 percent, according to the institute's analysis.
At the same time, state and local governments are suffering more from inflation than the overall economy is, the report says, with the costs of goods and services jumping 6.6 percent in the second quarter.
Obsession With Rankings Goes Global
By AISHA LABI
From Chronicle of Higher Education
As universities compete harder for students and professors, they look more closely at their international standings.
A Chinese list of the world's top universities would seem an unlikely concern for French politicians. But this year, France's legislature took aim at the annual rankings produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which claims to list the 500 best universities in the world. The highest-ranked French entry, Università Pierre et Marie Curie, comes in at No. 42.
Outraged by France's overall weak showing in the rankings, which are dominated by Am erican and British institutions, the French Senate issued a report arguing that the researchers were clearly biased in favor of English-speaking institutions.
Gallic pride aside, the legislators' concern underscores a fundamental change in higher education. Simply put, it has become an international enterprise. The flow of students, researchers, and money now takes place on a global scale.
As a result, people are paying close attention to where their institutions end up in international as well as national rankings, however flawed they may be.
"Rankings are now part of the landscape, whether we like it or not," says Pierre de Maret, a former rector of the Università Libre de Bruxelles and a board member of the European University Association.
He is no fan of the methodology used by the Shanghai rankings, but, he concedes, the list "has had a direct impact at the government level and has really shaken things up."
Apportioning the Money
Some governments and universities use rankings to help determine how much public money the institutions receive and how that money is spent. In Malaysia, after two mid ranked universities slid down the charts of a popular listing put out by Britain's Times Higher Education, a weekly magazine, the prime minister set up a national committee to see how the country's public universities could raise their international standing. One of the two institutions, the University of Science, Malaysia, hired a British consultant to examine the publication's methodology for possible bias.
Growth in the number of universities looking to set up international partnerships also fuels the rankings obsession. Most administrators want to be certain that they are forging links with institutions of equivalent heft.
International-rankings tables, which did not even exist a decade ago, are also increasingly used by the world's roughly=2 0three million international students to decide where to study.
"Rankings have gone global at exactly the same time that universities are fighting over global students as a resource," says Robert J. Coelen, vice president for international affairs at Leiden University and founder of a regularly held international symposium on rankings at Leiden.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Times Higher Education put out the two most-watched international listings. More than 30 countries also produce some sort of national rankings system, says Thomas D. Parker, a senior associate at Washington's Institute for Higher Education Policy, which has been outspoken in the rankings debate.
Shaping Policy
Regardless of the methodology or metrics, the same handful of institutions tend to dominate the top 25 places of the various tables, and they will very likely always attract the best international students.
It is at the next level that the rankings effectively come into play, says Mr. Coelen.
For a university like his,20ranked 76th by Shanghai, "we're interested in talented students in the next batch," he says. Well-regarded institutions in the top 100 or so, like Leiden, "are being helped by the rankings system. We know students use it, and that they start looking farther down the ladder if they don't get into the top tier."
The Shanghai list, which first appeared in 2003, was the first globally focused ranking of universities and quickly came to dominate the new field. For Europeans, the Chinese table has driven home the message20of just how wilted the continent's academic laurels have become.
Because European universities are still almost entirely subsidized by public money, a higher-education sector that is perceived to be failing to measure up to international competition becomes a political liability.
In France and Germany, Shanghai's focus on research prowess has been a backdrop to discussions about how to better integrate scientific research - historically the preserve of specialized institutes - and higher education.
Germany reached a recent decision on dividing nearly two billion euros among designated universities largely on the basis of how strong they were in research.
In France, a central goal of a new law intended to shake up the higher-education system is increased collaboration among institutions involved in scientific research.
Rankings are also having what some critics decry as an excessively determinative effect.
In the Netherlands, a proposal to retool immigration policy to favor skilled migrants would limit the allocation of visas only to graduates of universities in the top tiers of two internationally recognized tables.
Several countries, including Nigeria and Kazakhstan, appear to reserve publicly financed scholarships for students who attend universities ranked above a certain cutoff point, according to one World Bank expert.
Gaming the System
Many institutions, especially those ranked in the middle of the lists, have begun to make key financial, administrative, and hiring decisions with an eye toward improving their=2 0scores, according to some rankings experts.
Few are willing to name names, but anecdotes abound of institutions' hiring frequently cited scientists, even if they are not necessarily the best qualified or the most well-regarded in their fields. In South Korea, the relative dearth of foreign academics and professors with international reputations is seen as the main reason that a well-regarded university like Seoul National University does not score20higher than 51st on the Times Higher Education list.
"Korean universities have little chance to make themselves known abroad or become internationally competitive because they lack star faculty," Ahn Su-mi, the Korean education ministry's deputy director of academic-research promotion, told the Korea Herald this month.
The University of Tokyo, whose president has complained that international rankings do not accurately reflect the strengths of Japanese institutions, has nonetheless decided to hire more foreign researchers, in hopes of raising the university's standing.
In Malaysia, universities have been known to list ethnic Chinese Malaysians as foreign students, because the Times's formula includes the number of international students as a variable.
In Australia, where universities are heavily dependent on foreign students to help balance their budgets, vice chancellors have been given bonuses for helping to push their institutions a few crucial slots up the tables.
"Rankings matter tremendously," says Daniel J. Guhr, a higher-education consultant in California whose clients include universities in Europe, Australia, and the United States. "People need to be able to contextualize, and for the first time in educational history you have the tools in hand to do so."
Mr. Guhr notes that even some American colleges that have traditionally focused solely on their position in domestic rankings, such as those put out by U.S. News & World Report, now pay attention to their international standing. Typically these are second and third-tier institutions, which must compete more aggressively for foreign students.
Building a Better System
Both the Shanghai and the Times Higher Education lists seem to have as many critics as fans. The critics say the methodology is flawed, with Shanghai putting too much emphasis on scientific research and the Times on the opinions of people at peer institutions.
More broadly, there are also fundamental questions about the utility of even the best cross-border assessments by fellow academics.
When officials of Germany's Center for Higher Education Development tried to broaden its well-regarded national rankings to Switzerland's German-speaking universities, the effort fell flat.
"They found that Swiss professors knew nothing about German universities and their German counterparts, just one country away," says Mr. Coelen, of Leiden University. "How can you go around the world asking people to tell you what the top university is in your discipline when from one country to the next you cannot get a reliable result?"
Some critics are attempting to fix perceived biases by creating their own ranking systems. French rectors have thrown their collective support behind developing a European ranking that would take into consideration the strengths of institutions at which the focus is on the humanities and social sciences, and would include such criteria as=2 0student satisfaction.
Locating 'Common Ground'
The Institute for Higher Education Policy, which is trying to bring more coherence to the process, recently set up an online clearinghouse to help differentiate among the fast-growing number of ranking systems.
"We began to see how important rankings were becoming in the landscape," says Mr. Parker, a senior associate at the Washington think tank. "This is an attempt to try to establish some sort of common ground about what constitutes good practices."
A similar effort is taking place within Unesco's European Centre for Higher Education, based in Bucharest, Romania.
Two years ago, its International Ranking Expert Group endorsed a set of 16 principles of good practice. This year the group spun off a new body, the International Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence, that will review the various rankings tables and eventually produce a certification of sorts.
Although susceptible to manipulation and misuse, rankings have become an integral part of international higher education. Even their critics concede that they can serve an important function.
"Our concern is that they are being used as a proxy for quality, and that is sad," says Mr. Coelen, of Leiden. "As a marketer on the right side of the divide, I have to say that there is some benefit. As an academic, I have to raise serious questions about the methodology."
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