Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The State Audit of the UC: The Problem with Non-Resident Admissions

For the past several years, this blog has covered several issues that are the subject of a new state audit of the UC system. Our main concerns have been the unequal funding of the campuses, the crowding out of students from California through nonresident admissions, the lack of UC budget transparency, the failure of the university to estimate the cost of instruction, the limitations of the rebenching process, the increase in spending on administration, and the underfunding of campuses with a high percentage of under-represented students. The new audit backs up all of our past arguments and proposes that the state should increase its funding to the university in order to reduce the system’s reliance on non-resident students.       

The audit begins by arguing that due to state funding cuts and internal decisions, the UC has not been serving the people of California to the best of its ability: “This report concludes that over the past several years, the university has undermined its commitment to resident students. Specifically, in response to reduced state funding, the university made substantial efforts to enroll nonresident students who pay significantly more tuition than residents. The university’s efforts resulted in an 82 percent increase in nonresident enrollment from academic years 2010–11 through 2014–15, or 18,000 students, but coincided with a drop in resident enrollment by 1 percent, or 2,200 students, over that same time period.” As the number of students from California attending the UC system has stayed flat, the number of nonresident students has increased dramatically.  This statistic alone appears to support our fears that students from California have been crowded out of the system because as the population has increased and the number of enrolled students has increased, the number of in-state students has actually gone down. In a response to the audit, the UC flatly rejects the facts by offering several explanations, but the bottom line cannot be denied: as the state reduced its funding, the UC looked for a way to increase support by enrolling nonresident students and this reduced the number of students from California in the system.

One way that the UC started to cater to nonresident students was to lower the admission’s standards for these high-paying students: “According to the Master Plan for Higher Education in California, which proposes the roles for each of the State’s institutions of higher education, the university should only admit nonresidents who possess academic qualifications that are equivalent to those of the upper half of residents who are eligible for admission. However, in 2011 the university
relaxed this admission standard to state that nonresidents need only to “compare favorably” to residents.” The report here points out that in order to attract more high-paying nonresident students, it gave them an advantage that went against the Master Plan.   

UC likes to claim that it has done nothing wrong because it still accepts all eligible students from California, but as the audit points out, this compliance is based on giving students who did not apply to Merced admissions to a campus that 98% of them will reject: “At the same time, the university denied admission to an increasing proportion of qualified residents at the campus to which they applied—nearly 11,000 in academic year 2014–15 alone—and instead referred them to an alternate campus. However, only about 2 percent of residents who the university referred actually enrolled. Moreover, increasing numbers of nonresident students have enrolled in the five most popular majors that the university offers at the same time that resident enrollment has generally declined in those same majors.” Not only are students from California being crowded out of their desired campuses, but they are also being pushed out of their desired majors.

This blog has stressed that as students from California are being excluded from a system built out of state tax dollars, the students who do get in are often funded at unequal rates: “Moreover, the university’s funding allocation decisions have not completely resolved its unequal distribution of per-student state funding across its campuses, resulting in certain campuses continuing to receive less state funds per student than others. After several reports identified inequity in per‑student funding among the campuses and a lack of transparency in how the university distributes that funding, the university embarked on an effort which it refers to as rebenching. However, we identified several problems with rebenching, including the fact that the university does not base the formula it uses to redistribute funds on the amounts it actually costs to educate different types of students. The university also excluded $886 million in state funds from the amount it distributes to campuses through per‑student funding for fiscal year 2014–15 for programs that do not relate directly to educating students. Further, even though the university asserts that the additional revenue from its increased enrollment of nonresidents allows it to improve education quality and enroll more residents, the university does not give campuses spending guidance or track how they use these funds. Lacking such guidance or oversight, we found campuses spend these funds in an inconsistent manner.” Even though rebenching was supposed to even out the funding among the campuses, the result has been an increase in inequity because the unequal distribution of nonresident tuition far exceeds the small money of rebenched state funds. Moreover, the UC has continued to refuse to try to calculate the real cost of educating students, and instead of being transparent, it continues to spend money on producing trumped up reports. 

The UC office of Denial refuses to admit that the reliance on nonresident student tuition has undermined the diversity of the student body, but the audit tells a different story: “Admission decisions have hampered efforts for its student body to reflect the diversity of the State—only 11 percent of the increasing number of nonresident undergraduates were from underrepresented minorities in academic year 2014–15.” In a state that has close to 50% of its population categorized as underrepresented, the use of nonresident students does indeed reduce diversity and opportunity. 

It is important to stress that as the diversity of the system decreases, the money spent on each under-represented student has also decreased: “not including nonresident revenue in a per-student funding calculation contributes to the persistence of per-student funding inequities among the campuses. These funding inequities have continued to disproportionately affect underrepresented minority students. Specifically, the highest‑funded campuses hen we include nonresident revenue—Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego—are among the four campuses with the lowest percentage of underrepresented minority students.”  As we have seen throughout the country, the solution of replacing state funds with nonresident tuition has made college more unaffordable and unequal for everyone. Students from different states are being shut out of their own state universities, and so they are having to pay high tuition to go to out-of-state school, private universities, and for-profit colleges.   

The auditor’s main solution is for the state to increase its funding to the system so that the UC can reduce the number of nonresident students and open spaces for resident students: “Implementing a 5 percent limit on new nonresident enrollment would allow the university to enroll an equivalent number of additional new resident undergraduate students per year—about 7,200—more than the number it enrolled in academic year 2014–15. Requiring the university to enroll these additional residents would necessitate an increased annual financial commitment from both the university and the State to compensate for the increased enrollment of resident undergraduates and the decrease of nonresidents. If the Legislature were to commit additional funds to the university for the purpose of meeting agreed-upon enrollment percentages, it could do so using a phased-in approach.” The UC should welcome this rational approach, but instead, it can only respond through a blanket denial and rejection.


UC’s main response is to say that in the next three years, they plan to bring in 10,000 additional students from California.  However, since they are only getting $5,000 from the state for each student, we have to ask what is going to happen to the underfunded campuses with the highest number of underrepresented students from California? The answer is that they will receive an inferior education with huge classes and little personal attention. This is what separate and unequal educational funding looks like.

28 comments:

  1. This blog post reeks of bias and muddy logic.

    You say that out-of-state students are "crowding out" instate students, packing lecture halls and growing majors. Then you suggest that the UC system accepts 7200 new instate students.

    You acknowledge that out-of-state students subsidize the budget by paying more than double the tuition of instate students. Then you criticize the accepted cohort for not representing people from underrepresented groups.

    You suggest lowering the admissions bar for the UC system if you're Californian. What impact do you think that has on the academic quality of an institution?

    As a UC Berkeley student, I will continue learning from and among people of all nationalities and ways of life. The foreigners you seem to fear aren't just dumb money bags, sapping life from the system. They disproportionately contribute in the form of Cal spirit, research achievements (yes, in undergrad), and academic involvement.

    And I will continue to be glad that isolationists such as yourself stay far away from the leadership of this university.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First of all, most of this blog entry consists of direct quotes from the audit. I do not suggest lowering UC admissions standards for students from California. One problem with the current system of nonresident tuition is that it is not shared among the campuses and it is not necessarily spent on undergraduates. It is clear that nonresident students are pushing out higher qualified students from California.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very impressive article. I have read each and every point and found it very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The information you provide is very useful and it makes me feel extra good information, thank you for sharing it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's encouraging to witness this. then we'll really have something

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your essay is very good and we also comment great grandchildren.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It is true that due to tuition pay increase, the students have to go outside of their states. Thank you for writing this.

    ReplyDelete
  13. “LOVE, Happiness, Trust, is the key to LIFE”. That was the word from Dr happy when I consulted his powerful Love Spell. I married the wrong man; I realized that after Three years of our unfruitful marriage. Everything was going from Best to Worst in our life, no child, I got demoted from work after our marriage, my husband was sacked a year after. His application for new job in various offices was constantly declined even though he was qualified enough. I was made to take care of my family with the low income I earn get that wasn’t enough to pay our rent. We keep praying a seeking for help from some people, my friends laugh at me behind because I was advised not to get married yet.It was one Thursday night that my husband woke me up and told me that has thought enough about our crisis, he said that our crisis is not ordinary and it’s beyond our spiritual level. He suggested we should consult Dr happy from testimonies he showed me online about how he has been helping families. I was afraid, I don’t like evil or spell but I supported him to contact him if he can help us. We consulted him via happylovespell2@gmail.com and he replied positively after 20munites with congratulating email that he can help us but he will need our pure heart and trusts in his work if he will cast the spell on us and purify our life. We agreed to his terms. He cast the spell and told us to expect results within 5days. I waited for three days nothing happened, so I started having doubt and blaming my husband for emailing Dr happy. It was on the fifth day that my husband was called for an interview and he got a well-paying work, I was prompted to a higher position. I missed my period on the 5th day and it was confirmed that I am with a baby. Things have really changed for us for good and we now have our own house and cars. I will never forget what Dr happy told us “LOVE is the key to LIFE”, this word keep me going. People that laughed at us are coming close for help and I am delighted to welcome them because my family is now blessed. Dr happy is a savior and man that keep to his word even when I doubted his powers at the end of the spell. Thank to your Oracle for helping us via happylovespell2@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. I hope i see you always righteous and guided to the truth and after all become happy
    safety acadmey
    afssac
    fire academy
    Arsisc

    ReplyDelete
  15. The God loves righteous and faithful , i wish you become one of them , best wishes to be guided to the truth
    Jobs
    nasihnetwork
    free ads
    advertise for free

    ReplyDelete
  16. I love all the posts, I really enjoyed, I would like more information about this, because it is very nice., Thanks for sharing.

    potaup

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really like your site and content so much,thanks for sharing the information keep updating, looking forward for more posts.

    หนังออนไลน์

    ReplyDelete
  18. INSTEAD OF GETTING A LOAN,, I GOT SOMETHING NEW
    Get $5,500 USD every day, for six months!

    See how it works
    Do you know you can hack into any Credit cards machine with a hacked Credit cards??
    Make up your mind before applying, straight deal...

    Order for a blank Credit cards now and get millions within a week!: contact us
    via email address:: {Legitblankcardsonline@gmail.com}

    We have specially programmed Credits Cards that can be use to hack Credit cards Machines
    Nation Wide, the Credits Cards can be used to withdraw at any Credits Cards or swipe Machines, at
    Stores and POS Machines. We sell this cards to all our customers and interested
    buyers worldwide, the Credit Card has a daily withdrawal limit of $5,500 at any Credit cards Machines
    and up to $50,000 spending limit in stores depending on the kind of card
    you order for. Credits Cards Can also be used in any other cyber hack{Services}, we are here for you anytime any day.

    Here is our price lists for the Credits Cards:

    Cards that withdraw $5,500 per day costs $200 USD
    Cards that withdraw $10,000 per day costs $850 USD
    Cards that withdraw $35,000 per day costs $2,200 USD
    Cards that withdraw $50,000 per day costs $5,500 USD
    Cards that withdraw $100,000 per day costs $8,500 USD


    make up your mind before applying, straight deal!!!

    The price include shipping fees and charges, order now: contact us via
    email address:: {Legitblankcardsonline@gmail.com}

    ReplyDelete
  19. State Council of Educational Research and Training of the Telangana provides textbooks for all the subjects. Telangana SCERT Books by downloading or viewing them from our site. Refer to State Council of Educational Research TS 9th Class Revised Syllabus Research and Training Study Material for Classes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 They make it easy for you in your preparation and fetching more marks in the exam.

    ReplyDelete
  20. wine withdrawal symptoms headache is a hallucinogenic drug. This means that when consumed, it causes the user to have unusual experiences such as hearing sounds, seeing illusions, and feeling things that are not actually there. A drug with an extensive history of both medicinal and recreational use, LSD use does not come without risks. An acid trip can last 12 hours or more, and when it goes wrong it can go terribly wrong. This substance is common at raves, parties, and music festivals, so knowing what acid looks like and understanding the risks is imperative, especially for young adults and teenagers.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The alcohol and drug rehab facilities in california stage is the initial phase in treating liquor addiction. Withdrawal indications normally die down inside around one to about fourteen days subsequent to beginning detox; be that as it may, this could take longer relying upon the seriousness of your Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). From that point, you will actually want to zero in on different parts of the recuperation cycle, like various exercises, treatments, advising meetings, and backing choices.

    ReplyDelete
  22. تتميز شركات تصنيع العبوات الزجاجية في مصر بتقديم منتجات عالية الجودة والتي تحافظ على سلامة ونقاء المنتجات المعبأة بها. وتعد العبوات الزجاجية واحدة من أكثر العبوات المفضلة للصناعات المختلفة بسبب خصائصها الفريدة، حيث تحافظ على جودة المنتجات بشكل أفضل مما يساهم في زيادة فترة الصلاحية للمنتجات.

    ReplyDelete
  23. It is an eye opener. Thanks for sharing this info.

    Aqualine Metal Water Tanks

    ReplyDelete