It's almost as if you can see the presidents of the 23 California State University campuses getting out their tin foil hats and hoarding the canned goods: The higher-ed system is bracing for what they are calling California's devastating "scorched earth budget," and have released details of their contingency plan of action. more ›

Faced with the possibility of a $500 million cut in state funding, California State University is planning to enroll 10,000 less students next year, and campuses will be asked to cut their budgets by a total of $281 million, reports the LA Times. The cuts will also mean fewer faculty and staff, as well as reduced spending by the chancellor's office, which itself faces a funding cut of $11 million, Chancellor Charles B. Reed told the Times. more ›

California’s Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) released a report yesterday with recommendations to address budget reductions for the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. Governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for 2011-12 includes General Fund reductions of $500 million for the UC and CSU. more ›

UCLA’s Chancellor Gene Block recently took part in a video for the It Gets Better project. In the video, Chancellor Block joins students and professors in expressing their support for the LGBT community and discussing resources available at UCLA. On Nov. 29, 2010, USC released its own It Gets Better video. Since no article about UCLA and USC is complete without mentioning the cross-town rivalry, feel free to take this opportunity to share which video you preferred. more ›

The University of California Board of Regents could approve a tuition increase today during their scheduled meeting, according to CBS2. more ›

Some much-deserved props for one of our local prestigious academic institutions, thanks to the London-based Times Higher Education's World University Rankings. more ›

Compiled annually and published online since 2003, the Academic Ranking of World Universities is thought to be one of the foremost lists of its kind. (Read about their methodology.) They have released their 2010 rankings, and Los Angeles' own UCLA earned a respectable Number 13 slot. more ›

Looking ahead already to the 2010-11, the University of California Board of Regents are preparing to face another fiscal year of budget shortfalls, according to a UC Newsroom release. The current budget gap of $535 million for the 2009-10 year "could grow to more than $600 million in the next fiscal year," and that has the UC looking for any and all ways to curb the shortfall. more ›

The Huffington Post points out a course being offered at Eagle Rock's (and Pres. Obama alma mater) Occidental College that takes academia to perhaps a new low--or a new high in lows. It's Critical Theory and Social Justice (CTSJ) 180: Stupidity. The catalog description:

Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny. Stupidity is always the name of the Other, and it is the sign of the feminine. This course in Critical Psychology follows the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, and most recently, Avital Ronell, in a philosophical examination of those operations and technologies that we conduct in order to render ourselves uncomprehending. Stupidity, which has been evicted from the philosophical premises and dumbed down by psychometric psychology, has returned in the postmodern discourse against Nation, Self, and Truth and makes itself felt in political life ranging from the presidency to Beevis and Butthead. This course examines stupidity.

Not all higher education news from the state is grim, thankfully. As a response to the new state budget's inclusion of hundreds of millions in cuts in our two university systems, the Cal Grant program announced late last week that they would adjust award monies to cover the student fee increases implemented at the California State University schools for the upcoming academic year. "The total State University Fee increase of $978 will be offset dollar-for-dollar for all 62,600 Cal Grant A and B recipients attending the CSU," a press release details. more ›

The state budget has finally been passed, and as a result billions of dollars have been cut from the coffers that help support education at all levels. Included are cuts to the large University of California and California State University systems, necessitating the respective campus network leaders to push through their own budgets cuts that include layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts, fee hikes, enrollment caps, and decreased resources. Despite student and faculty protests, the UC and CSU passed the proposals on the table that aim to stave off the shortfall. more ›

Tomorrow the California State University Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on proposed cuts within their operating budget that will have staff and faculty accepting twice-monthly furlough days, student services and class offerings reduced, enrollment caps and freezes implemented, and tuition raised 20 per cent--on top of the already approved 10 per cent increase voted on just two months ago. more ›

Unionized employees of the University of California will rally today at UCLA in Westwood in protest against proposed cost-cutting measures that will see the, losing work hours and funds for operating costs, according to the Daily News. more ›