CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“WHOSE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA WILL IT BE?”
As springtime admission and rejection
letters went out from the nine undergraduate campuses of the University of
California, the squeeze on this state’s most promising high graduates became
tighter than ever before.
That made it fair for many of those
rejected despite meeting all qualifications to wonder just whose UC this great
public university will eventually become.
Will it continue to be the fundamental
goal and reward for the state’s high schoolers, motivating them to achieve and
attempt ever more difficult academic challenges? Or will it become another
playground for wealthy out-of-state and foreign students who can afford the
almost $23,000 extra per year in tuition paid by non-California residents?
So far, that extra money – the
difference between $13,200 in-state tuition this year and $36,078 for all
others – has proved no hindrance to foreigners in particular. One reason:
Governments of China and some Arab countries pay all tuition and expenses for
many of their citizens who study at American universities.
Altogether, 13 percent of all UC
undergraduates next fall will be from out of state, split just about evenly
between foreign students and those from the other 49 states. That’s up from 12
percent this year and just 5 percent as recently as 2010.
There is no doubt a connection between
that fast-growing out-of-state student-body element and the fact that state
budget support of UC has declined over the last 10 years, though it was bulked
up a bit this year with funds from the temporary taxes in the 2012 Proposition
30.
UC officials maintain the out-of-staters
displace no Californians in either the top 9 percent of their high school class
or the top 9 percent statewide. Of course, UC used to accept the top 12 percent
statewide, so despite that claim of no displacement, there has unquestionably
been some. Plus, the out-of-state proportion is higher at the most desired UC
campuses – Berkeley and UCLA – compared with lower-demand locations like Merced
and Riverside. Which suggests that in academia, money talks, especially the
more than $120 million in extra yearly tuition to be paid by new out-of-state
students. Add in returning students and those in graduate and professional
schools, and UC now gets nearly $1 billion more each year from out-of-staters
than if the same slots went to Californians.
But California taxpayers built those
nine campuses principally for the benefit of their children. It’s one thing to
argue that a sprinkling of students from other places serves a sound academic
purpose, but when do financial motives supplant that academic benefit?
The demographics of UC are also
changing as fast as those of the state itself, where Latinos are now the
largest ethnic group and Asian-Americans are a fast-growing minority. For the
first time this year, UC took more Latino students than Anglos, 29 percent of
incoming frosh being Latino to about 27 percent white. High-achieving
Asian-Americans made up the plurality of admits among in-state students, at 36
percent.
Some of those new Latino students will
be so-called “Dreamers” brought to this country as small children by
undocumented immigrant parents. Typically, many such UC and California State
University admits have been unable to accept their slots because as illegal
residents they cannot get low-interest federal loans or grants.
But a program now proposed by
Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara of southern Los Angeles County would allow
at least some of them to get loans from the state if they can’t access federal
ones.
New UC President Janet Napolitano,
responsible for deporting thousands of the undocumented while serving as
secretary of Homeland Security, backs that plan as it advances in the
Legislature. “These students…should have access to equivalent resources as
their campus peers,” she told a legislative hearing.
It’s one thing, of course, for changes
to occur because the state itself is different from before. But for UC to
display the obvious financial motives that it has in admissions over the last
few years is both unseemly and wrong. Far better to accept at least the top 10
percent of California high schoolers than to take foreign students just for
their money, even if that means state government will have to pony up a bit
more support.
Otherwise, UC will increasingly belong
to highest bidders, a change in the entire purpose and gestalt of the entire
university.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net