Who Are They Trying to Fool?

ucd-foundationCommentary: Scholarships Are Great, But We Need Systemic Reform, Not Gimmicks and PR Stunts – The headline in the local paper is “Students are priority No.1.”

It only gets better from there.  On Monday, the UC Davis News service sent out an announcement that they have created a $1 million-plus matching fund to encourage gifts to help UC Davis students.

The news service writes: “Under the leadership of UC Davis Foundation Board Chair Bruce Edwards ’60, current and emeriti members of the foundation board and UC Davis administrators personally gave $1.04 million to create a university-wide matching fundraising initiative for endowed student scholarships, fellowships and awards called the UC Davis Foundation Matching Fund for Student Support.”

“Our students are our most valuable asset, and this matching fund will provide critical assistance for dozens of them now and in the future,” said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who made a lead contribution to the fund. “This fund also helps further the university’s deep commitment to securing support for our students so that they can excel at their academic pursuits and long-term aspirations.”

There is nothing wrong with the goal of this organization to raise more than $2 million in new endowments.  And forty scholarships a year is nothing to sneeze at.  Except, of course, for the fact that there are something like 30,000 students at UC Davis who are being hammered by spiraling tuitions that are pricing the average middle class family out of an affordable college education and saddling thousands, probably tens and more likely hundreds of thousands with huge student loan debts.

When you think about it that way, perhaps 40 scholarships, while valuable, particularly to the forty people who received it, resembles more the proverbial drop in the bucket.

And then you have the comment by Chancellor Katehi in the paper.

She said, “There’s nothing more important than raising funds to help our students go to school.”

The chancellor added, “We all know that the UC system and our campus have had to endure very serious cuts from the state and our students have had to endure a very serious increase in tuition. Our students have suffered as they have tried to come to classes and make ends meet.”

The newspaper article sugar-coated nothing, acknowledging the tuitition and fee hikes along with the budget cuts.

Credit ASUCD President Rebecca Sterling for acknowledging the immensity of the crisis when she said, as quoted in the paper, “There are students that face extreme debt, are placed out of their homes or are scrimping on meals,” Sterling said. “There are students that aren’t going (to that) extreme, but we have seen drastic changes in lifestyles. Almost every single student has at least one job – students don’t just not work anymore.

“Students are living in much higher numbers in homes and apartments in the city of Davis. You’re much more often seeing five to six students in one house.”

“Overall, we have a crisis in our education system,” she said. “It’s not going to be fixed through scholarships; it’s going to have to be a systematic, concrete, long-range plan. In the meantime, we need to help the students that are here.”

The problem I have is the chancellor’s comment that “nothing” is “more important than raising funds to help” students.  Why do I say that?  Well she has been chancellor for over three years now and this is the first major effort to help students, despite crippling tuition hike after crippling tuition hike.

In fact, it would seem to me that many things have been prioritized over raising funds to help students or, in fact, just plain helping students.

The problem is the culture of the University of California.  When Governor Jerry Brown’s tax measure, Proposition 30, passed, Chancellor Katehi was trumpeting the great victory: “I am gratified that a majority of California’s voters supported Proposition 30. Its passage prevents further financial damage to our campus, assures that our students will not face mid-year tuition increases and offers the potential to help return financial stability to both California as a whole and higher education specifically.”

She added, “I believe the passage of Proposition 30 also reaffirms the public’s recognition of the tremendous role higher education plays in educating our students and boosting our economy. I applaud voters for their decision to reinvest in California’s future.”

In a joint communication from UC President Mark Yudof and the chancellors of the UC System, they expressed relief in the passage of the measure and said, “The passage of Governor Brown’s budget initiative has created an opportunity to bring stability to the funding of public higher education in California.”

A week later the Board of Regents was looking at fee hikes and the governor himself had to intervene to talk them out of it.

A few weeks later, Governor Brown was at it again, this time criticizing the Board of Regents as they hired Nicholas Dirks to be the next chancellor of UC Berkeley with a $50,000 increase over his predecessor.

“The $50,000 increase above the incumbent, even though that incumbent has not received a pay raise, does not fit within the spirit of servant leadership that I think will be required over the next several years,” said Governor Brown.

“I’ve just come through a campaign where I’ve pledged the people that I will use their funds judiciously and with real stewardship, with prudence,” Governor Brown added.

The governor promised that he would continue to press UC “for greater efficiency, greater elegance, modesty. … We are going to have to restrain this system in many, many of its elements and this will come with great resistance.”

There is no doubt times are tough, but it seems every time the chips are down, the first people that the UC system thinks of are not the students, but their own executives.

It is why, once again, Senator Leland Yee yesterday introduced legislation that will prohibit executive pay hikes (using state or foundation funds) at the California State University or the University of California during bad budget years or when student fees increase.

Shouldn’t that be common sense?

But it is not.

“Despite calls from the Governor, UC and CSU continue to line the pockets of their top administrators,” said Senator Yee yesterday in a press release. “The Regents and Trustees treat dollars meant for students as a personal slush fund for already wealthy executives. SB 8 will stop these egregious compensation practices and help restore the public trust.”

Senator Yee called on Chancellor Dirks to follow the lead of incoming CSU Chancellor Timothy White, who refused to take a pay hike and, in fact, reduced his salary by 10 percent.

There can be no doubt that to forty students receiving a scholarship, this program is a good thing.  But that only means we have 30,000 other students to worry about.  The ASUCD President is right, this problem is not going to be fixed through scholarships – we need policy reform and commitment from the top down.

Chancellor Katehi may not be the problem here, but she has not been a solution here.  If she put as much energy into making college affordable as she has in attempting to transform UC Davis into a top-notch educational facility in other regards, maybe we would be a little bit further along as she moves toward the midway point in her fourth year.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

About The Author

David Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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4 Comments

  1. J.R.

    THis article would have benefited from a little research prior to writing.

    UC Davis already has an extensive financial aid network.

    In fact, a student whose family income is under $80,000 pays no tuition. Zero tuition.

    [url]http://financialaid.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/students/BlueandGold.html[/url]

    63% of Fall 2011 UC Davis undergraduates were awarded family income-based grants or scholarships with an average award of $16,072
    .
    [url]http://facts.ucdavis.edu/profile.lasso[/url]

    Contrary to what this article implies, these 40 additional fellowships are not the only financial aid resources for 30,000 students.

  2. Don Shor

    I agree with J.R. that further research would have given more balance. Also this column seems to be a misdirected criticism.
    Systemic reform isn’t going to come from a chancellor or at a single campus. As far as I know, the Chancellor isn’t on the board of regents and has no power to even propose systemic reforms. She can only take action at the level of her authority. Encouraging a scholarship fund, and contributing to it directly herself, is something to be lauded.
    Credit Governor Brown for his public criticisms of the fiscal issues, criticize the regents for their lack of action and accountability. But I see no downside to what the UCD Foundation is doing here, and the fact that top administrators personally gave over a million dollars of their own money seems noteworthy. You’re always saying they should take pay cuts to set an example. Seems to me they did that.

  3. civil discourse

    Katehi may not have the power to implement systematic change herself but she certainly has a platform and voice from which to shed light and advocate for the students below her.

    She does a disservice to those students when she doesn’t keep the true crisis front and center at her public appearances. One can be gracious and be a strong-willed advocate at the same time.

    This article may not have balance, but the point is solid, and she deserves to be called out for it.

  4. Siegel

    I would add that while the Chancellor may not have the power to alter the structure, she turned it into a huge PR opportunity when we all know it’s not going to do crap for 99% of the students. So I agree, she deserved to be called out for it.

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