California Watch

A state audit released last week says UCLA wrongfully designated $23 million in student fees to pay for two projects that were not included in the original fee referendum approved by student voters in 2000. 

The finding was part of a 15-month audit [PDF] that concluded the University of California system needed to improve transparency in the way it handles its finances. The report also questioned the unequal distribution of funds to the system’s 10 campuses.

The fee started at $84 per year, and wasscheduled to begin in the 2004-05 academic year. It was slated to increase over time to adjust for inflation.

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The California Community Colleges Board of Governors today will consider a policy change that would free up more spaces for new students by limiting the number of times students can repeat certain courses on the state’s dime.

Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott’s proposed policy [PDF] would cut off state funding to community colleges for students who take the same course more than three times. Students could get state funding for a fourth repeat of the class with a successful appeal. It’s a move Scott has been mulling for several months as a way to manage the system’s increasingly limited resources. In 2009-10, the state’s community colleges had to turn away 140,000 students because of course reductions resulting from state budget cuts.

Proponents say allowing students to repeat courses multiple times limits the number of seats available to new students, is an inefficient use of state funding and doesn’t serve students well. Read full story.

All but one of the California State University campuses are on a new list produced by the U.S. Department of Education showing colleges with the fastest-rising tuition and fees – and those campuses will have to submit reports to the federal government explaining the rapid increase.

A set of 54 new lists released last week by the Department of Education shows which colleges have the highest and lowest tuition and “average net price” – the average price paid by full-time students after figuring in grants and scholarships. The lists also show which colleges have the fastest-rising tuition and net price.

Colleges where prices are rising at the fastest rate will be required to report why costs have gone up and what the institution will do to address them. Read more.

Image: San Diego State University via Sprachcaffe Düsseldorf/Flickr

UCLA students who use credit cards to pay their university bills better brace themselves: The university will start charging a 2.75 percent credit card processing fee this fall.

It’s an example of how universities are passing certain costs along to students amid a statewide budget crunch.

Administrators say the move allows the university to stop absorbing the cost of processing credit card transactions – fees that credit card companies charge. Transferring that cost to the credit card-swiping students will save UCLA more than $6.5 million a year, they say. Read more

If you’re a student, how do you pay your fees? And are you aware of these charges? Answer our brief query!

It turns out that Speaker John A. Perez isn’t the only college dropout in the California Legislature.

In data posted yesterday, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that four California lawmakers left college without getting a diploma, and three more never went to college.

The California Legislature’s overall college graduate rate is 89.9 percent, the Chronicle reported.

That’s tops in the nation. New Hampshire’s legislature had the lowest college graduation rate, at 53 percent.

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