Thoughts from Dr. Joe: UC schools shouldn’t overlook homegrown students

Unquestionably, the older I get the more persnickety I become. It’s the curse of aging. Recently, I’ve read a plethora of articles about the politicians in Sacramento and other institutions of ill-repute betraying the youth of California by limiting UC admissions in lieu of out-of-state and foreign students. That makes me madder than a hornet.

I’m reminded of a piece of philosophical advice from my philosophy professor, Sister Audrey, “You can’t fix stupid, but you can out-vote it.”

For the past five years, the noose has been progressively tightened around the necks of California students as they are denied admission into the University of California. As more California high school seniors fight for spaces at UC campuses, the system has opened its doors to students from other states and countries, more than tripling the number of out-of-state freshmen. I personally know La Cañada students with very high grade point averages and SAT scores who couldn’t gain admission to UC campuses.

According to the Oakland Tribune, freshmen from outside California comprise approximately 30% of students at both Berkeley and UCLA.

The University of California was built by and for Californians but the political hacks in Sacramento and UC administrators have betrayed the California taxpayer and their children by turning away California residents in record numbers. It’s about money! Out-of-state student tuition is approximately $36,000 whereas California residents pay $12,900. Thus, the UC collected a half-billion dollars last year in out-of-state fees.

Assemblyman Das Williams, who heads the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee, said, “It’s a dysfunctional system, but the colleges aren’t to blame.”

The absurdity of such a statement from an elected official is unacceptable. According to the Sacramento Bee, last spring representatives from UC Davis made 20 trips to China to encourage admitted students to accept their offer to study in the United States. Who paid for that? Similarly, the admissions director at UC Santa Cruz traveled to New Delhi, India to convince a student to attend that university.

Williams is quoted as saying, “We want to have room for our kids, we have to pay for it.”

We’ve already paid for it! It’s called Proposition 30. More taxes! Regardless, the Oakland Tribune reported that a California Budget Project report found that California is spending less than half of what it did in 2000 for each UC student. Despite a 5% state funding increase last year, following the passage of Proposition 30, per-student funding is near 30-year lows. Gov. Brown’s sales and income tax initiative was not good enough, subsequently the only alternative was to increase out-of-state and international enrollment to increase revenues.

Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management at UCLA is quoted as saying, “The added value of increased numbers of students from different geographies have always contributed richly to the classroom environment.”

Stop it! There is no validity in that assumption. It is a hyperbole that pundits of a social agenda cite.

Read my lips so as to dissuade the potential of Dr. Joe hate mail: Diversity is a functional component of an education but stating that diversity enriches an academic experience is subjective at best. It is not a rationale to curtail UC admissions to homegrown California kids. Politicians should not use diversity as a guise to raise revenues.

The university is betraying its mission by limiting opportunities for California students, especially in the in-demand technical fields that draw the most overseas students. Californians created those institutes and built the infrastructure with their taxes. But the UC is training somebody else’s workforce that’s not going to stay and benefit California.

When we need statesmen/women, we get politicians. Statesmen/women are leaders who uphold what is right, who work for the common good, promoting well-being rather than personal interest.

If the system is dysfunctional, then Sacramento should doggone fix it! Sister Audrey once said, “If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.”

--JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.