Coming Surge in University Enrollment
Re “Higher Education: Staying Afloat in a ‘Tidal Wave,’ ” editorial, July 1: I have just spent 23 years at the School of Business Administration & Economics of Cal State Fullerton. During that period the student enrollment in the business school grew about 60%. The faculty grew about 20% and the administration grew 900%. This pattern has been repeated in just about every school in the state. The problem is just that simple to identify. And the solution is equally simple.
Establish the annual operating budget as it is done now, i.e., the governor, Legislature and board arrive at a number. That number is divided among campuses in terms of number of students. But instead of sending the budgeted money to the campus administrations, send it directly to the departments (where the actual work of the university takes place). Give the departments the ability to rebate some of their budgets to the administration equal to the administration’s contribution to the departments’ workloads.
As an aside, I spent a number of years on the university’s Distance Learning Committee. I repeatedly asked the question, “Exactly who is the student that will benefit from distance learning?” The best and only answer I ever received was something like, “Some disabled kid on a farm somewhere in Inyo County.” Good grief! For the amount of money that CSUF alone dumped into distance learning, that kid could have been housed in the Biltmore Hotel and chauffeured to classes.
JAMES W. TAYLOR
Laguna Beach
* The “bolder steps” you mention cannot be limited to talk of innovative new projects such as distance learning, but must address the long-term funding for public higher education in California. Ignoring future funding structures allows the continual backsliding in the quality of our public colleges and universities. Providing access and quality education to the “new boomers” will only occur if Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature prove their commitment to higher education by supporting long-range funding schemes, such as proposed by UC Regent and student Jess Bravin. His initiative, for the 1998 ballot, would mandate, much like the K-12 Proposition 98, that the state spend a certain percentage of its general fund on higher education, year in, year out, thus protecting precious education money from raiding by pork-barrel politicians.
The master plan should not be rewritten in order to accommodate the political whims of the day. Our state must challenge itself to uphold the timeless nature of former UC President Clark Kerr’s rational policy of educating all Californians at the lowest cost to students and families while ensuring the highest quality of instruction.
ALEXANDER FRANGOS
La Canada
