Higher Ed: At Least We're Not in California

"I wish I were in California" may be a habitual moan on the lips of plenty of students hailing from warmer climes this winter, but this may be the first time where it's fair to say, "At least we're not in California." After all, Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't our governor, Massachusetts' finances aren't on the brink of collapse, and Harvard...well, Harvard is not a state school.

Now, believe it or not, FlyBy doesn't mean that in a snobbish way. The fact is, California's state schools may be in a heap of trouble. The state legislature approved a whopping 20 percent cut in funding for the 10 schools in the University of California system—shaving $637.1 million from a $3.23 billion budget, which now stands at $2.6 billion. The legislature has also proposed a 32 percent increase in student tuition by fall 2010. In response, students, faculty, and staff protested the cuts yesterday. Imagine choosing Berkeley or UCLA over Harvard or Yale because you thought the tuition was that much lower.

“I chose Berkeley over all the other universities because it offered me a very good education at a price my family could afford,” one freshman political science major, who skipped classes for the day in protest, told The New York Times.

Too bad he can't apply to transfer to Harvard. More higher ed gloom and doom after the jump.

As it happens, California is poised to cut the UC system's funding even further next year. “We are operating on the assumption that the state’s disinvestment will continue,” Berkeley's Chancellor Robert Birgeneau told The New York Times.

Now look at things from the Cambridge side. The Harvard Corporation—the University's main governing body—does not have to plan for a balanced budget every year, as a state legislature does. So, it has cut funding for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences this year by 8 percent and will cut at least another 8 percent the following year, though FAS Dean Michael D. Smith is expecting 12 percent. If Dean Smith is right, that amounts to a 19 percent cut spread out over two years—not much better than the UC system's 20 percent cut for this year.

But Harvard's tuition has been upped just 3.5 percent (still above the near-zero inflation rate to compensate for higher demand for financial aid), financial aid funding has risen 18 percent, and President Faust and Dean Smith have reaffirmed that financial aid will not take a hit despite greater fiscal constraints.

Still, Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences needs to close its remaining $110 million annual deficit. After staff layoffs, salary freezes, and very slow faculty hiring, where will it cut next?

Photo Credit: Samulili/Wikimedia Commons