SAN FRANCISCO “”mdash; The situation for undergraduates at the
University of California has been in the spotlight for months
now.
On Wednesday, the focus of the UC Board of Regents’
meeting shifted to the status of graduate schools, which play a
vital role in preserving the prestige of both the university and
the state.
“We need to grow the graduate programs that create the
jobs and fill the jobs that make California competitive,”
Dynes said.
Until now, the focus has been almost exclusively on
undergraduates. Nearly every student has heard talk of the fee
increases, enrollment cuts and decrease in financial aid for
undergraduates.
The graduate schools have been given so little attention
recently that Jennifer Lilla, president of the University of
California Student Association, went so far as to say that graduate
students are “being thrown around like they were
trash.”
“There’s more undergraduates, so there’s more
attention to them,” Lilla said. “(But) you’ve had
the fee increases to graduate education even higher than
they’ve been to undergraduates.”
As per the budget that was approved last November based on the
compact made with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, graduate fees will
increase 10 percent to $8,556 for the next academic year, compared
to an 8 percent increase for undergraduate fees.
The decrease in funding and increase in cost for graduate
education at the UC affects prospective students as well as the
university and the state at large.
On the students’ side of things, the fee increases make it
more difficult for some to get a graduate degree.
“Just overall there are fewer students … who are
interested in graduate school, and it takes them longer and longer
to graduate,” Lilla said.
And as for the state and the university, the rising cost of
graduate education at the UC is making it more difficult to attract
the best and the brightest to California.
Some believe the UC is no longer the bargain it once was, so
students are less likely to choose to come here for graduate
school. Some are getting better offers from other institutions,
like Harvard and Yale ““ offers the UC cannot always
match.
“(Students) are getting more interesting packages from
other institutions,” said M.R.C. Greenwood, provost and
senior vice president of academic affairs at the UC.
As a result, graduate schools at the UC “are not getting
the best graduate students,” said UC President Robert
Dynes.
This has a potentially damaging effect on the state, which is
eager to bring in new talent.
“We have focused on the undergraduate programs. … (But)
the undergraduate degree is not enough. We need more,” said
Regent Sherry Lansing. “A graduate degree will bring business
into the state … (and) bring money into the state,” she
said.
Though UC graduate schools are still among the best in the
world, there is concern that the graduate programs may decrease in
quality.
More funding is needed to ensure that the quality and
attractiveness of the graduate institutions at the UC does not
diminish in the eyes of the top students.
“We need to find the resources to increase the graduate
population,” Dynes said.
The importance of the university’s involvement in K-12
education was also reaffirmed on Wednesday when the regents passed
a resolution put forward by Student Regent Jodi Anderson and UC
Regent Ward Connerly. The regents expressed a desire to ensure that
students get a full education even before they enter a college or
university.
The resolution was meant as a public statement by the
university, pledging to be actively involved in academic
preparation programs.
“The intent of this policy is to really address the
concern and the charge sometimes that we are not as substantially
involved in these kinds of efforts as we should be,” Anderson
said.
The hope is that the policy will be more than a set of words and
that it will receive the funding necessary to really effect change
and ensure that high school students are prepared for the
challenges of academia.
“If we have to spend money or whatever it is, it’s
our responsibility to try to prepare students for university …
(and) prepare them to lead productive lives,” Connerly
said.