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Comment by yaacov | Hacker News Reader

I'm an undergraduate at a UC school right now, and I can tell you that that is happening in the UC system. State funding per student has collapsed [1] and campuses are scrambling to cover the costs. One way to do that is by increasing tuition, and another is by admitting out-of-state students who pay massive premiums to attend the university.

Out of state students pay about $50k/yr to attend a UC. In-state students pay about $12K, and the UC spends a bit over $30k per student. That means that each out-of-state student provides enough revenue to pay for an additional in-state student!

Absent additional state funding (lol), an enrollment cap would necessarily result in tuition increases. I really really hope it doesn't get passed.

[1] http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_quick.asp?i=1119

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How many more undergraduates would there be revenue for if UC stopped doing things like paying $1MM in renovation costs for the Chancellor's house?

http://www.dailycal.org/2016/06/29/campus-spends-1-million-c...

Given the above numbers, a little less than 33 ($1MM / (30k/student)). Not that you shouldn't care about such things, but that particular instance doesn't appear to materially affect the undergraduate population.

Because s/he wants to build up a straw man. I was in the Chancellor's house before Dirks moved in and it was in dire need of repair. That plan was also made when Birgeneau was still Chancellor.

The fence... not sure if that was a judicious use of UC money.

I think it's mainly about the $700k fence.

Students pay for 4+ years and out of state tuition is 50K so 5 students.

>Absent additional state funding (lol), an enrollment cap would necessarily result in tuition increases. I really really hope it doesn't get passed.

Or, how about the UC system reduces spending per student?

They already spend less than most comparably-ranked universities. If you take a look at the link I posted on the top-level comment, you'll see that expenses per student have been increasing pretty slowly.

Of course, waste should still be cut if it exists. Are there any specific programs that you think should have their funding reduced?

No expert, just a former student with a sense of fairness and disgust for waste. But I would hope to see:

-Cuts in administration size and salaries.

-Cuts in facility expenditures; figure out a way to do more with less.

-An increase in the number of full time faculty.

-An increase in faculty and graduate instructor compensation.

They should be charging more than $50k a year.

Fewer out of state students at a higher tuition could yield the same funding. Do we know what the curve looks like?

> Absent additional state funding (lol), an enrollment cap would necessarily result in tuition increases.

I don't know why the "lol" is there, as the enrollment cap is a condition of additional state funding.

The additional 19m in funding doesn't get near the 56m (above cost of tuition) in funding the 3 universities above the 20% cut off recieve from out of state students. [0]

So we're talking a 40m/yr deficit from just 3 schools. If they were serious about funding these schools they would have done these numbers and given them a commensurate funding, but they didn't.

[0] http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/UC-regents-expect-to...

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