On December 2, 2022, CalMatters published this Op-Ed from Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine, co-chairs of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education:

United Auto Workers, the labor union negotiating for striking workers at the University of California’s 10 campuses, claims it is “fighting for a UC that works for its students and its workers.” But some of its demands certainly won’t work for students, and could hurt the very workers UAW represents.

UC officials have held more than 50 bargaining sessions with the UAW, and this week reached tentative agreements with two of the smaller bargaining units, the postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers. If adopted, the deal would place their compensation among the highest in the nation for their respective roles.

But these 12,000 employees won’t return to campus until the agreements are ratified, and the remaining 36,000 teaching assistants, readers, tutors and graduate student researchers are still on strike, leaving students without the help they need to prepare for exams and close out the fall term.

UAW members are an important piece of California’s public higher education system. They include student employees who perform part-time, professionally relevant work that helps support their respective campuses, while also earning their graduate degrees or preparing to advance in their careers as scholars.

For the academic student employees who remain on strike, the UAW is demanding compensation be tied directly to local housing costs with no cap on pay increases. While California has high housing costs, academic student employees often have the option of renting from UC where overall rent costs are as much as 25% below market rates. Some campuses provide even deeper discounts.

Tying compensation directly to local housing costs could overwhelm UC finances by creating an unfunded obligation of at least several hundred million dollars – an especially troubling prospect as the university system is still recovering deep spending cuts during the Great Recession. The impact of those spending cuts on staff and students should be instructive – especially since the state Legislative Analyst Office predicts California will be grappling with a $25 billion deficit next year and the “weakest performance the state has experienced since the Great Recession.”

UC lost almost a third of its state funding on a per-student basis during the recession, and had to nearly double tuition, furlough staff and defer critical capital improvement projects. Students struggled to get the courses they needed while facing higher student-faculty ratios in the classroom, increased costs and fewer support services.

The union’s proposal could also drive up housing costs for undergraduates and everyone living near a UC campus. Property owners could raise rents indiscriminately, secure in the knowledge that UC would be contractually obligated to pay for any rental cost increases.

The UAW is also demanding in-state tuition for international students and other non-resident student workers, which could also take much-needed funds from other programs that benefit students and staff. And it would be unfair to the state’s residents whose taxes support the university system and help fund lower, in-state tuition.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature have worked to increase the number of California residents enrolled at UC. To extend the benefit of in-state tuition to students from outside California would undermine this commitment and effectively mean that non-resident student employees would receive a larger compensation package than homegrown student employees for doing the same work.

For all these reasons and more, the UAW should accept UC’s proposal for mediation to reach a new agreement that will protect students and staff. The workers’ right to strike must be respected, but the impact of the strike on students and the state’s future is troubling.

UC students missed important instructional time during the pandemic, and they should not have to lose more due to a work stoppage. It’s time to work together to provide the world-class education that is the hallmark of UC and essential to creating California’s future leaders.

Dick Ackerman, Fullerton

Mel Levine, Pacific Palisades

Ackerman is a former Republican leader of the California Senate; Levine is a former Democratic member of Congress. They co-chair the California Coalition for Public Higher Education.

On September 15, 2022, Capitol Weekly published this Op-Ed from Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine, co-chairs of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education:

With more than 132,000 graduates every year, the California State University (CSU) is critical to the success of young people in our state and to meeting California’s needs for an educated workforce.

The California Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom worked together through the budget process this year to support the CSU on many initiatives to improve student success and increase access to higher education.

But now a measure headed to the governor’s desk for his signature would require the CSU to divert funds from student services and graduation initiatives and could lead to tuition increases and academic and faculty layoffs.

The bill, SB 410, is a last-minute “gut and amend” bill championed by the CSU Employees Union to mandate a step salary structure for non-faculty bargaining units. While CSU supports salary improvements, SB 410 provides no additional funding to achieve this goal: Implementing it will cost the CSU $287 million in the first year alone, and the CSU estimates implementation would  cost as much as $878 million over 10 years.

The CSU, in partnership with its staff unions, requested but didn’t receive the $287 million needed to begin implementing SB 410. That means that SB 410’s enactment would require CSU to divert funds from its student support services and from Graduation Initiative 2025, which is its ambitious program to increase graduation rates for all CSU students while eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps.

CSU also would need to consider reducing other critical academic services, increasing tuition and laying off academic and faculty staff to implement SB 410.

The Cal State Student Association called for the state to identify sources of funding to implement SB 410 to ensure it “will not cause harm to students…Raising tuition or cutting essential student support is an unacceptable way to fund a step salary increase system.”

Also essential to student success is the ability to recruit and retain high-quality faculty and staff.  The CSU has recognized that it needs to revisit and improve compensation to achieve that goal. It recently ratified contracts with its union partners and nearly all employees received a general salary increase totaling approximately 7% over fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

The CSU also partnered with its staff unions to secure $2 million in last year’s state budget to conduct a study of the CSU’s staff salary structure. The study, conducted by Mercer Consulting,  produced recommendations in April that included creating new pay ranges and job frameworks within a step salary structure.

The CSU and CSU Employees Union signed  a Memorandum of Understanding to negotiate implementation of the salary study recommendations in a separate collective bargaining process.

SB 410 would circumvent this collective bargaining process – even as the CSU remains committed to working with unions to determine the implementation process. It will also set a precedent for circumventing other collective bargaining processes.

As co-chairs of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education, a group of dedicated supporters outside of the state’s higher education system who are committed to the success of the state’s world-class public education system, we call on the governor to reject SB 410 and give the CSU and its unions the opportunity to reach agreement through the collective bargaining process.

The collective bargaining process is the only sure way to achieve a fair and competitive salary structure that will be financially viable and won’t impinge on student success or on the very important initiatives launched by the governor, Legislature and the CSU to increase the number of graduates and ensure access to public higher education in California.

On May 4, 2022, CalMatters published this Op-Ed from Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine, co-chairs of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education:

Far too often, students at California’s public colleges and universities have had to sleep in their cars or couch surf in their friends’ apartments because they couldn’t afford permanent housing. It’s time to increase funding and remove obstacles so that the state public higher education system can create the housing students need.

One in 20 University of California students, one in 10 California State University students and one in five California Community Colleges students have reported they were homeless at some point during the academic year. Even more students reported sleeping on a sofa, in a hotel or outdoors because they lacked permanent housing. Most CSU and CCC students now pay more for housing than tuition, and COVID-19 has driven up those costs, according to one recent survey. 

The lack of affordable campus housing can harm our young people’s educational opportunities and, ultimately, the state’s economic future.

In the past, public colleges and universities have built new housing with revenue bonds, which are repaid with students’ housing payments. But it’s difficult to keep student housing costs affordable while repaying these bonds. 

Assembly Bill 1602 by Assembly member Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, would create a $5 billion fund that would lend money interest-free to public colleges and universities to help construct an estimated 25,000 additional beds that would be rented to students at below-market prices.

The fund would build on the Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program approved last year to award one-time grants of up to $2 billion over three years for campus housing. The Legislature should approve the first $480 million in grants proposed to create affordable housing for 3,545 students at UCLA, UC San Diego, San Francisco State, San Diego State and five community colleges: College of the Siskiyous, Fresno City, Imperial Valley, Sierra and Ventura colleges.

Even with increased funding, creating new campus housing faces challenges under the California Environmental Quality Act. CEQA was the basis for the state Supreme Court’s recent decision to block enrollment increases at UC Berkeley. The Legislature and governor acted quickly to let students enroll. They also should move forward on Senate Bill 886, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.

SB 886 would streamline and accelerate student and faculty housing production by exempting on-campus housing built by UC, CSU and CCC from CEQA. Projects would still have to meet state environmental standards but would not be subject to the CEQA lawsuits that have blocked or stalled college and university plans in the past.

Creating more affordable campus housing will bolster the state’s economy. Research shows that students living on campus are more likely to have academic success and complete their education. When they complete their education, they earn about two times the amount high school graduates do and have lower unemployment rates, higher labor force participation and better job quality.

In recognition of this, the governor and state policymakers have called for increased in-state enrollment at public colleges and universities. But campuses may struggle to meet demand without increased housing.

CSU reported that 8,700 students were on housing waitlists at 13 of its 23 campuses in the fall, and UC reported more than 7,500 students on waitlists at eight of its nine campuses. With its recent announcement, UCLA stands out as the first — and unfortunately the only — UC campus to guarantee housing for four years to first-year students and two years for transfer students.

CCC, the nation’s largest higher education system, has dormitories at only 11 of its 116 campuses — even though demand for affordable housing is high among their students, many of whom are lower-income and often juggling jobs, family obligations and their studies.

Providing affordable housing so students can thrive is essential to ensuring their success, and their success is essential to the continued prosperity of the Golden State.

Dick Ackerman, Fullerton

Mel Levine, Pacific Palisades

Ackerman is a former Republican leader of the California Senate; Levine is a former Democratic member of Congress. They co-chair the California Coalition for Public Higher Education.

On November 22, 2021, the Los Angeles Times published this letter to the editor from Dick Ackerman and Mel Levine, co-chairs of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education:

To the editor: The $31-billion state budget surplus can help make up for the funding losses that California’s public higher education system suffered during the Great Recession. The University of California, California State University and community college systems are economic engines for the state. But they must have more funding to continue to produce the educated workforce that California needs. Despite increased funding in recent years, they’re still behind. The community college system went several years without its fair share of state funds from the spending guidelines set in Proposition 98, and it per-student resources have long been far too low. UC and CSU don’t have dedicated funding streams or constitutional protections. To make up for the damage inflicted by the financial strain on these three systems, we should increase faculty, improve existing facilities and add the new ones needed to house and educate students. Expanding the capacities of UC, CSU and the community colleges will ensure one of our key economic engines keeps propelling our state forward.

Dick Ackerman, Fullerton

Mel Levine, Pacific Palisades

Ackerman is a former Republican leader of the California Senate; Levine is a former Democratic member of Congress. They co-chair the California Coalition for Public Higher Education.