Opinion: Public higher education in California 1965-2015: How times have changed

An opinion piece by UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Blumenthal,appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 29, 2015. Here’s an excerpt:

As Gov. Jerry Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano spar over the future of the University of California, my question is this: Are we content to offer today’s students, who are more racially and socioeconomically diverse than ever, less than their predecessors received?

Today’s UC system undergraduate population looks like this:

• 40 percent come from families in which neither parent earned a four-year college degree.

• 30 percent transferred from a California community college.

• 42 percent receive federal aid for low-income students — compared with only 15 percent at Ivy League universities.

Public higher education is a transformational force, a major lever that opens the doors of opportunity. Fifty years ago, California’s investment in public higher education reached its apex as three new UC campuses were coming online in Santa Cruz, Irvine and San Diego. UC tuition was virtually nil, and the gates of social mobility were open to all.

Read the full article on the UC Santa Cruz website.