As part of a pilot program, the UC Student Association will nominate three students each year to act as “student observers” for the UC Regents. These students will participate in the regents’ committee meetings to lend student perspective to discussion. The UCSA will place the observers on three of the board’s committees.

“The big goal is to make sure student voices are being heard,” said UCSA President Kareem Aref. “With this extra opportunity, students will be able to get into those spaces so the regents never act without student input.”

UC San Diego student Vanessa Garcia is a prospective observer and has been nominated by the UCSA for confirmation by the regents. The board will consider her nomination at its November meeting, according to UCSA Communications Director Bridget Botelho. Aref said he is unsure whether the other two observers will be confirmed in November as well. Student observers will change with each school year.

The regents have had students observers in the past. The Committee on Investments has had a student observer for the past two years, according to UC spokesperson Brooke Converse. This year, however, marks the start of an official student observer pilot program — a project that is the result of collaboration between the UCSA, UC Student Affairs and the Office of the Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Regents, Converse said.

Aref said the additional three observer positions were modeled on those positions. He said the California Constitution prohibits the addition of student regents to the board, which led advocates for greater student representation to seek alternative avenues to gaining access to the university’s top decision-makers.

The three student observers will join UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores and Student Regent-designate Sadia Saifuddin as student representatives to the body.

“Overall, the biggest impact students are going to have as observers is to contextualize issues as they relate to students, and that’s a very effective way of changing conversations,” Flores said. “The board does recognize the importance of the student opinion.”

ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai said there is still more to be done to guarantee student access to the regents.

“Student presence and student voice should be the norm,” Mecklai said in an email. “We need to continue to be critical of how we can negotiate more access for students in the Regents, and continue to look at ways to encourage Regental reform and improved student representation at the systemwide level.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Alex Turmey/Staff

UC Berkeley students and faculty gathered Monday to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, a daylong event focused on the culture, dance and history of native people.

A collaboration between the UC Berkeley department of theater, dance and performance studies and the American Indian Graduate Student Association, the celebration of Indigenous People’s Day featured speakers and performers at the Bancroft Dance Studio, on the corner of Bancroft Avenue and Dana Street.

Performing-arts students made up the bulk of the audience members for many of the presentations, which included a talk by graduate student Peter Nelson on the study of archaeology and anthropology’s effect on native cultures. Edwardo Madril, a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and a professional dancer, performed the hoop dance and other traditional Native American dances.

“It’s not magical; it’s not mystical. It may be profound — I don’t know,” Madril said. “The image of an American Indian has been around for a couple hundred years, but we still seem to be a spectacle.”

Indigenous People’s Day is a movement to counter Columbus Day, the federal holiday falling on the second Monday of October each year that celebrates Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492. According to Timothy Molino, a UC Berkeley graduate student in the department of ethnic studies and a member of the American Indian Graduate Student Association, Columbus Day fails to acknowledge the flourishing Native American culture that exists today.

“Rather than Columbus Day, this is a movement to recognize indigenous people,” Molino said. “It’s about recognizing these cultures rather than the defeat of these cultures.”

Indigenous People’s Day celebrated its second year on campus. The event was prompted when a UC Berkeley production resulted in outcry from the Native American community in the spring of 2012. The play, “Ishi: The Last of the Yahi,” elicited negative reactions from the American Indian Graduate Student Association and other groups for what some claimed to be an inaccurate and harmful depiction of Native American culture.

Lisa Wymore, a UC Berkeley associate professor of dance whose students took part in the event, said the department decided to start Indigenous People’s Day as a way to address the tension left over from the production.

The program received funding from the Office of Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri, the American Indian Graduate Program and the department of ethnic studies, according to Olivia Chilcote, chair of the American Indian Graduate Student Association.

“This day is about sharing culture, but it’s also about remembering history,” Chilcote said. “It would be really great if UC Berkeley were to make this a campuswide event.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Kevin Foote/File

UC Berkeley placed fifth in a recently published set of rankings meant to reflect President Barack Obama’s proposed criteria for measuring college affordability and access.

The rankings, released by the organization Affordable Colleges Online, are a response to the college-rating system Obama outlined in August. The plan seeks to link federal funding for institutions of higher education to assessments of individual schools based on average tuition, graduation rates and the number of students receiving federal aid, among other measures.

Affordable Colleges Online’s rankings analyzed tuition and fees, graduation rates, student loan default rates, student services and the average starting salary of graduates to determine the top 100 public colleges that may receive a high rating under Obama’s proposed program. Other UC campuses ranked highly as well: UCLA ranked 10th, UC San Diego came in at 22nd and UC Irvine ranked 24th. All UC undergraduate campuses except UC Merced made the top 100.

Wes Ricketts, vice president and general manager of Affordable Colleges Online, said he was not surprised to see many UC campuses on the list.

“The UC system gets a leg up when you factor in the return on investment,” he said. “Those alumni tend to earn more money in the short term and the long term compared to other colleges.”

UC Berkeley ranked below the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the College of William Mary in the rankings but boasted the largest postgraduate starting salary of the five.

The rankings analyzed postgraduation starting salaries from data compiled by Payscale.com, a site that collects data on how much graduates of various universities make. According to the site, UC Berkeley graduates’ typical starting salary is $54,700.

In response to Obama’s proposals for higher education, former UC president Mark Yudof said last month that the average debt of UC students upon graduation is about $7,000 less than the national average, which the White House estimates to be $26,000.

“When going to a really competitive, top-rank university such as Berkeley, yes, affordability is a key factor,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein. “But our systemwide goal is not based on the lowest price. Ours is about financial access — we  focus on ensuring that students can afford a college education.”

UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores said Obama’s proposals and the subsequent rankings by Affordable Colleges Online indicate a growing need for the UC system to focus on reducing students’ reliance on loans and ensuring their workplace success.

“I wouldn’t say that I disagree with our ranking, but the introduction of this plan is going to force the UC to look at those issues, and I am very happy about that,” she said.

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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The move comes after a string of failures in the negotiation process between the university and the workers’ labor union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299. The university and union entered negotiations in October. The union’s service workers — which include custodians, food-service workers and gardeners employed by the university — have worked without a contract since February. Having exhausted the option of bargaining, the university is legally allowed to move forward with this plan, according to a UC press release.

Service workers from AFSCME 3299 will now be subject to a two-tiered pension plan. Employees previously contributed 5 percent of their pay toward their pension, but those hired prior to July 1 must now contribute 6.5 percent. Those hired on or after July 1 must give 7 percent. The university will also contribute 12 percent of employee pay to workers’ pensions — an increase of 2 percent.

“Really, we prefer to solve these things at the table with our unions,” said UC spokesperson Shelly Meron. ”(Increasing employee contributions) is something that we have to do to make sure that our pension program is healthy in the long term. We couldn’t just sit by and do nothing. We had to make some changes.”

But AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger, who works as a gardener at UC Berkeley, said the university’s offer exacerbates everyday challenges and essentially equates to a pay cut for her and other workers.

“What this imposition does is it cuts at least $50 to $70 from low-wage workers’ paychecks every single month,” Lybarger said. “That equals a tank of gas to get to work, cost of parking at work, putting money away for our kids’ Christmas presents, and it’s the cost of a prescription.”

In July, the university imposed these pension reforms on more than 12,000 patient-care employees, who were also members of AFSCME 3299. Lybarger said the union has asked to meet with incoming UC President Janet Napolitano but did not say whether the union planned to strike.

Paul Roose, a state-appointed mediator brought in during the collective bargaining process, supported the two-tiered pension plan in a report issued in August. He called the bargaining process between the parties “dysfunctional.”

ASUC Senator Briana Mullen said the university’s decision threatens students’ rights to negotiate with the university and said she plans to write an ASUC bill asking the university reconsider its options.

“It’s really atrocious to think that the university can move forward without compromising,” Mullen said. “Students themselves have a stake in this game. They are affected by the way UC is sidestepping organized labor on campus.”

Contact Libby Rainey and Jessie Lau at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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Maliq Nixon left no student group untouched.

A UC Berkeley sophomore and a political activist, Nixon was pronounced dead early Saturday morning at Stebbins Hall, a Northside co-op on Ridge Road where he was living. He was 19.

The cause of death is unknown, according to the Berkeley Police Department.

Since Saturday, there has been an outpouring of condolences on social media and from Nixon’s friends as they recall his infectious spirit.

A history major who friends say was known for his strong convictions and tireless energy, Nixon was active in campus politics. Last year, he volunteered for Cal Berkeley Democrats, interned at the Gender Equity Resource Center and worked on multiple campaigns for the campus political party CalSERVE. This year, he was already hard at work volunteering for CalSERVE Senator Briana Mullen.

“If you were to ask someone if they knew Maliq Nixon, they would know Maliq Nixon,” said CalDems President Sofie Karasek. “He was one of those people who you could bond over knowing. He brought people together just by virtue of being himself.”

Despite having a packed schedule, Nixon made time to enjoy a number of outside interests, according to close friend Ross Cunningham. He was always listening to rap group OFWGKTA, and he loved La Burrita horchatas. He also used to carry a purse — a habit Karasek remembered fondly.

“Even if he wasn’t happy, he’d make sure that other people were,” said UC Berkeley junior Marcel Jones, who knew Nixon through CalSERVE.

Many friends remember Nixon as a captivating orator. His voice would rise in volume as he became more and more engrossed in a debate.

Caitlin Quinn, a CalSERVE senator, said she first took notice of Nixon’s civic engagement before he arrived at UC Berkeley. The incoming freshman was an avid poster on the Class of 2016 Facebook page, where he often engaged in debates. While most freshmen were just settling into the residence halls, Nixon helped Quinn register incoming students to vote.

Cunningham, a UC Berkeley sophomore, also connected with Nixon early in their freshman year. The pair met during Welcome Week and quickly developed a close friendship.

“He lived in his head, often quiet and withdrawn, but he was always willing to talk with you when you’re feeling upset,” Cunningham said in a Facebook message. “He gave so much and expected nothing in return.”

At the time of his death, Nixon was working for Mullen, advocating greater access to mental health services on campus. Mullen said Nixon felt the university “wasn’t doing enough.”

Mullen and others recall Nixon advocating the inclusion of Northside co-ops in the ASUC-sponsored Berkeley redistricting map at a recent ASUC Senate meeting — another issue about which he was vocal.

“He was at every senate, every committee meeting,” Mullen said. “You couldn’t pay most Cal students to sit through those.”

Interim Dean of Students David Surratt said the campus has reached out to Nixon’s family since the death was announced. Plans for a memorial service are pending, Quinn said.

“He was very passionate and very radical, but he would be really really respectful of people that wouldn’t always agree with him,” Quinn said. “And that’s rare. I was really looking forward to seeing where he was going to go.”

Contact Libby Rainey and Savannah Luschei at newsdesk@dailycal.org

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Maliq Nixon was a prospective history major. In fact, he was a declared history major.

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Of the approximately 26,000 undergrads at Cal, I’d say I know about 100. I can recall the names of about 150, hold a conversation with 50 easily and hang out regularly with maybe 20. Facebook says I have 178 friends from UC Berkeley. My text messages say I have maybe seven — on a good day. I’m comfortable with this.

Despite these small numbers, I’ve probably met more than 2,000 people at this school. As students, day by day we meet and remeet the people who occupy the apartments, dorm rooms and classrooms around us. Even when we go weeks without running into old roommates or dear friends, the people we’ve met just once for an instant seem to pop up everywhere. How do we deal with these hundreds of acquaintances? When you make eye contact with someone you met five months ago at your friend’s friend’s birthday dinner, do you say hello? Do you say anything?

Meeting people is easy. Meeting them 10 times is hard.

In these awkward settings we confront on a daily basis, it’s usually easier just to take the middle ground. For fear of being forgotten, we opt for reintroductions — silent agreements to forget the couple of stray interactions from the past and start fresh. Or, if we can help it, silent agreements to ignore each other altogether. We’ve all looked down at our phones for minutes on end to avoid eye contact with an acquaintance who simply is not worth an awkward conversation or a pained smile.

The phone, sadly, is not always an option. When social gatherings and actual friends bring us face to face with these acquaintances, it can be frustrating. By the eighth time I’ve met my friend’s roommate’s boyfriend at a party, the shame and injustice of it all is just too much to bear. There’s literally no way he doesn’t know who I am at this point, right?

I don’t know whether this is just a college thing. I’m fairly certain it’s a life-post-middle-school thing, just magnified to the extreme in the collegiate world of awkward, intoxicated social gatherings and constantly changing routines, living places and friend groups. (Worried it was a “just me” thing, I surveyed a few friends — they, too, are reintroduced to familiar faces on a weekly basis.) I also don’t think there’s any easy remedy. But I thought if I could at least acknowledge the awkwardness here, I might assure the socially anxious among us that they’re not alone.

First, there are reintroductions that occur at parties — namely, frat parties. Running from place to place with a few actual friends, pushing your way through crowds of students in big, dirty houses, you’re bound to have some weird conversations. It’s possible to meet more than 30 people on any given night. But does talking to someone for two minutes in a sweaty crowd of people mean you should say hello the next time you see that person in a similar setting? Are you even supposed to remember the name or face? My guess is you’re not.

There are also those times when you see those people from said parties in class, on campus or on the 51B. This is probably the worst. Am I supposed to acknowledge these people when they end up sitting next to me in discussion or in front of me in line at GBC? Ignoring them certainly seems like the best option to me. Either that or an awkward grimace and a head nod — which they may or may not return. You’ll likely meet them again at another party. “Hey, what’s your name?” — and so on and so forth.

Lastly, there’s the encounter with Facebook friends you’ve never met — my personal favorite. I watched the Facebook page set up for my freshman class last fall in horror. Virtual strangers added each other as friends, planning to “meet up for a boba run, lol!” Later in the year, I’d hear friends recount stories of encountering these people in person and choosing to play dumb or ignore them altogether. Here, I have advice. Don’t friend people on Facebook if you’ve never met them. You will see them in person, and it will be uncomfortable. Case in point: UC Berkeley Class of 2017 Facebook page.

Maybe all these scenarios are just a fact of life — after all, who really wants to get to know all the random strangers we bump into on a daily basis? Maybe other people are actually incredibly friendly and open, and I’ve just been socializing in the wrong circles. Or maybe we’re all just really bad at saying hello.

Either way, we all face the decision to ignore or confront people around us every day. Although ignoring is usually the easiest option, especially when you know you’ll inevitably be reintroduced to the acquaintance again, anyway, maybe the best route really is just to grin and bear it. This time, maybe the interaction might just stick.

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Jacob Brown/Staff

SAN FRANCISCO — The UC Board of Regents launched a fundraising effort at its Wednesday meeting that asks students, celebrities and UC officials to solicit friends and families for donations that would go toward UC undergraduate scholarships. 

Dubbed the Promise for Education, the campaign encourages individuals to use social media to collect these donations in exchange for completing a given task, or promise.

Gov. Jerry Brown, for instance, has pledged to host a lunch with a student from each UC campus in exchange for a $10,000 donation from the public.

These promises — and the price tags that accompany them — are advertised on the fundraiser’s website, where people can donate money toward various promises. The fundraiser, which launched Wednesday and will run through Oct. 31, is a crowd-funding effort that UC Regent Sherry Lansing said “has never been done before.”

The campaign’s website had around 200 pledges, which range from mundane to absurd, by midday Wednesday.

UC Davis student Bradley Bottoms pledged to wear a cow costume for an entire week if he meets his goal of $1,500 in donations. Jamie Foxx said he will rap a song impersonating President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Monique from the movie “Precious” in exchange for $20,000 in donations.

Lansing, who helped spearhead the Promise for Education effort, said at the meeting that she hopes the fundraiser will broaden scholarship availability.

Last year, UC undergraduates received close to $700 million in financial aid from the university and from private donations, according to David Alcocer, the university’s director of financial aid. Donations given as part of the Promise for Education will add to this pot. 

In an effort to expand these scholarship funds, Lansing said that the fundraiser is meant to attract donations of all sizes — even $1 and $5 contributions.

The university has seen a number of large contributions so far. The program has received about $900,000 in pledges and donations. According to Daniel Dooley, the university’s vice president for external relations, Bank of America and the Entertainment Industry Foundation both pledged $100,000 to kick off the fundraiser. The biggest pledge thus far comes from the family of a single donor, Abraham Trop, who died last year but left money to the university in his will. The family donated $400,000 to the campaign. 

David Kirp, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy who specializes in higher education, said the new fundraiser indicates the depth of the university’s need.

“Promise to Education is both ingenious and dispiriting — ingenious, because it’s a new way to capitalize on social media; dispiriting, because it shows the extraordinary measures that a great public university must take in order provide a world-class education,” he said in an email.

Still, some take issue with the style of fundraising.

Student Regent Cinthia Flores said at the meeting that some students have expressed concern that the fundraiser is a “backhanded” way to solicit donations to the university. But she said she is certain that the campaign will both raise funds and solidify the relationship between donors and the university.

“Sometimes students were apprehensive about this program, saying, ‘Why are we going to ask students to support other students?’ ” Flores said. “But seeing this (campaign) come to realization … I’ve seen the support that’s behind it.”

She pledged to dress as Superman for an entire day if she reaches a $1,000 donation goal.

Angela Sanchez, a UCLA graduate who aims to raise $3,000 for scholarships by pledging to host a 24-hour “magic marathon,” said she sees the fundraiser as a chance for student advocacy.

“California is a state that’s rife with debt,” Sanchez said. “Until we can find some kind of alleviation, the best resource we’re going to have is our community.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Joe Wright/File

SAN FRANCISCO — The UC Board of Regents moved forward Tuesday with plans to repair the university-owned Blake House, an abandoned mansion that traditionally has housed the UC president and served as a space for UC functions in the Bay Area.

The planned renovations will cost $370,000 and are the beginning of a discussion about how to handle the property. The regents also approved a $250,000 plan to survey various options, ranging from full-scale renovation to selling the estate.

This money will come exclusively from the Searles Fund — a private endowment typically used by the university for housing presidents and chancellors. Initial renovation plans include roof repair and restoration of water-damaged facilities.

“We should focus on what’s the best use for this piece of property,” said UC Regent Hadi Makarechian. “Is it sale, renovations, divisions? We shouldn’t just spend money to fix the roof and then do nothing.”

The regents’ talk of renovation follows years of neglect.

The Blake House has been vacant since 2008, when plans to renovate the landmark fell to the wayside in light of the economic crisis. The 1920s mansion, first given to the university in 1957, lies four miles north of the UC Berkeley campus, and former UC president Robert Dynes was the last to live there.

Regent Frederick Ruiz suggested at the meeting that the university look into selling the property instead of seeking costly renovations. He expressed concern that the house’s location was “not adequate” for entertaining.

“Why don’t we put 2 million in and sell it and find better use for that money?” Ruiz said.

However, Nathan Brostrom, the university’s executive vice president for business operations, said selling the Blake House is not a viable option for the university. UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design maintains control of the estate’s expansive gardens and uses them for teaching and research. If the university sells the Blake House, the money from the sale will go exclusively to an endowment for the college and not toward the purchase of another home for the UC president, Brostrom said.

The regents’ agenda said renovating the Blake House will be cheaper for the university over a 15-year span than continuing to lease housing for the UC president and renting facilities for UC events.

Janet Napolitano, the incoming UC president, will live in an alternative Oakland residence whose monthly rent of $9,950 is paid by the university. The university signed a two-year lease for the home that began Sept. 1, according to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel.

The university will discuss potential long-term plans for the property as early as January, according to Patrick Lenz, the UC Office of the President’s vice president of budget and capital resources.

“We have a sense of the problem, but we will not know the specific dollar amounts until we go through the process of getting an assessment of what it’s going to cost,” Lenz said at the meeting.

The university estimates the total cost of the renovations will be between $3.5 million and $6 million. Lenz said the university also will want to confer with Napolitano before moving forward with any plans.

The regents also examined the university’s overall financial situation at their meeting Wednesday, discussing the 2014-15 budget as well as their long-term budget model. Brostrom urged the regents to consider moderate tuition hikes in the long-term plan, despite Gov. Jerry Brown’s request that the university freeze tuition in the next few years.

​“For the quality of the university, if we could have steady, predictable increases, that is the kind of compact that we should have with our students and their families,” Brostrom said.

The regents will vote on the 2014-15 budget — which they discussed only preliminarily at this meeting — in November.

Contact Libby Rainey and Shannon Carroll at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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The meeting, which will run from Tuesday to Thursday, is the last before incoming UC President Janet Napolitano claims the helm of the university at the end of the month. The regents will spend the first two days at the UCSF Mission Bay campus and will end the three-day session  at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where they’ll tour the laboratory’s facilities and learn about its latest projects.

In response to the passage of Proposition 30 by California voters last year and expected increases in state funding, the regents will discuss and revise the university’s long-term budget model. The regents will also discuss issues under consideration for the 2014-2015 budget, such as funding for mandatory cost increases and other high-priority items.

The regents will formally launch a social media fundraiser aimed at raising money for undergraduate scholarships at Wednesday’s meeting. The fundraiser — coined the Promise for Education — is a crowdfunding effort that asks the public to use Facebook, Twitter and other outlets to campaign for donations to the university. It is partially a response to demands that the university find more creative ways to raise money in the face of budget cuts.

The regents will also consider a plan to renovate the Blake House — an abandoned mansion north of the Berkeley Hills that has traditionally housed the UC President — but has gone unused for more than five years.

But with Napolitano’s imminent arrival, the regents are now considering revamping the estate. On Tuesday, they will be asked to approve preliminary funding of more than half a million dollars for the project. The entire renovation is estimated to cost between $3.5 million and $6 million, according to the meeting agenda.

The regents’ meeting is open to the public Tuesday and Wednesday. Members of the public must make a reservation to participate in the regents’ tour of the laboratory Thursday.

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Public concern about the cost of higher education has thus far focused on the growing financial strain of attending college. But the results of this survey, conducted by audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG, suggest that some college leaders are also worried that rising costs will keep students from coming to campus in the first place.

Of the 103 college and university officials surveyed, 37 percent reported being “very concerned” about maintaining current enrollment levels at their colleges, compared with 23 percent who expressed high concern in the same survey last year. 58 percent of survey respondents who reported concerns cited student and parent inability to pay tuition as the top factor affecting enrollment.

UC officials, however, say the UC system is not among those institutions counting student applications with anxiety.

While the number of enrolled undergraduates at UC campuses changes slightly each year, many campuses recently have seen an increase in enrollment. The system as a whole increased enrollment by 1 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to a UC report.

“We haven’t had difficulties in maintaining enrollment,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein in an email. “In fact, it’s been quite the opposite. Each year, we receive record high numbers of applicants — far more than we can enroll. The number of students that we can enroll is linked to state funding. We have the physical capacity to enroll more students, but campuses are setting their enrollment targets based on the funds available to educate those students.”

A spokesperson for KPMG said the firm was not authorized to release the names or institutions of those interviewed. The firm said its researchers polled 41 leaders from public institutions and 62 from private institutions.

Anne MacLachlan, a senior researcher for the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education, said that although the KPMG survey indicates an increase in concerns about college enrollment, it is not specific enough to yield informative results. She said declining enrollment in higher education is a worry that probably is confined to small, obscure private colleges. She said well-known universities such as UC Berkeley do not have a problem maintaining enrollment, despite a tenuous financial climate.

“I think the survey’s claim is outrageous,” MacLachlan said. “All of the good universities have plenty of applications. And even those we are inclined to see as not as high as us, such as the CSUs, can’t admit all those they want to because of budget cuts. So many people are applying.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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