PPIC

In a conversation hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California, UC President Michael Drake spoke Friday about the priorities and challenges that the University of California will aim to address in the upcoming future.

In the California race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Dianne Feinstein and California state Senator Kevin de León are rallying voter support for the upcoming November election.

A legislative committee unanimously passed a tentative proposal on Tuesday, including $25 million in enrollment growth funding for the UC system for the coming year.

Undergraduate tuition for California residents will not go up in the next two years and the state will make a large investment in the university’s pension system, according to an agreement reached between UC President Janet Napolitano and Gov. Jerry Brown.

With Governor Jerry Brown set to release his preliminary budget next month, both the state assembly and senate have proposed their own plans that would “buy out” the proposed University of California tuition increase using additional state funding and increased tuition from out-of-state students.

At its meeting this week, the UC Board of Regents is set to establish a new long term funding model centered around the university’s tuition increase plan released earlier this month.

The University of California released a plan Thursday to increase tuition over the next five years, a policy that comes in the wake of state disinvestment and one that clashes with Gov. Jerry Brown’s vision of higher education funding.

A report released last week by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank, found that grants and scholarships have failed to keep up with rising costs of higher education.

Voter support for Proposition 30 — which could determine whether University of California students are dealt a 20 percent tuition hike in January — has fallen below 50 percent for the first time, according to a survey released Wednesday.