<p>The Governor appears to be backing away from the restoration of college funds. Will that impact your decision to go to a CU? How are other states responding to budgetary pressures?</p>
<p>Jobs that used to be available to high school graduates now require college degrees....should public colleges be better funded?</p>
<p>Take debate to the Cafe</p>
<p>I know that the UCs and Michigan are using billion-dollar campaign fundraisers in an attempt to become less and less dependent on state funding in order to maintain their competitiveness with the top private schools.</p>
<p>Can the UC's remain competitive without adequate state support? I have heard more stories about students taking 5 years to complete their undergraduate degrees because of overcrowding and class cut backs.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that the UC's will remain competitive. The UC's will have to do more fund raising, attract more paid research dollars, and continue to raise tuition but they will not be going out of business, slipping in the ratings or becoming less selective any time soon. </p>
<p>The main changes for students will be continued increases in fees (UC's don't call it tuition) and greater selectivity (the UC regents have approved raising the minimum GPA for next year). Taking five years to graduate is nothing new in the UC (or cal state) system - the four year graduation rates at most campuses haven't changed much in the past twenty years.</p>
<p>I think the greater threat - not receiving as much attention in the press as the UC's - is to california's state college and community college systems. The state colleges really are having to scale back on many services/programs and the community colleges are being asked to pick up a disproportinate share of the burden from the UC's. In my opinion, I'd rather see the state focusing more on THOSE systems than the UC's because they actually educate far more California students than the UC's.</p>
<p>They still have room to increase tuition to offset cuts.</p>