Audit claims percentage of admitted out-of-state students has increased over the years, causing in-state students to be turned away from their schools of choice

In late March, the new state audit released a 126-page report accusing the University of California (UC) of admitting too many out-of-state applicants to its campuses and turning away local students.

The audit revealed that the UC favors out-of-state students, and found that while out-of-state applicants benefited from lowered admission standards, California students were increasingly turned away from their campuses of choice.

The audit was requested more than a year ago by California Assemblyman Mike Gipson, who witnessed the enrollment of students from other states and countries grow to 15.5 percent of UC’s total undergraduate enrollment, which is up from about 5 percent eight years ago.

UC President Janet Napolitano claimed the audit was “disappointingly pre-baked” and “unfair and unwarranted.” She stated that higher-paying out-of-state students contribute $728 million to UC coffers which allows the 10-campus system to accept more Californians amongst the massive budget cuts imposed since the 2008 recession.

“Our commitment to California and California students has never wavered, even through the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression,” Napolitano said in a press release on the University of California website.

UC officials also insist that the nearly $25,000 in additional tuition that nonresidents pay each year has allowed the UC system to enroll thousands more California students than the system could otherwise afford. Tuition and fees for out-of-state students totaled $38,108 this academic year, compared with $13,400 for in-state students.

“Without the extra money from out-of-state students, Californians could have faced an additional $2,500 in tuition — a roughly 20 percent boost,” Napolitano said in a statement for the Los Angeles Times.

On April 4, the University of California posted a press release on its website stating that in 2016, the system admitted significantly more California residents. According to the press release, California resident freshmen admitted to a UC for fall 2016 increased by 8,488 students for a total of 66,123 admissions offers. This is a 14.7 percent increase over 2015.

The press release also states that the preliminary fall 2016 admission rate for nonresident students fell from 54.6 percent to 53.7 percent.

However, state auditor Elaine Howle said that UC officials did not provide evidence for their key claims, as they had not shown how they used the $728 million in nonresident tuition for more California students.

“They never called into question any of the facts […] They just don’t like our conclusions,” Howle said in a statement for the Los Angeles Times. “But our conclusions are based on the facts.”

Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, believes that with fewer nonresident students, more Californians could go to their top campus choices. Many students who are turned away from their favored campuses are offered a seat at UC Merced, even if they did not apply there.

Kara Sonh, a third-year transfer biology major, echoes Napolitano’s sentiment on the audit’s claims.

“I never thought getting into an out-of-state school would be easier,” Sonh said. “In fact, no one really tries even leaving Texas and going to a place like a UC because it is difficult, plus really expensive. My friends who go here and are from California had benefits like even being guaranteed a UC for being in the top of their class.”

Mason Hall, a third-year anthropology major from California, believes out-of-state transfer students pay a high price for attending a UC.

“I have a friend leaving Davis this year because they can no longer afford the tuition,” Hall said. “She pays a substantially greater amount than me and I’m shocked they even ask that much from transfers.”

The audit recommends a biennial cost study and a review of how to reduce the $13 billion spent on staff salaries in 2014-15. UC officials said they have worked on reducing costs and will continue to seek new ways to do so.

The audit also recommended stricter entrance requirements for nonresident students, a cap on their enrollment and an increased focus on recruiting Californians — particularly African Americans, Latinos and other underrepresented minorities.

Written by: Demi Caceres – campus@theaggie.org

University recognized for ADVANCE Program and CAMPOS Initiative

On March 29, Forbes named UC Davis the number-one college for women in STEM.

Using Forbes’ 2016 Best Value colleges ranking, the magazine assessed schools with a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics and found the rate of attendance by women. Forbes states that UC Davis has a 56 percent female enrollment with 29 percent of the total student body declared as STEM majors.

Forbes went on to highlight UC Davis’ ADVANCE Program and CAMPOS Initiative as examples of key support systems.

Started in September 2012, UC Davis ADVANCE is a mentoring program with both faculty and student members which aims to support the participation and advancement of women in science and engineering fields. The university branch is supported by the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Program.

CAMPOS, a sister program under ADVANCE, strives to support a diverse and inclusive environment for women in STEM through prioritizing Latina STEM scholars.

Many other programs under these initiatives help to support women in STEM. For example, LAUNCH, another sister program under ADVANCE, provides mentorship for new faculty by supporting their early professional integration and development of their careers at UC Davis.

Mary de Leon Siantz, UC Davis ADVANCE CAMPOS Initiative founding director, speaks to the importance of balancing work and life for women.

“One of the things here we’re looking closely is to foster and support life-work balance and that’s really important to women,” Siantz said, “We’ve had a number of these scholars come in either pregnant, getting pregnant, or have babies [while] trying to navigate their careers here.”

Siantz cites the Partner Opportunity Program as an example of the university supporting women balancing work and life. The program helps already employed female faculty find employment for their husbands as well.

Forbes points out the secret to helping women succeed in STEM is support systems.

“I agree 200 percent with [Forbes]. We’ve been working very hard with the Chancellor’s initiative on an institutional transformation that is being supported by the National Science Foundation,” Siantz said, “I came from the University of Pennsylvania and I’ve worked in other places, I’ve never seen a thing like this.”

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi credits UC Davis’ recognition to the faculty.

“A primary reason for our success has been the outstanding faculty we recruit and the work they spearhead to increase female and underrepresented minority representation in STEM,” Katehi said in a press release.

Andy Fell, associate director of news and media relations at UC Davis, said that UC Davis differentiates itself from other universities in terms of diversity because of the large number of female STEM faculty.  

“The departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Chemistry are two STEM departments with a high proportion of female faculty compared to similar departments at other universities,” Fell said.

Siantz emphasizes the significance of UC Davis’ institutional transformative initiative to support women in STEM.

“The National Science Foundation has supported [UC Davis] ADVANCE to promote science for women all over the nation. UC has been [the foundation’s] focus [to] not only recruit women, but [also] diverse women,” Siantz said. “This [program] is going be very important for future scientists. The girls from California are going benefit a lot from this [program] and [so is] the nation.”

Written by: Yvonne Leong – campus@theaggie.org

University to offer affordable bike helmets and 5 dollar CoHo gift cards to helmet-wearing students

The Student Health and Wellness Center (SHWC) has partnered with various members of the UC Davis community to launch “Helmet Hair Don’t Care,” a new bike helmet promotion campaign. This initiative will provide students with inexpensive helmet options along with incentives, such as ASUCD Coffee House gift cards, to encourage more of the student body to wear helmets when biking.

According to a 2014 American Community Survey, Davis has the highest population of bicyclists in the U.S., with 23.2 percent of the city’s population commuting via bicycle,

According to data collected by the National College Health Assessment in spring 2016, less than 8 percent of undergraduate students wear helmets, which is far below the national average of 32 percent.

“We saw [the statistic] as a pretty big indicator that we need to step up our game on that level,” SHWC student assistant Steven Kracke said.

“Helmet Hair Don’t Care” combines resources from the Bike Barn, CoHo, SHWC, Transportation and Parking Services and the UC Davis Police Department to create a campaign that appeals to the student body.

As part of the campaign, the Bike Barn will sell helmets for $13 each and accept coupons for 13 percent off any helmet in order to provide students with affordable helmet options.

“The point isn’t to make money. The point is to get people to wear helmets and be safe,” said Robert St. Cyr, Bike Barn general manager.

Starting the week of April 10, if a campus police officer sees a student wearing a helmet while biking, the student will be rewarded with a $5 gift card to the CoHo.

“We will be handing out 300 gift cards throughout the quarter,” said Shantille Connolly, a wellness health educator. “We’re hoping to also obtain funding for an additional quarter and make it more of a sustainable model.”

Focus groups organized by Kracke revealed that appearance, convenience and affordability were the top reasons why students don’t wear helmets. To combat this, Connolly and Kracke launched the “Helmet Hair Don’t Care” campaign.

“One of the biggest barriers that students indicated was appearance,” Connolly said. “They also said that by providing affordable helmets and by having their peers use helmets, they’d be more likely to use helmets.”

Connolly and Kracke view the launch of “Helmet Hair Don’t Care” as just the beginning of the initiative.

“We’re hoping that this coming Fall Quarter will have a much larger role with orientation and welcome week. When students get here, they get the message,” Connolly said.

Posters around campus and future helmet-related activities are meant to gain momentum around “Helmet Hair Don’t Care” and raise awareness of helmet use within the UC Davis student community.

“We want to get people thinking about it, as opposed to just accepting the norm of not having helmets,” Kracke said.

Written by: Lindsay Floyd – campus@theaggie.org

Chancellor receives some support, some opposition from faculty

The battle over the future of UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi is heating up as members of the sciences faculty and the humanities faculty are at odds over their feelings on Katehi’s involvement with DeVry University, King Abdulaziz University and John Wiley & Sons textbook company.

On March 23, 33 UC Davis faculty, mostly comprised of members from the science departments, wrote a column explaining why they supported Katehi and were against calling for her resignation. Sixty-seven faculty members signed this letter, most of them from scientific fields — only seven were from other departments.

The column’s authors believe Katehi is a fit chancellor for the university. They wrote that there is selective outrage over Katehi’s entanglement in these organizations and argued that many other university officials also hold positions on similar boards.

“Much real and substantive progress has occurred at UC Davis under Chancellor Katehi’s leadership; and we see an alarming trend of ‘piling on’ in a negative campaign against a strong female chancellor who has worked hard to serve the campus,” wrote the faculty members in the column. “Over the past seven years, we have seen the chancellor argue passionately about student welfare and effectively advocate for UCD with the UC president.”

However, this sentiment was refuted by several humanities faculty members a week later on March 30 in a column for the Davis Enterprise. The column was written by over 30 humanities faculty members on campus, who argued that standing with Katehi would mean standing against the students. The members vowed that they were going to stand for and with the students who are occupying Mrak Hall.

“[Katehi] has enriched herself professionally and personally at the expense of the reputation of UC Davis, and multiple legislators have now called for her resignation,” the column read. “At a time when our students are facing ever-increasing fees, class sizes and exorbitantly priced textbooks, the chancellor’s actions demonstrate poor judgment and weak ethical standards that have eroded our confidence in her leadership.”

However, there is some disagreement as to whether there is any real schism between the science faculty and the humanities faculty at all.

Natalia Deeb Sossa, an associate professor in the Chicano/a studies department and one of the faculty members calling for Katehi’s resignation, said that she believed that there were faculty members on both sides who support Katehi.

“I am not sure that divide exists,” Sossa said. “Even within humanities faculty, there are many who argue she should not resign, while others argue that she should.”

Many students, particularly the ones protesting in Mrak, are even less convinced that there is any real divide. A few of the protesters even argue that many faculty members are fearful of losing their jobs, which is why they continue to support Katehi despite her transgressions.

Bernadette Fox, a second-year transfer student and international relations major, said that she read both of the letters and believes that the letter supporting Katehi was inconsequential and does not speak to the larger issues at hand with regard to Katehi’s ethical violations.

“I don’t think that one article can speak to any sort of separation between the departments,” Fox said. “A lot of people are speaking to her personality or how they have personally benefited [from Katehi’s tenure]. I don’t think that’s what we’re here to talk about. We’re talking about larger issues and all of UC Davis and not just a small few. There are things that UC Davis has accomplished [over the past few years] that we don’t think should be attributed to the chancellor.”

University representatives did not wish to comment on the columns.

Written by: Sangeetha Ramamurthy – campus@theaggie.org