UCLA's Anderson School wants to end reliance on state funding

[Blue_Tires]

UCLA’s Anderson School of Management is seeking to end any reliance on state funds under a controversial proposal that would be the first such shift to self-sufficiency in the cash-strapped UC system and could provide a model for other programs seeking more freedom to increase tuition rates and faculty salaries.

Anderson, a graduate school that offers master's and doctorate degrees in business programs, wants to wean itself of most state funds by 2015 and to replace that $5.6 million a year with additional private donations and tuition levels closer to that of private schools. Annual tuition for California residents in a full-time master's program would rise over time from $41,000 now to more than $50,000, including a $5,000 discount for in-state students, according to the proposal.

Cuts in state funding in recent years and continuing uncertainty about such money are driving the proposal, which must receive approval from UC headquarters and UCLA faculty. The plan’s supporters say the status quo is hurting the school’s ability to compete with private schools for top business faculty, who are among the most highly paid in academia nationwide.

"We’ve got to change the way we operate if we are to continue being what we are," Anderson’s dean, Judy D. Olian, said in an interview. "State support has declined so significantly that we’ve asked ourselves what is the best model to sustain the excellence of the school and the excellence of what we can do in this region."

Some critics contend that Olian’s plan is another step toward privatizing the University of California and is based on risky assumptions about private fund-raising. Olian and her supporters say that is not the case and that Anderson will remain fully under UCLA’s academic governance and policies, including tenure and pension rules. They add that the rest of UCLA will benefit because money Anderson otherwise would receive from the state could be diverted to help support such departments as English and math, which have heavy undergraduate enrollments and fewer opportunities for private fund-raising.

"There is a kind of win-win," Olian said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/uclas-anderson-school-wants-to-end-reliance-on-state-funding.html



I didn't know business faculty were among the highest paid...What in the hell are they teaching their students?

[The Northerner]

1. A win-win? We'll see...