Forum held to discuss future of higher education in California
By Wafiqah Basrai
April 8, 2009 2:36 a.m.
Staff, community members and student leaders from various political, cultural and advocacy groups met on Tuesday to discuss California’s goals for higher education.
The forum, hosted by the Undergraduate Students Association Council office of the external vice president and the Vasconcellos Project, focused on the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education in California, which sets goals and guidelines for the state’s public higher education system .
The Master Plan was enacted in 1960 and was revised again in the mid-1970s. The forum was meant to aid in its next set of revisions, set to take place by 2010.
“There has been no updated Master Plan for over 30 years, and the world has changed in every possible way in the past 30 years,” said retired Sen. John Vasconcellos, who worked with the Vasconcellos Project during his years in public office and is now spearheading the project to help ensure proper needs are met in the rewriting of it.
The goal of the forum was to get input from the UCLA community, said Sonya Mehta, the local affairs director for USAC’s external vice president’s office. The data will be given to legislators to guide the rewriting of the Master Plan.
Attendees were broken up into groups and given questions regarding higher education in four areas: access, affordability, accountability and the quality of the educational experience. The questions asked participants to determine the greatest roadblocks to higher education and its success, and which programs to implement to help the University of California, California state universities and colleges and community colleges.
Participants discussed financial problems within the system. Misha Tsukerman, director of the Asian Pacific Coalition, said he believes students are choosing CSU schools over UC campuses for merely financial reasons. He said those who go to CSUs not only pay lower student fees, but their cost of living is generally much lower because many CSU students commute from home.
Discussions also surrounded groups such as undocumented students who are often unable to attain financial aid.
Shahida Bawa, chief of staff for the USAC president, said she thinks veterans returning from Iraq are going to also shape the way higher education needs to be changed. She said veterans’ presence will require programs like Student Psychological Services to address new student needs and maybe even expand..
Many discussed that the problems of higher education were rooted in K-12 education problems. Mehta said a solution to this may be to offer more counseling and mentoring programs for students in college to make up for that.
Others suggested expanding UCs by opening new campuses to accommodate more students or to offer more vocational specializations so students feel more secure in attaining jobs after college.
Those working with the Vasconcellos Project have been conducting such forums throughout California to gain as much input for the rewriting of the Master Plan.
“It was California’s promise to give everyone a spot in higher education,” said Irene Wan, program manager of the Vasconcellos Project.
