The Shark

more on hastings: governor's proposal would create an $8k per student annual tuition increase.

[cynthia foster]

Although the governor's new budget proposal, which includes cutting off all state funding of Hastings, has not been approved and is being "viewed skeptically" by state legislators, it's a scary piece of news for Hastings students, both current and future.

If California does indeed revoke it's $10M annual payment to the school, and the school is forced to pass along the cost to its students, tuition would go up $8,175 per year for each of Hastings' 1,250 students.

According to the Cal Law story on the news (free reg. req.), "the governor [is] targeting Hastings and other state-funded programs that don't have a federal mandate." The switch would effectively make Hastings a private institution.

Unsurprisingly, the issue of UC Irvine and its new law school has come up:

"Why would we start a new law school when we've had Hastings around for 100 years, and it has a great reputation?" said Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego.

breaking: governator wants $10M from hastings to add to the budget cut pot.

[cheryl miller]

As part of an effort to cut $5.5 billion from the state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday proposed eliminating almost all state funding for Hastings College of the Law. The $10.3 million cut amounts to roughly one-quarter of the school's academic budget, said Hastings' chief financial officer, David Seward.

More on this as news develops later today.

law schools may still get money from you, but they're not really getting it from anybody else.

[brian lauter]

It may be hard to imagine after you've just finished writing a $15,000 spring semester tuition check to your law school, but apparently they’re feeling the economic pinch these days, too.

I haven’t heard about this happening at my school, but according to recent articles in the National Law Journal and an item on TaxProf Blog, several schools have instituted hiring and salary freezes. Other schools have made library adjustments and begun limiting faculty travel.

For instance, according to the National Law Journal, UC Hastings has cut cost-of-living and merit-based raises for administrators and slowed hiring. Law schools in other state systems like the University of Missouri are considering similar measures, and Arizona State has already furloughed many faculty.

Public schools in California have been facing budget cuts and corresponding tuition hikes for several years, and it looks to get even worse now that the legislature has passed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget which cuts education funding by about $8 billion.

More surprising to me was the fact that private law schools are also feeling the pressure. The endowments at Harvard and Yale have dropped 22% and 25% respectively since last summer, due to the tanking financial markets.

You have to applaud the public law schools who have sacrificed faculty salaries and hiring rather than announcing tuition raises or cutting education-related funding, but I wonder how long it is before these budget woes are passed on to students.

budget impasse holds your financial aid hostage.

[brian lauter]

Most of us have gotten used to a little bickering in Sacramento over the budget. It seems to happen every single year. In fact, the California budget has only been passed on time four times in the last 20 years. 

Some say its all an allergy problem. But, really its because California is one of the few states that requires a supermajority in the legislature for approval.

Regardless, if you aren’t one of the 22,000 workers who have been laid off as a result of this year’s impasse, you probably haven’t been paying much attention.

This week, however, California’s budget crisis hit home. Yesterday, King Hall students received an email from  the law school Registrar informing us that, because UC fees haven’t been finalized due to the impasse, she does not know when we will be able to obtain financial aid. (Full email after the jump).

I assume that students at Boalt, Hastings, and UCLA have received similar notifications. For those who didn’t make the big bucks this summer, this may be quite a blow.

It's not only affecting financial aid. A friend of mine who was planning on interning at the AG’s office in Sacramento this semester was informed that she could not be “hired” (for an unpaid externship) because the AG is prohibited from processing her paperwork until a budget is finalized.

So, enough is enough Sacramento. Sure, take a few more days to shake out the sillies, but let’s get this thing done.

uc has to refund $34m in fees, will current students have to offset this with their own wallets?

[justin gosling]

Remember the University of California students that sued the UC in 2003 for increased school fees (Kashmiri v. Regents)?  Well, the California Supreme Court just unanimously denied review of Kashmiri — clearing the way for UC students to get tuition refunds. It looks like the UC will fire up the automatic check writing machine and refund $34 million, plus the $6 million in interest. Ouch.

This sounds like good news for any students affected by the fee increases, and hopefully they can expect a little refund money in the mail. The only worry I have is that in rectifying this fee increase the UC will be pass on the costs to current students. Awesome. Not only are fees increasing on their own, but we have to worry about past fees resurfacing.