SJSU's Caret forged change of attitude, San Jose Mercury-News
Departing San Jose State University President Bob Caret has formal proof that his name won't be forgotten. But it's what's informal that's likely to last even longer.

Chico State avoids faculty 'layoffs' but teachers are losing jobs, Chico Enterprise-Record
People who worked at Chico State University this school year won't be working there in the fall, but officially these aren't layoffs.

Life Has Been Hard Work Up the Ranks for Caldera , Albuquerque Journal
Louis Caldera's life is a classic story of a first-generation American.
He rose from hamburger flipper at Bob's Big Boy to Secretary of the Army.

SDSU graduates largest nursing class , San Diego Union Tribune
The 61 women and six men who graduated from San Diego State University's School of Nursing yesterday represent the largest nursing class in its history, a size enlarged through $2 million in grants from 10 area hospital systems desperate to find more nurses.

Two's Company, Three's a Graduation at Cal State University, Los Angeles Times
It may be the smallest graduating class in Cal State history.

CSUCI Sticks to Growth Goals, Los Angeles Times
Although California's budget picture remains uncertain, Cal State Channel Islands President Richard Rush said he is committed to hiring new faculty members and meeting enrollment targets at the campus near Camarillo for the next school year.

UCI Sets Sights on Big Donors, Los Angeles Times
Plunk down $50 million or so, and UC Irvine's new medical center can be christened after you.

Silicon Beach - UC's Atkinson gets award , North County Times
When Richard Atkinson became president in 1980, UC San Diego was a promising young university. By 1995, when Atkinson left to become president of the University of California system, UCSD was a world-renowned name in the top strata of academia.

Student ban over SARS fears lifted, San Diego Union-Tribune/AP
Officials from the University of California Berkeley yesterday lifted a ban on students from SARS-affected areas of Asia who already have enrolled in summer school classes.

 

Officials say hazing not a problem in county schools, San Bernardino Sun
A junior varsity baseball player tied to a goal post in the football field and left there for hours. A group of girls kicked, hit and pelted with fecal matter and fish intestines. Hazing.

2 Rs Left in High School, Los Angeles Times
Across the country, high school English and social studies teachers have cut back or simply abandoned the traditional term paper.

California Colleges Seek New Videoconferencing System, Chronicle of Higher Education
Who is looking: The California Video Over IP Consortium, whose members are the California State University System, the University of California System, the California Community Colleges, and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California.

Big Sponge on Campus, New York Times Magazine
Simmons Hall, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. Built 2002, 350 students and staff members. From afar, the building looks like a three-letter word that I can't quite read, rendered in sci-fi letters against the sky.

Study Finds No Sign That Testing Deters Students' Drug Use, New York Times
Drug testing in schools does not deter student drug use any more than doing no screening at all, the first large-scale national study on the subject has found.

Paying for Schools: Obscure system costs millions, rankles many, Sacramento Bee
If a school teaches the Gettysburg Address, should it get more money for doing so? What if it prepares boys and girls for earthquakes? Or notifies parents their kids have been truant? In California, the answer is yes, thanks to a hidden and costly corner of school finance known as "mandates."

Voters to Rule on Bond for Colleges, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Community College District officials say they need a $980-million bond issue on Tuesday's ballot to deal with rising enrollments and outdated facilities, but critics wonder if the request is for too much too soon.

O.C. Republican Donors Pledge Funds for Recall, Los Angeles Times
The Lincoln Club of Orange County threw added heft behind a struggling effort to ask voters in November to recall Gov. Gray Davis, approving a $100,000 donation Friday and promising an additional $150,000 from its members.

Foundations Roiled by Measure to Spur Increase in Charity, New York Times
The House is considering a bill that could force the nation's foundations to give away more of their money to charity each year, creating a potential windfall of billions of dollars for nonprofit groups.

Editorial: UC's pension fund: The VC secret, San Jose Mercury-News
Like any public entity, the University of California has a duty to conduct its business in the public eye.

Daniel Weintraub: Battered public pension funds -- Everyone pays, Sacramento Bee
I usually hate making predictions. But here is one that's based on sound evidence and which, I believe, is too important not to put on the record: Public employee pensions are going to be the government story of the decade in California.

Editorial: The 400-pound gorilla, Sacramento Bee
State employees and retirees have financial reason to be concerned about what is happening inside their giant pension and health system. But the political paralysis of the system's leadership should have everybody who buys health care worried.

Dan Walters: Even hard-bitten lobbyists roll eyes at Capitol's dysfunction, Sacramento Bee
The more than 1,000 men and women who lobby Capitol politicians on behalf of thousands of clients don't approach their jobs with high levels of expectations for procedural purity. They know that the California Legislature is more a bazaar than a deliberative body.

Editorial: Budget shell game... , San Diego Union-Tribune
When Gov. Gray Davis unveiled his revised budget proposal this week, many local government and school officials expressed relief that the dreaded spending cuts were not as deep as expected. They would do well to remember that the governor's spending blueprint will undergo plenty of changes by a Legislature that is none to happy with him or his fiscal vision.

Editorial: The Term Limits Disaster, Los Angeles Times
This is life under term limits, the toughest in the nation, imposed by an initiative measure that was approved narrowly by voters in 1990. It limits Assembly members to six years of service and senators to eight.

Opinion: Feds' Benevolence Doesn't Add Up for California Taxpayers, Los Angeles Times
Californians do pay a bundle in taxes. They pay too much for what they get back. Problem is, it's the federal government that's shortchanging them.

Layoff notices starting, Sacramento Bee
The grim task of formally notifying up to 10,000 workers that they might be laid off began Friday with private meetings between supervisors and employees throughout the California bureaucracy.

Lawmakers Work for a Budget Deal, Los Angeles Times
With Gov. Gray Davis' proposed state spending plan on the table, leaders of both political parties are quietly searching for compromises that would secure a balanced budget before California runs out of cash.