California’s public universities are ranked among the best colleges nationally and globally, but more Californians are ditching the Golden State for education from elsewhere, the Huffington Post reports. Some $2.5 billion in state budget cuts has led to steep tuition hikes, enrollment freezes and a shortage in class availability at California’s public colleges. Some state universities turned to seek more out-of-state students who pay higher fees and tuition to fill budget holes — a practice that angers students who feel they deserve the first crack at their public schools. As in-state tuition and fees exceed an average of $13,200 and a cost of attendance between $19,500 to $33,000, it makes a $25,445 non-resident tuition bill at The Ohio State University look like the better buy. The prospect of more cuts to California state universities doesn’t help…
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Despite budget woes, university still has money for bottled water
Times are tough at the University of California, the New York Times reports. The state’s budget crisis has led to cuts, layoffs and higher student fees. It is enough to drive someone to drink–as long as it’s not plain old tap water. Even though money is tight, the university has spent about $2 million in recent years on brand name, commercially produced and delivered bottled water to campuses in San Francisco and Berkeley. With both cities boasting some of the nation’s highest-quality drinking water, critics see bottled water as a questionable expense that is bad for the environment. “Bottled water is, largely, an unnecessary waste of money,” Peter H. Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Oakland and a MacArthur genius fellowship recipient for his work on water issues, wrote via eMail from Alexandria, Egypt, where he was attending a conference on water sustainability. “But there are also substantial environmental, social and political costs not captured in the price alone…”
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