Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that the University of California at Berkeley is planning to open a global campus just 10 miles from Berkeley’s main campus.  Under the plans, partner universities from around the world would set up academic programs at the new campus.  As reported in The Chronicle:

“The Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay, campus officials say, will offer a “global citizenship” curriculum—with a focus on topics like governance, ethics, health, and sustainability—for graduate students from the United States and abroad.

By situating the campus nearby—an unusual move in an era when many American institutions are building abroad—Berkeley hopes to establish partnerships with universities from around the world while preserving full academic freedom for its faculty.

It’s a hefty undertaking. The campus’s development manager, Terezia C. Nemeth, said it will take years—possibly decades—and hundreds of millions of dollars to fulfill the university’s vision. It’s unclear where the money will come from. Nils Gilman, an associate chancellor at Berkeley, said the university is pursuing a range of options, including philanthropic donations and federal and state funds. Partner universities would also bring their own money to the project.”

… Berkeley officials argue that there’s a compelling reason to put the global campus on American ground: the chance to create a true safe harbor with protections for academic freedom, human rights, political activism, and intellectual property.

Many overseas branch campuses have, in fact, been dogged by concerns over the academic freedom of their faculty members. In one high-profile example, professors at Yale University objected to an overseas partnership with the National University of Singapore, passing a resolution that expressed “concern regarding the history of lack of respect for civil and political rights” in Singapore.”

This is an interesting idea and maybe more practical than some of the branch campuses that other American colleges have developed in foreign countries.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As part of his State of the State address yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo outlined a $142 billion spending plan on Wednesday that has a heavy focus on education policy. His  two-hour speech combined both his State of the State and budget presentation.

“It is now the great discriminator. The truth is we have two systems: We have one for rich and one for the poor. And the greatest symbol of disparity is our failing schools,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo’s education plan would raise the statewide cap on charter schools from 460 to 560. Per pupil tuition spending would be increased at charters as well. For teachers, a more stringent evaluation law that would be tied to teacher tenure would be in put place.

“We propose tenure to only be granted when a teacher achieves five consecutive years of effective ratings and once we have a fair evaluation system we can incentivize performance,” he said.

Good teachers would be rewarded with a $20,000 bonus, while it would be easier to fire bad teachers.

These proposals put him at odds with the New York State United Teachers union, which blasted the address.  “I’m inviting the governor to drop the rhetoric of his hedge-fund pals who hate public education and come visit a real New York City public school,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.  Mulgrew’s hedge-fund comment is in reference to campaign contributions made to Cuomo by individuals, organizations, and companies supporting charter schools.

The devil will be in the details especially when his proposals are negotiated with the NYS Assembly and State Senate.  This will be very interesting given that the Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, may be arrested any day now by federal authorities on corruption charges.

Tony