University Of California System

In response to "UC May Revive Plans for Campus in Central California" (July 16) and "UC Will Resume Site Search for a San Joaquin Campus" (July 17), regarding the UC system building a new (10th) campus: I cannot believe that all of a sudden the University of California system has "found" $1.5 million to fund an environmental impact report after UC officials have already spent $4 million searching for a site! It's ludicrous in this depression to even think about spending on unnecessary projects.

In the 21st century, corporate headquarters are generally shadows of their former selves. Having shed most functions to their operating units, they manage risk by holding unit heads accountable against measurable results. Because the UC system is made up of outstanding but vastly different campuses and national labs, one size does not fit all. Each of these "operating units" has terrific leaders who understand their unique market conditions and competitive pressures inside and out, and each should be given maximum flexibility to excel.

Sarah Carolyn Fisher, one of five psychologists who taught at UCLA when it was known as the University of California, Southern Campus, and one of the first women to invade what was then a predominantly male field, has died at 95. She had taught from 1915 until her retirement in 1957. Her death at home in Hollywood on Sept. 11 was announced by the university this week.

Re "For Good of All, Hike Fees at CSU," Commentary, July 10: Many of professor Shirley Svorny's observations probably hold true for some college students in California and in the nation. However, the premise of the argument to support at least a 30% increase in tuition is flawed. As a graduate of the University of California system and an emeritus of the California State University system, I am less inclined to denigrate students, for any of a number of reasons, but insist that those attending the UC system should carry a larger total financial burden, not their counterparts at the CSU system.

Foreign-born inventors are responsible for more than three-quarters of the patents that emerged from top American research universities last year, according to a new report. The Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan nonprofit group composed of hundreds of mayors and business leaders and co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released the report Tuesday as part of its effort to reform immigration policies. The report is based on a study of 1,466 patents from the country's top 10 patent-generating schools, including the University of California system, Stanford and Caltech.

The Times' July 20 editorial, " UC gets smarter about cuts, applauds the efforts of the University of California system to boost revenues by increasing enrollment of higher-paying out-of-state students. While providing desperately needed funds in the short run, this strategy is essentially a "beggar thy neighbor" policy applied to public education; that is, an attempt to recruit "outsiders" to pay for the void created by declining local support. The politically driven scenario to maintain low resident tuition and enroll nonresident students leads to a fascinating paradox.

David S. Saxon, a physicist who was forced to give up his teaching position at UCLA during the anti-communist loyalty debates of the McCarthy era but governed the entire UC system as its president two decades later, shepherding it through a period of excruciating budget restraints, has died. He was 85. Saxon, who headed the University of California system from 1975 to 1983, died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center after a long illness, according to UCLA, where he had been a vice chancellor before rising to the UC presidency.

I have been teaching the graduate seminar here at UCI this year and have come to know the students Ms. Curtis interviewed--coming to know the department itself in the process. Only the disapproving tone of Ms. Curtis' account differs from my impressions of the department. Indeed, only that tone differs from my experience (gained over a decade of guest teaching and lecturing around the country) of all normal studio art departments in the United States--and, in fact, my experience of most normal graduate departments in any discipline.

Re "Cal State Pushes for Education Doctorate," Dec. 31: As a veteran of the California State University educational system, I applaud the efforts of Chancellor Charles B. Reed to add the EdD program. After completing my B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in child development, I was extremely dismayed to learn that my options for local doctoral programs were so severely limited. The doctoral program touted by UCLA was not for me because it was very research-based, and I wanted the more "applied" type of program.

The University of California system is one of America's greatest public institutions. There is virtually no significant branch of human knowledge that has not benefited from its scholarship. It is, at once, a great engine of this state's long-term prosperity and a continuing affirmation of our common belief that equality of opportunity is more than just an altruistic impulse. Like so many other public institutions, it also is passing through an unparalleled financial crisis. Draconian cuts in the budget allocation the university receives from Sacramento have left the system $1 billion short of what it needs.