Hypocrisy, Liberal, Guns, Character, Financial, Oops, Education, Academia, Greed, Waste, Elitism, Arrogance

Records show that she averages 13 trips per year and has traveled to cities like Napa, California; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; Austin, Texas and other cities. Since 2013, she spent $70,000 in her travel expenses.

  

She spent more than $6,000 on upgrading plane seats for both herself and her wife. In addition, they spent $3,700 for extra and overweight baggage. During the summer of 2015, she spent more than $3,400 on airfare and upgrades to Honolulu and Austin for conferences.

  

While in Honolulu, Dr. Pollard spent $2,776 for a hotel room. While in Austin, she racked up $2,753 for her hotel plus spent $80 for breakfast and bought two dinners on the same night — one for $80 and another for $127.

  

Despite the college’s payments on her leased Infiniti Q70, she reportedly uses a pricey car service and in one instance, spent $292 to travel 15 miles for a radio interview about “how to make community college more affordable.”

  

The NBC I-Team reports that the “college is now paying about $10,000 per month to rent yet another vehicle, this time an SUV, and pay for an off-duty police officer to pick Dr. Pollard up at home and drive her to work each day… starting in February, the college began paying $52 per hour for this armed driver to work between 10-to-15 hours a day.”

Academia, Greed, Jobs

The University of California is laying off a group of IT workers at its San Francisco campus as part of a plan to move work offshore. The layoffs will happen at the end of February, but before the final day arrives the IT employees expect to train foreign replacements from India-based IT services firm HCL. The firm is working under a university contract valued at $50 million over five years.

Financial, Academia, Greed

The cost of undergraduate education is 12 times higher than it was 35 years ago, far outpacing inflation. While the indexed price of college tuition and fees skyrocketed by more than 1,122 percent since 1978, the cost of medical care rose less than 600 percent, and the cost of housing and food went up less than 300.

Energy, Academia, Greed, Jobs

The Oregon University System (OUS) was “not engaged” in SolarCity’s management of its multi-campus solar energy project that reportedly used up to 3,000 solar panels assembled by federal prisoners paid 93 cents an hour, a university official told CNSNews.com... Accoding to a Dec. 2, 2012 OUS press release, Brandon Trelstad, OUS’s sustainability coordinator, said that the Oregon Department of Energy “made certain that Oregon industry and local jobs were supported”. But instead of hiring local residents, SolarCity’s supplier paid federal inmates 93 cents an hour to assemble the solar panels used in the OUS project.

Liberal, Character, Financial, Academia, Greed, Waste

Nearly 100 administrators and coaches at the University of Nebraska receive either paid cars or free memberships to country clubs. Most of them get both. Most of the beneficiaries were coaches at the University of Nebraska’s Lincoln and Omaha campuses. A few were administrators. While the amount of each employee’s perk varies, the combined value is over $2.25 million. UNL Head Volleyball Coach John Cook is able to drive a 2013 Lexus thanks to his perk. Head Football Coach Bo Pellini enjoys a 2012 Nissan Armada and a membership at the Country Club of Lincoln–on top of his nearly $3 million salary.

Financial, Oops, Academia, Greed

Student debt levels have reached a new high – rising $42 billion in the last quarter to $956 billion, according to a report this week from the New York Fed. At the same time, tuition rates have seen a staggering 72% increase since 2000.

Financial, Academia, Greed

The cost of university per student has risen by almost five times the rate of inflation since 1983 (see chart 1), making it less affordable and increasing the amount of debt a student must take on. Between 2001 and 2010 the cost of a university education soared from 23% of median annual earnings to 38%; in consequence, debt per student has doubled in the past 15 years.

Incompetence, Financial, Academia, Greed

Paul Robinson, chairman of Purdue University’s faculty senate, strode through the halls of a 10- story concrete-and-glass administrative tower. “I have no idea what these people do,” said Robinson, waving his hand across a row of offices, his voice rising. The professor of biomedical engineering is leading a faculty revolt against bureaucratic bloat at the Indiana public university. In the past decade, the number of administrative employees jumped 54 percent, almost eight times the growth of tenured and tenure-track faculty. Purdue has a $313,000-a-year acting provost and six vice and associate vice provosts, including a $198,000 chief diversity officer. It employs 16 deans and 11 vice presidents, among them a $253,000 marketing officer and a $433,000 business school chief.

Liberal, Crime, Character, Degeneracy, Protest

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dozens of college students from around Northern California crammed into a branch of the Bank of America as part of an afternoon protest march through downtown San Francisco today and chanted "shame, shame" as about 100 of them were arrested over more than two hours. The protesters denounced University of California regents, calling them rich people who are callous to the economic woes of public higher education.

Editorial, Incompetence, Academia, Greed

The cost of attending college, greatly outpacing the rate of inflation almost everywhere, has skyrocketed in California: Whereas nationwide tuition and fees at public universities over the last five years have risen on average by 28 percent, the average increase at UC campuses is an astounding 73.1 percent and, at Cal State campuses a still more astounding 83.8 percent. While turning away students and seeking billions for new buildings, California institutions are significantly under-using classroom and laboratory space. -Peter Berkowitz