Historically, UC has offered the unparalleled combination of premier faculty, path-breaking research, top-ranked graduate programs, and sterling undergraduate education available to the top 8th of California high school students. All of these are now seriously threatened by the state fiscal crisis and the Commission on the Future is to be commended for thinking hard about how to secure faculty, research and graduate programs amidst these threats. What it proposes to throw under the bus, however, is undergraduate education–both its access by California students and its quality. This is particularly evident in the recommendations to develop pathways toward 3-year degrees and on-line courses, and in the move to increase out-of-state students at the very moment when in-state students are losing the educational access promised by the California Master Plan. Continue reading →