National Legislative Tracking Resource

GovTrack.us is a nexus of information about the United States Congress, following the status of federal legislation and the activities of your senators and representatives. More...

California's Fiscal Outlook: LAO Projections 2005-06 Through 2010-11

This report provides the LAO's projections of General Fund revenues and expenditures for 2005-06 through 2010-11. It includes an independent assessment of the outlook for California’s economy, demographics, revenues, and expenditures. More...

Cash Surge Fills State's Budget Gap
Evan Halper, LA Times, November 17, 2005

Robust tax revenue may wipe out a huge shortfall expected next year, the legislative analyst reports. But 2007 is another story. More...

Legislative Tracking Page

The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has developed a new resource for local academic senates to use in monitoring key legislation on academic and professional matters. This new tracking system provides an up to date information on those bills that the ASCCC is actively tracking at the state level.
More...

A Primer: Funding Higher Education

California Legislative Analyst's Office - Where does the funding for higher education come from? How are costs divided among various groups (such as undergraduate and graduate students)? What role do student fees play? How is financial aid funded? How does the state decide how many students to fund in a given year? The purpose of this primer is to address these and other questions related to the funding of higher education in California, so as to aid policymakers and other interested parties in their deliberations and decision making. More...

This report is also available in PDF format.

Campus Issues and Organizing:
Campus Resolutions

53 resolutions have been passed on 44 U.S. college and university campuses. Several have been passed at campuses in California:

California State University: the Academic Senate passed a resolution on November 13-14, 2003.
Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA): the Associated Students of Stanford University passed a resolution on January 27, 2003; the Faculty Senate passed a resolution on January 9, 2002.
University of California, Berkeley: the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley passed a resolution in the Spring of 2003 (see the ACLU of Northern California's press release); the Academic Senate passed a resolution on May 6, 2004.
University of California, Santa Barbara:the Associated Students of the University of California, Santa Barbara passed a resolution on May 21, 2003.
University of California, Santa Cruz: the Academic Senate passed a resolution on May 21, 2004.
The Librarians Association of the University of California: passed a resolution on May 30, 2003.

A Petition in Opposition to the
USA Patriot Act

A petition is being circulated, in solidarity with the governments of Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, and Vermont, and those of more than 386 villages, towns, and county legislatures across the nation, that calls upon Congress to immediately repeal or to extensively revise Public Law 107-56, also known as the "U.S.A. Patriot Act." Each of the above mentioned governments have passed official Resolutions objecting to various provisions of the Patriot Act.

Sign the petition online!

Susan Collins Receives 2005 Henry T. Yost Congressional Recognition Award

Washington, D.C.—The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) awarded he Henry T. Yost Award to Senator Susan Collins of Maine on June 9. The Association honors selected members of Congress with the Yost award in recognition of their outstanding leadership on behalf of higher education. More. . .

California State Budget Update

The May Revise upholds the compact which UC agreed upon with the Governor. The budget will now go to the legislature for review. More...

New USA PATRIOT Act Ruling

According to an ACLU press release, a federal court has struck down a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act "that gives the government unchecked authority to issue 'National Security Letters' to obtain sensitive customer records from Internet Service Providers and other businesses without judicial oversight. The court also found a broad gag provision in the law to be an 'unconstitutional prior restraint' on free speech." The ACLU's press release provides more information on the ruling.

Get informed

The Legislative Analyst Office's "California Spending Plan 2004-05" is available online. The discussion of Higher Education on page 31. A downloadable pdf version of the report is also available.

Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act

AAUP has created a Higher Education Act webpage. The page hosts a downloadable pamphlet entitled “The Higher Education Act: A Faculty Perspective on Reauthorization” which amplifies our core themes--access, quality, diversity, and openness--that will guide our work on the reauthorization process.

State Legislative Information Service and California Lobbying

In July 2002, the AAUP Government Relations Office contracted with a Legislative Information Service (STATENET) in order to receive an online legislative reporting service for all 50 states. This service will enable the office to receive daily updates from each of the 50 states on bills on selected issues.

The AAUP selected issues includes a broad range of topics of concern to our membership:

* Postsecondary Education
* Collective Bargaining and Unions
* Universities and Colleges
* Teacher Evaluation, Merit Pay, and Career Ladders
* State Education Agencies

For each of those issues StateNet will provide AAUP’s Government Relations Office access to Legislative Status Reports, Bill Texts, Legislative Session Calendars, and state Legislative Directories. This will allow the national office to see issues coming up in state legislatures, and put us in a better position to help state conferences and chapters respond to those issues.

California State Finances:
California Budget Project

Open Research:

Coalition to Protect Research