SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Jerry Brown and University of California President Janet Napolitano received clearance on Wednesday to form an unusual “committee of two” that will look at ways of resolving their standoff over state funding for higher education and the necessity of tuition increases.
The two leaders asked fellow members of the university’s governing board to name them as the sole members of the Select Advisory Committee on the Cost Structure of the University — a formal sounding body that will be staffed by their respective aides and have input from outside experts.
It will essentially give the pair a chance to work out in private the differences of opinion that have divided them since late fall.
“We won’t have more than two opinions, and that’s good,” Brown quipped before a regents committee unanimously gave its blessing.
Over the next two months, Brown and Napolitano will consider and debate some of the proposals the governor says would allow the university to serve more students without big budget increases or tuition hikes.
The options include moving classes online, increasing the hours faculty devote to teaching, spurring students to complete their studies in four years or less, and making it easier for community college graduates to transfer to UC campuses.
The meetings also will give Napolitano a chance to make her case that the university already has been working on these issues and that UC’s reputation is at risk by the state’s failure to adequately invest in it.
