Over three generations, the Michael family forged a deep bond with the University of California, dating back nearly 50 years to when Jay Dee Michael Sr. was the university system’s vice president and chief lobbyist.
Family members proudly displayed degrees from the campuses in Los Angeles, Davis, Berkeley and Santa Barbara. And when Mr. Michael died last year, his family asked that memorial donations go to a U.C. Davis institute. Recently, though, the relationship has soured, a victim of the economic forces buffeting public universities.
Jay Dee Michael Jr. said he might never feel the same again after his son was rejected from several U.C. campuses.
"I have blue and gold running through my blood," Mr. Michael told a State Assembly hearing here in March. "But I can tell you that when I get calls now from U.C. Davis, as an alum, I’m not giving a dime."
A state audit in March reinforced what many California parents already suspected: On a constant hunt for more revenue, the prestigious University of California system gave favorable admissions treatment to thousands of higher-paying out-of-state and foreign students, to the detriment of Californians.
As a result, admissions to the system have become a bipartisan political issue in California, where the Legislature recently moved to link university funding to enrolling additional California residents.
Read more at The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/us/public-colleges-chase-out-of-state-students-and-tuition.html