Higher Education
As an alumnus of the UC and CSU, Leland Yee has fought to reform our public institutions of higher learning. Although he has been a long-time advocate for increased funding and a vocal opponent of increased student fees, he has also pressured the UC and CSU administrations to reform the way they run the universities to restore the public trust and eliminate instances of abuse. For his work, he has been recognized as Legislator of the Year by the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, the Associated Students of UC Davis, the California Faculty Association, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 who represent patient care and service workers at the UC.
In 2005, media reports began to surface about exorbitant compensation increases for UC and CSU’s top brass. At a time when student fees have gone up over 100% in ten years, the public was rightfully outraged that compensation increases continued to be approved unabated. Many UC and CSU executives continue to make more than the President of the United States and the Governor, even during this unprecedented economic recession. In response, Yee introduced SB 217 and SB 86 which prohibited executive compensation increases during bad budget years. Unfortunately, the influential UC Board of Regents and CSU Board of Trustees persuaded the Governor to veto these bills, allowing for excessive raises to continue.
As most people recognize, students and teachers do not shed their Constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate, yet that was precisely the case involving student journalists at high school and college newspapers. In 2006, Yee authored and passed AB 2581 which prevented censorship by college administrations. In an effort to circumvent this law, some colleges began retaliating against faculty that defended student’s free speech rights. Yee responded with introducing and passing SB 1370 in 2008 which prohibited colleges from dismissing, suspending, disciplining, or retaliating against faculty for fighting to protect student speech.
