MBA News: UCLA Anderson Considering Going Solo

According to a recent story on National Public Radio (NPR), the Anderson School of Management at UCLA has proposed relinquishing state funding, which accounts for 6% of its $107 million budget, so as to be more autonomous and financially independent of the University of California. State funding can be unpredictable, making it difficult for the administration at Anderson to plan ahead and make decisions about important matters—such as the price of tuition! Michael Malenitza, president of the student association at Anderson, told NPR that students generally do not know the price of tuition until weeks before classes start. Those against the proposal to forego state funding worry that such a shift in resources will also change the school’s public mission. “When you are raising private dollars, you’re focused on what’s of interest to the donors,” says Scott Jaschik, editor for InsiderHigherEd.com. “And that may be different, in some cases, from the broader interests of the state, which are theoretically represented by the legislature.”