UC tuition debate: Governor Brown should restore the California dream, not keep strangling higher ed
November 18, 2014
This is the testimony I plan to give at the University of California Regents meeting today on the proposed 25% tuition increases:
My name is Stanton Glantz. I am a UCSF professor, past chair of the Systemwide Committee on Planning and Budget, and vice president of the Council of UC Faculty Association.
You are debating these proposed tuition increases for one simple reason:
When Governor Brown took office he slashed higher ed.
Even now, a few years into Governor Brown's 'modest funding increases,' he still spends less on UC and CSU than Arnold Schwarzenegger did his final year as Governor.
You should not be arguing how much to raise tuition, but how to mobilize the public support to restore the California Master plan of low cost high quality higher education for all.
Returning to 2001-2002, before the massive tuition increases, returning per-student funding to where it was then, and making room for the thousands of students that have been forced out of the system would cost the median California family just $50 a year.
We call on you to fight to restore the California dream.
November 17, 2014
Ganna Kostygina, Pam Ling, and I recently published "Tobacco industry use of flavours to recruit new users of little cigars and cigarillos" in Tobacco Control showing how the tobacco companies use flavors to attrach new smokers and keep current ones smoking. This work is particularly relevant as the FDA and other agencies consider what to do about flavors.
Here is the abstract:
Objective While flavoured cigarettes were prohibited in the USA in 2009, flavoured little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) remain on the market. We describe the evolving
strategies used by tobacco companies to encourage uptake of flavoured LCCs and industry research findings on consumer perceptions of flavoured LCC products.
Methods Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents was triangulated with data from tobacco advertisement archives, national newspapers, trade press and the internet.
Results Flavoured LCC products were associated with young and inexperienced tobacco users, women and African-Americans. Internal industry studies confirmed
that menthol and candy-like flavours (eg, vanilla and cherry) increased LCC appeal to starters by masking the heavy cigar taste, reducing throat irritation and making
November 16, 2014
Robert McMillen and colleagues just presented "Susceptibility To Electronic Cigarette Use Among Current Nonsmokers" at the American Public Health Association meeting, which adds to the growing case that e-cigarettes are not just being used as a replacement for cigarettes among current users, but are attracting new people to nicotine addiction and, perhaps, leading long-term former smokers to relapse to nicotine use.
"Susceptability" is a measure of the liklihood of future use that is a validated predictor of future cigarette smoking behavior.
This national study of adults (18+ years old) found that 6.7% of never smokers and 13.9% are susceptable to starting to use e-cigarettes, with higher susceptablity among people who have seen e-cigarette advertising.
Here are their conclusions:
• Over 20% of young adult never and former smokers who have never tried e-cigarettes are susceptible to using them in the future.
• The substantial number of vulnerable young adult nonsmokers illustrates the imperative for sales and marketing regulation to protect nonsmokers from being recruited to e-cigarette use and possible nicotine addiction.
• Until the risks of e-cigarettes are better defined, it is irresponsible to allow an unrestrained industry to encourage uptake of a potentially hazardous product.
November 16, 2014
This research, led by UCSF professor Matt Springer, is being presented today (November 16, 2014) at the American Heart Association Annual Scientific Sessions.
Study Highlights:
November 12, 2014
On November 10, 2014, the Minnesota Department of Health put out a press release reporting that in 2014 12.9 percent of high school students had smoked and e-cigarette in the last 30 days compared to 10.6 percent of high school students who had smoked a conventional cigarette in the last 30 days. (28 percent of high school students had ever tried an e-cigarette.)
This result is being hailed by e-cigarette enthusiasts like the American Council on Science and Health and Mike Siegel as evidence that e-cigarettes are not causing kids to smoke cigarettes and even suggest that e-cigarettes may deserve credit for the drop in cigarette smoking