Dive Brief:

• University of California President Janet Napolitano is postponing a planned tuition hike as she continues to negotiate with California's Gov. Jerry Brown over funding.
• The two parties have been meeting privately to discuss the governor's ideas for the university to keep tuition unchanged and serve more students without a significant boost to state funding, the Associated Press reported.
• Napolitano and Brown are in something of a standoff, with the former convincing the university's Board of Regents to approve a 5% per year tuition hike for five years unless the state provides more money, while the latter proposes boosting the university's budget up to $120 million if tuition remains frozen.

Dive Insight:

The tuition hike was supposed to begin this summer, and Napolitano isn't ruling it out in the fall. Her basic point is that she can't preserve academic excellence without better state support. Meanwhile, Brown wants to save money by boosting teaching time for faculty members, moving classes online, encouraging students to finish their degrees in four years or less, and easing the transfer requirements for community college graduates. One advantage the governor has in the public relations battle is that tuition hikes are sure to prompt student protests.