If university lobbying were a single-elimination tournament, how would California's colleges match up?
Not too well, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' K-Street College Classic.
UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State University wouldn't make it past the first round. St. Mary's College would sneak into the second round, but only because the Richmond Spiders of Providence, Rhode Island, didn't do any lobbying in 2009.
The Center took a look at last year's federal lobbying efforts by schools competing in this year's tournament. All told, they spent more than $12 million on issues such as research funding, financial aid and infrastructure improvements.
The championship trophy would go to Texas A&M University, which spent $900,000 on federal lobbying in 2009.
Here's a quick snapshot of California colleges' spending:
UC Berkeley: $83,000
UC Santa Barbara: $83,000
San Diego State University: $33,043
St. Mary's College: $30,000
The analysis doesn't show a nuanced picture of lobbying for the individual UC and CSU campuses because the university systems lobby as a combined unit. The Center for Responsive Politics took the total lobbying figure for the University of California, for example ($830,000), and divided it by the number of campuses (10) to reach the $83,000 figure.
According to data compiled by the Center, UC lobbyists focused on issues such as agriculture research and food safety programs, technology transfer and funding for infrastructure.
We blogged earlier this year that "high-speed rail development" was among the issues lobbied for by the UC, whose Merced campus is located not too far from Fresno, a stop on the future line.
California State University focused on the student-loan reform legislation, programs for veterans, and university research in languages, Navy materials and logistics research and development, among other issues.
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