Tough times for California

The last couple of months have seen some significant budget cuts hitting the public university system , with California’s universities being hit particularly hard.

Earlier this week California cut university funding by 20% ($813 million), creating a funding deficit for the university.

As part of fixing the deficit , the University of California Board of Regents implemented a scheme that effectively cut staff salaries by 8% (through a mixture of furloughs of two days each month and salary decreases) and by refinancing existing debt. UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said during his testimony before the UC Board of Regents on 29 July that the furloughs will save 450 staff positions at Berkeley, but the continued cuts are not sustainable. Other UC chancellors agree . On top of the furloughs, each individual institution was asked to make additional sacrifices.

The student/adviser ratio will move from 300:1 to exceed 500:1, said UC Davis chancellor Larry Vanderhoef at the same meeting . Moreover, increasing the teaching and administrative workload of staff may decrease research output, said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block .

Block also said that they had cut 428 positions at UCLA, including 36 ladder faculty, 95 lecturers, and 109 teaching assistants. Reductions will increase during the current fiscal year, he added, and there will be fewer opportunities for faculty advancement.

On top of the staffing cuts, the regents increased student tuition by more than 32% for undergraduate degrees, to $4800 per year, and plans to cut enrollment by 40,000 students. The number of courses and services (such as extended opening times for libraries) available at UC campuses will also be cut on average by 10%.

UC President Mark G. Yudof renewed his call for both shared sacrifice and forward-looking innovation within the 10-campus system to balance the budget, particularly in light of an additional $335 million in increased costs from 11,000 extra students who enrolled this year, higher utility and health-care costs, and collective bargaining agreements and faculty merit increases in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years.

“We’re doing all we can to minimize the impact of these cuts on the quality of all we do,” said Yudof, who announced a committee to look at the long-term financial and strategic direction of the UC university system. “This pattern of annual cuts in state funding is unsustainable.”

Paul Guinnessy