UCLA will face substantial cuts next year as part of the state
budget, though Gov. Gray Davis’ revision did not increase
those cuts as was expected, said Vice Chancellor of Finance and
Budget Steve Olsen in an interview this past week.
Funding reductions to instruction will likely be replaced with
raised student fees, and UCLA will grapple with an additional $25
million in cuts that will not be covered, Olsen said.
“(The cuts) will reduce programs and services available to
students and faculty, and make it more difficult to efficiently
administer the campus,” he said.
Olsen said the good news was that cuts to the UC were expected
to be much worse.
“I had prepared our leadership on the campus for the
possibility that the May revision would include deep further
reductions to UC funding, but it didn’t happen,” he
said.
As part of the reductions, student services will endure a $3.3
million cut and academic and institutional support will be cut $1.5
million, with an additional $2 million cut to research.
Student services funded through student registration fees face a
20 percent total reduction.
These are services such as Student Health, Student Psychological
Services, The Center for Student Programming, The Center for Women
and Men and Intercollegiate Athletics.
The Student Fee Advisory Committee is currently working on
analysis and recommendations for the allocation of registration
fees next year, Olsen said.
Support functions that will primarily suffer are the libraries
and the Neuropsychiatric institute, as well as administrative
activities such as university police, the accounting office and
Facilities Management.
Olsen said, excluding the reductions to student services and
research, the $15 million reduction accounts for only 3 percent of
the university’s allocated funding.
“It is unlikely that at that level there will be major
programs that will be entirely eliminated by (the cut),” he
said.
The only research organizations that will suffer from budget
cuts are primarily in North Campus, because most South Campus
science research is independently funded with grants.
Ethnic studies centers, such as the Chicano Studies Research
Center and the International Institute, as well as multi-campus
research units such as the Institute of Labor and Employment and
the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, will face cuts
to their research budgets.
The effect of reduced budget for research will vary by program,
combined with the cumulative effect of a 10 percent cut across the
board earlier this year to all government-supported research
programs.
While the effect of budget reductions at UCLA will be felt next
year, Olsen said he is more concerned about the cumulative effect
of cuts if they continue in the future, which he believes is
likely.
“The effect of (the cuts) will be felt over a period of
time in terms of our ability to attract and retain
individuals,” he said.
Olsen said the school’s ability to make cost of living and
merit adjustments for faculty last year was minimal because of
budget difficulties, and this coming year, there will be none.
“If that happens over the next three or four years in a
row, the UC campuses start becoming less competitive,” he
said. “It’s a tough marketplace out there.”
Olsen said UCLA strongly opposes alternate budget proposals that
cut up to $400 million of the University of California’s
budget, because even the $25 million already proposed will entail
significant hardships for UCLA.
Hardship for students may be compounded by increased student
fees, Olsen said, though he supports an increase.
“I believe that (increasing student fees) is necessary and
I think, under the circumstances, appropriate,” he said.
Olsen said he believes fees should have been raised gradually to
the current proposed level over a few years rather than reduced by
10 percent as they were in the late 1990s.
He said even if student fees are raised, they will remain far
lower than those at comparable public universities, and will not be
felt by students who qualify for Cal Grants, because the fees will
be covered through their grant.