Gina Park wants nothing more than to attend the University of
California after graduating high school, but if the UC limits
enrollment growth in an attempt to preserve quality, her dreams
could be shattered.
Park, a senior at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, is the
type of student UC admissions officers value. She is student body
president at Fairfax, she comes from an immigrant family with no
culture of college; she excels in school and is a staple in her
college counselor’s office every school day.
“There might be 40 or 50 kids that come in during break,
and she handles half of them,” said Denis Furlong,
Fairfax’s only staffed college counselor and a UCLA alum.
But Park is hurting her chances of going to college by doing
exactly what many college counselors advise against ““ putting
all her eggs in one basket.
“It’s all or nothing with the UC,” she
said.
If admittance letters for 2004-2005 were mailed out this week,
Park would likely be accepted. But they are not sent out until
March, and before then UC Regents will make a decision that could
significantly affect Park’s chances.
Last month, UC President Richard Atkinson recommended the UC
curb its enrollment growth, to alleviate the effects of slashed
state funding. If the regents agree, thousands of students promised
an education could find themselves empty handed.
Many administrators and policy analysts are blaming the state
government, which recently legalized a budget with $410 million in
cuts to the UC and refused to fund enrollment growth for
2004-2005.
Atkinson expressed distress about increasing student fees 30
percent ““ $1,150 per year ““ and about recommending
enrollment caps, but he said in a statement that the alternative
“would be even worse.”
That alternative, as defined by UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman, is
to “erode the quality of instruction beyond
recovery.”
Instructional quality includes resources such as research,
competitiveness for top students and faculty and class size and
availability.
At UCLA some aspects of quality are suffering, as administrators
say programs are “cut to the bone.”
The state budget reduced research funding 10 percent, in
addition to 10 percent this past year, which will require some
research layoffs, said Roberto Peccei, vice chancellor for
research.
“You can’t keep cutting things at 10 percent per
year and have a stable program,” he added.
Though UCLA generates more research dollars than any other UC
and is among the top five institutions in the nation, certain
research units rely on state allocations for the majority of their
support.
“For the North Campus units, those are going to be very
difficult cuts,” Peccei said.
Because of the nature of research North Campus programs conduct,
they do not attract the federal and private grants reserved for
physical and life science research centers.
The ethnic study centers ““ the American Indian Studies
Center, Chicano Studies Research Center, Ralph J. Bunche Center for
African American Studies, and Asian American Studies Center ““
each took a “huge blow,” said Claudia Mitchell-Kernan,
vice chancellor for graduate programs and dean of the graduate
division.
These centers are responsible for ethnic and cultural research,
outreach, and some support academic programs. The centers are
currently working hard to mitigate the effects of reduced
funding.
“Our current faculty and staff are having to work more and
they are also trying to go out there and attract additional
resources “¦ to maintain a level of research activity that is
appropriate for the center,” said Carlos Haro, assistant
director of the Chicano Studies Research Center.
Mitchell-Kernan said the budget shortfall could limit the number
of classes offered, the size of the courses and the number of
teaching assistants and graduate fellowships offered.
“If we can’t support graduate students, we are in
great difficulties,” said Judy Smith, acting executive dean
for the College of Letters & Science.
Graduate students assist with faculty research, perform their
own research, and lead course discussion sections. They are often
the mediators between what professors and lecturers teach and what
students understand.
Mitchell-Kernan said UCLA has already fallen behind other UC
campuses in competing for graduate students, and the current round
of cuts will increase the difficulty.
The story is different for undergraduates.
Applications are on the rise, and admittance rates on the
decline. Every year, acceptance to UCLA, which admitted fewer
undergraduates than any other UC campus, is becoming more
difficult.
But after the state cut 50 percent of outreach funding,
UCLA’s ability to have a diverse student body may falter,
said Debbie Pounds, director of the Early Academic Outreach
Program.
“A 50 percent cut really threatens our ability to be a
viable outreach effort,” she said.
Reduced funding at UCLA has also affected the school’s
ability to offer competitive faculty salaries. The average faculty
salary in the UC lags by 9 percent behind members of the Comparison
Eight ““ a group of schools including Harvard and Stanford
that the UC rates itself against.
The College competes by offering “off-scale”
bonuses, which award compensation for scholastic
accomplishments.
For lecturers, who teach 30 percent of lower division courses,
the concern is no longer over money. Though lecturers just agreed
to a new contract that increased base salaries from $27,000 to
$34,000 in one year, lecturers “will be more likely laid off
than any other category” of faculty, Smith said.
Professors would be asked to fill the void left by absent
lecturers, teaching roughly one extra course every three years,
Smith added.
But many lecturers doubt faculty willingness, and some
professors agree.
Kathleen Bawn, associate professor and vice chairwoman of the
undergraduate political science department, said she would not want
to teach an additional four- or five-unit lecture.
“It’s just too big of a commitment, and my job
involves too many other competing demands,” she said.
As long as permanent faculty is able to teach classes ordinarily
taught by lecturers, Smith said there would only be a 2 to 3
percent reduction in courses the College offers.
“We don’t expect students to come this year and find
that courses they need to graduate are not being offered,”
she said.
But already some students are finding they cannot get the
classes they need.
“I think it would be easier to graduate if I could get
into my classes,” said Trang Nguyen, a fourth-year math and
applied management student.
Other students are discouraged from meeting with their
instructors because of long lines.
Jose Salgado, a third-year anthropology student, said he once
visited a professor during office hours to get instructional help.
Instead of waiting in a line of several students, he said he left
““ and suffered a worse grade for it.
Yet despite complaints, many said the UC should maintain its
commitment to growth, even if it limits the resources UCLA has for
students already enrolled.
“It’s important to keep talented students from
California in California,” said Sumit Datta, a third-year
biochemistry student.
Mitchell-Kernan echoed this concern for educating homegrown
graduate students, citing their ability to give back to the
economy.
“If they leave California, we might not get them
back,” she said.
Retaining graduate students is something California is concerned
with as it faces a dismal economy, and even bleaker budget
outlook.
“We are not a manufacturing economy,” said
California First Lady Sharon Davis. “We have got to realize
our economy requires a higher level of education.”
Facing an $8 billion deficit for next year, the state is
expected to further reduce higher education funding for 2004-2005.
Still, administrators remain optimistic about the state’s
finances.
“It is going to be rough for the next few years … but I
don’t see it as catastrophic,” said Cliff Brunk,
Academic Senate vice chairman.
Smith expects the College will receive similar budget reductions
for 2004-2005.
“It really all depends on the state,” she said.
“If we have a stable government that would be willing to
raise taxes … I would say our troubles were over.”
The face of California is expected to change in coming months,
as incumbent Gov. Gray Davis could lose his job at the hands of
state voters. Regardless of the future of California, this
year’s UC budget has high school students anxious about their
prospects of being admitted. Yet this is not apparent at Fairfax
High School, Furlong said.
“There is not a lot of talk about it, but it isn’t
something you talk about,” he said. “It’s kind of
like death.”