SAN FRANCISCO “”mdash; Last year, the University of California
faced one of its greatest financial challenges in its 143-year
history, with sweeping budget cuts, student fee increases, and a
denial of salary increases to faculty and staff, all of which
threatened the future of the most prestigious public university
system in the world.
It’s about to get worse.
The mood was serious Wednesday at UC San Francisco as the UC
Board of Regents met to discuss considerable challenges anticipated
in the 2004-2005 budget. Such obstacles include more student
fee increases and limits on enrollment growth. They also presented
options for dealing with the state’s ever-increasing budget
crisis.
In the final state budget for 2003-2004, the California
Legislature, ““ harboring a budget deficit estimated at $38.2
billion ““ granted the UC nearly $1.1 billion less than the UC
believes it deserves, per the Partnership Agreement with Gov. Gray
Davis’ administration.
The agreement, while not legally binding, ensures the UC
adequate funding from the state if certain standards are met, such
as quality of education, accessibility to the public, and
competitive faculty salaries.
If the state fails to follow through with its end of the
bargain, the regents say the UC is not obligated to uphold its part
of the deal. Now, in planning for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, the UC
faces more of the same problems it did with this year’s
budget ““ deep cuts in state funding while operating costs and
enrollment continue to grow simultaneously.
For 2004-2005, the UC has estimated it should receive $4.2
billion per the Partnership Agreement, but of that sum, the state
is expected to provide only about $3 billion. In addition, the
state has asked the university to consider an additional 20 percent
cut equaling roughly $600 million.
Last year, the state cut university funding by $410 million,
leading to drastic cuts to non-instructional programs and a 30
percent increase in student fees.
To illustrate the magnitude of the additional $600 million in
cuts, Budget Vice President Larry Hershman offered two extreme
choices: Either student fees would go up $4,000, or the UC would
have to cut enrollment by 60,000 students ““ the entire
freshman class at all 10 campuses combined. Even with those
measures, he said, the UC still wouldn’t get out of the
red.
Hershman also presented a variety of other options to deal with
the deficit, all of which he described as “horrible”
but possibly necessary.
Suggestions for dealing with the budget shortfalls include more
of the same strategies used to deal with the 2003-2004 budget:
cutting non-instructional programs even more than they were cut
last year, raising student fees again, and curbing enrollment
growth for next year.
The grim situation angered some regents, and some urged
the board to oppose any further cuts by the state Legislature.
“At some point, this board is going to have to draw a line
in the sand and say, “˜We are not going to ruin this
institution because the state doesn’t want to pay for
it,'” said Regent Richard Blum.Â
Some regents proposed options that were not introduced by
Hershman, such as advocating for increased state taxes to pay for
education.
Others suggested more creative student fee increases, such as a
variable system wherein family income would determine student fees,
or only raising fees for out-of-state students. Regent Norman
Pattiz suggested the UC “take the current resources we
already have and get more out of them,” specifically
increasing the workload for individual faculty and employees,
instead of cutting other areas. Others disagreed, saying that
giving more work to faculty whose salaries are already sagging 9
percent behind the national average could have serious
consequences.
The delay in opening UC Merced was another hot topic at the
meeting, as several regents expressed contempt that the UC will
only save $4 million in waiting a year to open a campus which cost
$350 million to build.
“(The delay) is one of the dumbest decisions I’ve
ever heard in my life,” Blum said. Compounding the
university’s problems, enrollment growth figures were
severely underestimated, with 10,000 more students enrolled in the
system last year than a 1999 estimate predicted. The UC might
consider limiting enrollment growth to save money.
Matt Kaczmarek, chairman of the UC Student Association and UCLA
undergraduate officer, spoke in opposition of enrollment caps to
deal with the budget.
He asked John Davies, Velma Montoya and other regents who
attended UC campuses as students, “Where would you be today
if at the time you were preparing to enroll, the UC regents had
decided to limit enrollment, similar to the decision you are making
this year?”
While Wednesday’s meeting was intended to introduce the
challenges for the upcoming budget and possible solutions, the next
regents meeting ““ to be held at UCLA in November ““ will
be used to form principles for the board to follow when weighing
the impact of the various options.
Decisions on which options to implement will not be made until
the board’s January meeting.