The state budget signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday would cut $8.4 billion in education spending.
The budget would result in $115 million of total cuts to the UC system, which would enlarge the system’s current budget deficit to $450 million, according to the University of California Web site.
School officials and analysts claim that the cuts could result in increased student tuition and cuts for school programs.
“We do not know with certainty what the impact on UCLA will be, but this is something we will be assessing for the next months,” said Steven A. Olsen, vice chancellor of Finance, Budget, and Capital Programs at UCLA.
He said that the UC Board of Regents had already considered a proposal for a 9.4 percent increase in student fees before the recent budget cuts were announced, and that a final decision will be made in May.
While the university would do everything it can to mitigate the impact of the cuts, reductions to instructional resources, such as faculty and teaching assistants, cannot be ruled out, Olsen said.
The university’s reserve funds are not permanent and cannot completely cover the expected losses, Olsen added.
A wide range of college departments, professional schools, administrative departments and student services such as the Financial Aid, Admissions and Registrar’s Offices will be affected, as they rely directly on state funding, Olsen said.
Reduced staffing, shifts in funding sources and economic downturn can prolong the impact for several years, Olsen said.
The cuts have the potential to be the worst since the state fiscal crisis of the early 1990s, he added.
“(UCLA is) analyzing the state budget to determine the specific effects on campus,” said Phil Hampton, university spokesman.
“The university is still in a long-term budget-planning process … and its top priority is to maintain the strength of UCLA academic programs,” Hampton said.
The restarting of the UC retirement plan, which had been recently approved by the Board of Regents, will be cut $20 million and funding for increased enrollment in the UC PRIME medical program and for nursing has been deleted, said UC spokesman Ricardo Vazquez.
However, the cuts in funding could be rescinded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Vazquez said. The act, recently passed by Congress and signed into law, provides over $100 billion in education spending.
Debbie Cochrane, program director for the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit advocacy group , said that it was fortunate the budget did not call for a reduction in financial aid, such as Cal Grants, a major source of financial aid for low-income students who reside in California.
The board said that the UC will continue to administer financial aid programs that minimize the effect of fee increases, including the implementation of UC President Mark Yudof’s Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan for students in households that make less than $60,000 a year, according to a statement on the UC Web site.
“The immediate upshot of continued squeeze on UC from the state is higher tuition for students,” said Daniel J.B. Mitchell, a professor emeritus at the Anderson Graduate School of Management and the School of Public Affairs who follows the California state budget.
“Eventually, UC will have to consider … the “˜Michigan Model,’ (where) state subsidies are minimized and the university charges something close to private school tuition,” Mitchell said.
Yudof also addressed concerns that the budget cuts would impact the UC system.
“The reductions contained in this budget will be felt by students, by faculty, by staff and ultimately by people across California who benefit in their daily lives from the university’s work,” he said.
He also said that the cuts would negatively impact “student opportunity, innovation, health care and medical research, and economic growth for California.”