The University of California Commission on the Future received their first round of recommendations on Tuesday, marking the beginning of an ongoing process aimed at ensuring access and affordability within the UC system.
The Commission on the Future, created by UC Board of Regents Chairman Russell S. Gould last July, is composed of five working groups whose aim is to address issues ranging from the size and composition of the university to strategies for increasing UC funding.
“Today’s recommendations are a rough draft that will eventually be put up for debate by the academic senate and the Board of Regents,” said UC President Mark Yudof. “They are part of a healthy process of airing various perspectives amid a difficult financial climate.”
During the meeting, held at UC San Francisco, Mission Bay, working group members presented recommendations which included creating a three-year undergraduate degree program, researching the advantages of expanding online instruction, and providing multi-year fee increase schedules to UC students and parents.
The proposals also included improving community college transfer efficiency by streamlining lower-division major requirements, as well as increasing the number and proportion of non-resident students at the undergraduate level.
Because of the exploratory nature of these recommendations, which will require more discussion and research over the coming months, they elicited a significant amount of debate among commission members.
For example, some members raised concerns that increasing the number of non-resident students might jeopardize the accessibility of the UC to California residents, despite the fact that the UC is a state institution
“If the parents of California students think we are prioritizing non-resident students, this could have a political impact in our attempts to get more funding from the state of California, which we know we need to do,” said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.
However, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal argued that it is a matter of scale, and that it is possible to increase the number of non-resident students without displacing California residents.
In terms of improving UC affordability, the recommendations included undertaking expanded advocacy for improved state funding and improving indirect cost recovery rates on university research, both of which would increase the university’s available resources.
As part of the access and affordability working group, Student Regent Jesse Bernal also proposed that the UC re-establish financial aid eligibility for undocumented California high school graduates.
“(Undocumented) students are some of the best students that we have in the system, and many of them have higher GPAs than the average freshmen. This is an opportunity for the UC system to act as a catalyst for greater accessibility to higher education,” said Bernal.
The need to address the cost of UC education for undocumented students was also a key issue for members of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), who attended the meeting.
“We need to address the disparity in admissions and to amplify the discourse of immigration, in order to open up institutional funds for undocumented students,” said Nora Cisneros, third-year psychology student at UCLA and a member of BAMN.
In light of the current cuts by the state in public higher education, the funding strategies working group proposed various plans by which the UC could maintain its ability to fund academics, student services and university administration.
However, the working group also noted that UC priorities cannot be fully funded by increases in tuition alone, and that state funding, as well as academic and administrative restructuring, would be necessary to cover all the costs of the university.
“Fees are the tip of the iceberg, but they are not the whole iceberg in terms of funding for the University of California,” said Warren Hellman, an alumnus of UC Berkeley and member of the commission.
UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley suggested that the UC needs to undertake an explicit effort to find new and creative revenue sources, rather than relying on traditional sources of funding.
While members of the commission presented and debated ideas, a group of about 80 protesters chanted and held picket signs outside the doors of the UCSF Community Center, shouting slogans such as, “They say cut back, we say fight back”.
During the public comment segment, tensions escalated as students presented the commission with personal stories and grievances.
The working groups will present additional recommendations to members of the UC community and the public in July, before presenting a final report to the Board of Regents in the fall.
Compiled by Julienne Lauler, Bruin reporter. The recommendations presented to the UC Commission on the Future can be
found at http://ucfuture.universityofcalifornia.edu.