At a time when good options seem limited, University of California President Janet Napolitano has seemingly found a way to stretch a budget.
Napolitano recently announced that the entire UC system will cap the number of admitted students at the same number as last year if the state doesn’t give the University significantly more funding. Additionally, she said she will create an extra cap for nonresident enrollment at UCLA and UC Berkeley, and work to enroll a larger number of California residents at those institutions. She has also promised to stave off an imminent tuition increase for two more quarters.
These efforts exemplify the steps Napolitano has taken in an attempt to get University finances under control. She has shown a willingness to offer big concessions, something Gov. Jerry Brown has not displayed in the past few months. In the process, she has earned something far more valuable to the future of the UC system: trust.
These efforts could mark a turning point for Napolitano and Brown. The governor has long been in support of capping out-of-state enrollment, at one point even suggesting it in one his budget proposals. He also made it very clear that he does not support a tuition increase. The governor should see Napolitano’s policy shifts as an olive branch and reciprocate the good faith.
Brown’s reciprocation could come in the form of additional state funding, which Napolitano has asked for on numerous occasions, or could even manifest itself in the form of softer and more trusting rhetoric toward UC administration.
Napolitano has repeatedly asked for an additional $100 million on top of the already allocated $120 million state funding increase in UC budget. While it’s unlikely that Brown will cave to all of the UC’s demands based on this show of good faith, a concession on his part would show that this isn’t a one-sided negotiation. Brown should offer a greater amount of funding for the UC in response to Napolitano’s recent moves.
The UC, at a time of extreme scrutiny from the governor, the public and the legislature, could have chosen to turn even more insular and defensive. This board applauds the pragmatism Napolitano seems to have put forth.
However, now the impetus falls on Brown. He must accept the olive branch and move forward in open, trusting collaboration with one of his state’s most important institutions. Only then will those who have invested so much in this university system – from the students to the UC workers to the everyday Californian – see real progress.