SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California Board of Regents Committee on Finance voted unanimously Thursday to endorse the state funding framework agreed upon by Gov. Jerry Brown and UC President Janet Napolitano that would freeze in-state tuition for two years, despite several objections.
The plan, announced as a part of the governor’s May budget revision last week, includes a provision allowing Napolitano to raise out-of-state tuition by up to 8 percent annually through the 2019-2020 academic year.
In addition, Napolitano agreed to reduce the pension cap for new faculty, enroll more transfer students and make other internal changes.
With the regents’ support, the state Legislature must now approve the funding deal before Brown signs the budget in late June for it to go into effect.
Napolitano said one item she wasn’t able to convince Brown to agree to in their “committee of two” negotiations on the budget plan was to include funding for increased enrollment. She said she wanted to include funding for up to an additional 10,000 students throughout the UC to enroll, mostly transfer students from community colleges.
Nathan Brostrom, the UC’s chief financial officer, said that while Brown did not agree to add funding for extra enrollment in the framework, he said he would agree to it if the Legislature added it to the final budget. Many regents said they shared Napolitano’s frustration over the agreement’s lack of funding for increased enrollment, noting the increased number of students in California high schools and community colleges.
“The fact that there is this big gaping hole around a commitment to increasing enrollment to me feels like the framework isn’t as strong as it needs to be,” said Regent Monica Lozano. “I hope in July we’ll have additional options if it doesn’t get funded so we can maintain access to this university.”
Regent John Pérez voiced concerns regarding the portion of the agreement that allows Napolitano to raise tuition by at least the rate of inflation beginning in the 2017-2018 academic year. He said he thinks it’s too soon to plan the increase without knowing what the state funding situation will look like then.
“I don’t think legislative leaders are of the mindset that at the end of two years there needs to be a tuition increase,” he said. “Why would you want to draw out that argument now?”
In response, Napolitano said the planned tuition increase starting in two years was a key detail she pushed for with Brown, and if the regents endorsed the proposal, she would not be given the authority to raise tuition by more than the rate of inflation without their consent.
“It helps with predictability, planning and management, and it was something I bargained for quite frankly,” she said.
Regent Bonnie Reiss said that while she supported the framework, she does not think it solves the fundamental issue of lower state funding for higher education. When another economic recession inevitably comes around, they’d be in the exact same crisis again, she said.
Though the regents had little to say about the programmatic changes, UC Academic Senate Chair Mary Gilly and Chris Kan, a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz, shared their worries that some of the changes Napolitano agreed to would reduce the quality of a UC education.
These changes include a stronger community college transfer program and higher transfer student enrollment, three-year graduation plans and more use of online courses.
“The budget plan addresses affordability and access but not quality,” Kan said.
Gilly also said some faculty were concerned about the new pension requirement, which caps pensionable income at about $117,000 annually, a significant reduction from the current cap of $265,000. She said she thinks this might make quality professors take job offers elsewhere.
“I am concerned that an emphasis on speed and efficiency will change the UC brand,” Gilly said. “Faculty may find other institutions if they perceive our values (are) eroding at the UC.”
In addition to the budget discussion, Student Regent Sadia Saifuddin updated the regents on her food security initiative. She said that based on data from the UC Undergraduate Experience Survey, the number of students who said they’ve skipped meals to save money has increased significantly in the past few years.
Ruben Canedo, a research and mobilization coordinator at UC Berkeley, said the average student food budget across the UC is $9.42 per day, and he thinks the University needs to better address food as well as housing costs in its financial aid process.
In the Committee on Long Range Planning meeting, Pamela Brown, vice president of institutional research and academic planning for the UC, presented a demonstration of the UC’s new Information Center website, which was designed to increase transparency across the UC system. Brown said the site had 16,000 visits since it launched in late March.
Regents will discuss any unfinished agenda items Friday.