First days can be tough.
Robert Dynes, attending his first University of California Board
of Regents meeting as UC president, sat down with reporters during
his afternoon break to discuss the poor budget the university will
likely face this year.
With the shouts of hundreds of student protesters echoing
outside, Dynes, who took office Oct. 1, said his primary goal in
the coming months is to convince the state Legislature the UC is
too valuable of an institution to have more funds cut.
However, Dynes also said he could make no guarantees that the UC
would not be cut further than it was last year when the university
had its funding slashed by over $400 million, resulting in student
fee increases and extensive program cuts.
Cuts to higher education may be a problem of perception, as
state Legislatures tend to look at the budget on a year-by-year
basis, not realizing the UC provides valuable long-term
contributions to the state, Dynes said.
“The people who look short-term at the state budget with
their knives out, for some reason they see the university as a
drain on the state,” he said. “And we’re
not.”
The university provides a wealth of knowledge for professors and
students, both of whom are important to the state, Dynes added.
“If you dig a hole anywhere in that, you’re stinting
the future,” he said.
Proposals currently on the regents’ table for dealing with
anticipated cuts could punch a hole through the university’s
commitment to the affordability and quality of its education.
In July, Larry Hershman, the UC budget vice president, said the
university should brace itself for a $600 million budget cut from
the state this fiscal year. To cope with the floundering budget,
the regents may have to increase student fees even beyond the 30
percent they were raised this summer.
In addition, the regents may also have to curb enrollment
growth, which would deny thousands of qualified California students
access to the UC system.
Dynes discussed the importance of UC outreach programs and
affirmed his commitment to bringing the “highest quality
students” to the university.
“There are diamonds in the rough out there that
we’ve got to find, and that’s what outreach is,”
Dynes said.
This year outreach programs, which raise awareness of
opportunities in higher education for middle and high school
students, were cut by 50 percent ““ roughly $33.3 million.
Former UC President Richard Atkinson, who retired Sept. 30, was
a vocal proponent of outreach programs. Some outreach programs
target minority groups, which Atkinson considered important in
light of the post-affirmative action era in California.
Dynes also addressed student concerns that the regents were
making themselves inaccessible to students. Student activists have
claimed the regents avoid hearing student input by having so many
of their meetings at UC San Francisco, which is less accessible for
many UC undergraduates.
Dynes called the students “an important
constituency” in the university and nodded towards the sound
of protests outside.
“We’ve heard them. I’ve heard them. The
regents have heard them,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Dynes and Regents Odessa Johnson, John
Moores and Student Regent Matt Murray met with student protesters
rallying on the stairway of Covel Commons.
Student leaders demanded the regents hold their meetings at
different UC campuses to make them more accessible, a request Dynes
said he did not find “unreasonable.”
However, Dynes said he could not commit to changing the locale
of future regents meetings because the decision was not his to make
““ a response that Matt Kaczmarek, chairman of the UC Student
Association, called “unacceptable.”
However, Kaczmarek commended Dynes for meeting with student
protesters, saying it would add urgency to the students’
cause.
“(Dynes) felt the pressure, and I think it’s good
for him to feel the pressure,” he said.
Dynes said he empathized with students and that he would
consider ways to integrate student voice into future regent
decisions.
“I’m not afraid to sit down with students,” he
said. “Maybe it’s just because I have a good memory,
but I remember when I was one of them.”