During Thursday’s bi-monthly University of California Board of Regents meeting, several board members expressed their deep concern over the governor’s proposed 10 percent reduction in funding.
Some regents went as far as to say the board should personally lobby legislators in Sacramento after a rather distasteful presentation on how the UC budget could be modified to make up for a projected $400 million shortfall.
That sounds like an excellent idea.
There were several ludicrous suggestions to save money, including dropping the projected system-wide enrollment (excluding UC Merced) by about 5,000 full-time students in the next admissions cycle.
The suggestion would save the regents about $55 million in the year with the largest graduating high school class in history. Apparently 5,000 freshman and transfer students who had hoped for a UC education may have to find somewhere else to go.
In addition to compromising the accessibility of the university, those of us who get to go here would have to pay a 7 percent educational fee increase and a 10 percent registration fee increase.
Luckily, low-income students would not be impacted by the increase because up to 40 percent of the money would go back to financial aid.
But what about those of us who do not qualify as “low income?” Many of us may be thousands of dollars more in debt by the time we graduate ““ if we can afford to continue here.
Regent Chairman Richard Blum told reporters during a lunchtime chat that the UC is still a very affordable school. How affordable will a UC education remain if we allow the regents to be pressured by the state to keep raising fees 7-10 percent a year?
Maybe if regents like Blum forgo smoked salmon cream cheese, gourmet roasted vegetables and four-star hotels at the next meeting, we could save a few thousand dollars.
To be fair, the regents are also proposing cutting nearly $70 million in administrative expenses ““ which would likely remove more than a few staff members and untold numbers of paperclips from the office of the president.
There isn’t enough space on this page to describe the rest of the proposed cuts, which include student mental health services, faculty and staff raises and benefits, and graduate student support.
Other line items to cut include programs called “Educational Imperative Initiative,” “Core academic support” and “Research Initiative.”
The bottom line here is the regents either need to do far more to explore outside sources of money or ask for more from the state.
Clearly most of these cuts are unacceptable, with the obvious exception of administrative expenses, and without a $400 million donation to the UC, we are going to be in the same situation two months from now when the regents meet again.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will introduce a resolution at the next meeting to freeze student fees and increase them at the cost of inflation ““ obviously we endorse this resolution.
The regents should also accompany the students, faculty and staff who will be lobbying in Sacramento for more money over the next two months.
Maybe a few regent appearances in the capital will get us $400 million ““ and if not at least they will have tried.