University of California President Robert Dynes met with about
25 student leaders Wednesday in what was intended to be a casual
conversation but became largely a discussion of the UC’s
budget situation.
Over a breakfast of eggs, bacon and bagels, Dynes aimed to
connect with students. The discussion was part of his inaugural
tour around UC campuses. He had visited UCLA fall quarter.
“I was glad to get the opportunity to bring issues
directly to the president,” said Jared Fox, president of the
Graduate Student Association.
Those invited to participate, including student government
leaders and resident assistants, were chosen as representatives of
the UCLA community.
Earlier in the morning, Dynes ran around the campus perimeter
with about 45 other students.
“It’s really quite valuable to listen to concerns
and issues that people have. … It’s also valuable for me to
hear things we do right, because if we’re doing something
right, we can enhance it,” Dynes said prior to opening the
discussion.
Talk centered around the financial obstacles the UC is facing
and the recent compact agreement made between Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and leaders of the UC and California State
University system.
Under the agreement the UC will sustain about $372 million in
proposed budget cuts, though graduate student fees will increase by
20 percent rather than the 40 percent put forth in January.
State funding after the 2004-2005 fiscal year will increase
progressively until the 2010-2011 fiscal year, according to the
agreement.
Dynes noted that over the past four years, enrollment at the UC
has increased by 16 percent while state funding has been reduced by
16 percent, straining the quality of education and the
student-to-faculty ratio.
“I use the term “˜bleeding’ as descriptive of
what we have been living with,” he said.
The compact was a hand-shake agreement that showed
Schwarzenegger is committed to stopping the bleeding, Dynes
said.
Dynes stressed that the legislative process will still have to
affirm this agreement.
Some students in attendance expressed their disapproval of the
compact agreement.
Undergraduate student government leaders said they believed the
agreement side-stepped student, faculty and alumni lobbying
efforts.
UC student leaders visited the state Capitol regularly in
previous months to voice their concerns about the governor’s
proposed budget.
Those who participated in such efforts felt betrayed, said Anica
McKesey, president of the Undergraduate Students Association
Council.
McKesey also said students were not consulted when the compact
agreement was brokered. Dynes said some students were aware of the
compact, though the details were kept private.
McKesey, who stressed her discontent with the compact, walked
out of the room after a heated talk with Dynes, and was followed by
other undergraduate student leaders.
Graduate student leaders in attendance agreed the compact
affected their efforts to voice their concerns about the proposed
budget.
“It does hurt our momentum,” said Marilyn Gray, GSA
vice president of internal affairs.
Lobbying efforts by students and alumni are valuable and
important, Dynes said.
These efforts remind legislators that California’s future
depends on the UC higher education system, he said.
Dynes said the compact agreement was not a secret. Democratic
legislators, though not pleased with it, were aware the UC was
working toward an agreement with the governor, he added.
In addition, the UC would have been one of the last state-funded
entities to not have an agreement with the governor, potentially
making it vulnerable to greater budget cuts in the future, said
Bruce Darling, the UC senior vice president of university
affairs.
Waiting for greater state funding from higher taxes is a risky
proposition, he added.
GSA president Fox said the university’s budget situation
would have been worse without the agreement, though many would have
liked it to be better.
“It is unfortunate that it has to be this way,” Fox
said.
At the breakfast, students also discussed the increased
difficulty for international students to get visas to the United
States due to security concerns following the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001.
“It’s one of the urgent issues on my plate,”
Dynes said.
Dynes also discussed with students the topics of faculty
diversity and the comfort of LGBT on-campus residents.