With Republican lawmakers threatening to stall the passage of a state budget without major cuts in spending, the University of California Board of Regents cranked out an emergency statement urging Sacramento not to cut funding to the university.
State lawmakers are considering cutting $30 million of promised funding to the university system, a move that the regents said could, among having other effects, potentially lead to a hike in student fees. Fees have been increased five of the last six years.
“This is the time to quickly get a message to Sacramento,” said Regent Chairman Richard Blum.
The regents roundly supported the statement, blasting a move that would reduce a promised funding increase of 4 percent to 3 percent.
A cut would “further degrade UC’s ability to prepare tomorrow’s workforce and conduct vital research,” read the statement.
In other actions Thursday, the regents discussed security issues at the Department of Energy labs that the university system comanages. The discussion came just days after the DOE proposed fining the UC a record $3 million for a 2004 security breach at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“The taint of anything that would go wrong there would definitely flow to the university,” said Regent Judith Hopkinson.
The UC’s role in nuclear weapons research is a perennial hot rod for public criticism at regents meetings, and Thursday was no exception.
During the public comment period, several students and faculty angrily demanded that the UC withdraw from nuclear research. Throughout much of Thursday’s meeting, the regents were interrupted by jeers, hisses and shouting from a group of about 20 activists.
The regents also discussed small spikes in diversity enrollment in fall’s incoming freshman class. Black enrollment systemwide rose from 3 percent last year to 3.6 percent this year, and Latino enrollment jumped from 16.3 to 17.5 percent, according to preliminary admissions numbers.
Many regents said those modest gains were not enough.
One option discussed was opening up enrollment to more minority students by dropping some high school curriculum requirements that many predominantly black and Latino high schools simply do not offer.
“I’m not suggesting we fix K-12. But we can fix our admissions requirements,” Dynes said. “Our admissions requirements ought not to ignore the reality on the ground.”
Thursday’s meeting, the last of three days of regents meetings on the UC Santa Barbara campus, marked acting UCLA Chancellor Norman Abrams’ last.
President Dynes commended Abrams tenure, saying he “performed brilliantly,” which drew a standing ovation from the regents and the chancellors of UCLA’s sister schools.
“I suggested he would have fun, I probably lied,” Dynes said jokingly.
Dynes was likely referencing the many crises Abrams faced during his short tenure ““ including a sharp dip in the enrollment of underrepresented minority students, the use of a Taser on a student in Powell Library, and threats of violence toward faculty made by animal rights activists.
Chancellor-elect Gene Block will represent UCLA when the regents meet again in September, as he is taking over as chancellor on August 1.
Correction: An earlier version of the story had the wrong order of percentages referring to a promised funding increase for the UC system.