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Photo by Carol Petersen UCLA
Today
Chancellor Albert Carnesale talks to staff members about
UCLA’s efforts to soften the impact of a proposed cut
in state funding while Steve Olsen, vice chancellor of finance
and budget, looks on. Carnesale encouraged staff to be strong
advocates for UCLA as the state Legislature prepares for budget
deliberations. Carnesale and Olsen addressed about 275 employees
who attended the Staff Assembly’s annual Chancellor’s
Town Hall at Northwest Auditorium on Jan. 29.
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chancellor urges:
Become advocates for UCLA
BY ANNE BURKE
UCLA Today Staff
Hoping to stave off the deepest of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
proposed cuts to the University of California, Chancellor Albert
Carnesale is urging UCLA staff to advocate on behalf of the university
in discussions with friends, neighbors and business and political
leaders.
“Make them aware of what these cuts will mean,” Carnesale
told an audience of about 275 at the Staff Assembly’s annual
Chancellor’s Town Hall at Northwest Auditorium on Jan. 29.
Carnesale said an advocacy campaign touting UCLA’s important
contributions to the state and beyond could sway Sacramento lawmakers
to protect UC as they struggle to balance the budget against a staggering
$15-billion shortfall.
Schwarzenegger’s $372 million in proposed cuts to UC for
fiscal year 2004-05 would reduce UC’s net state-funded operating
budget 8%, from $2.9 billion to $2.67 billion. The direst consequences
would include a proposed increase in the student-faculty ratio from
19.7-to-1 to 20.7-to-1, and hikes in student fees of 10% for resident
undergraduates, 40% for resident graduate students and 20% for all
out-of-state students.
Carnesale said he would work hard to preserve K-12 outreach, which
the governor has targeted for elimination. UCLA has been working
closely with underperforming Los Angeles public schools to help
students compete for admission in the wake of Proposition 209, and
the chancellor said he would be loathe to tell these schools, “We’re
out of here.”
“It’s substantively wrong and it’s wrong morally,”
he said.
Despite efforts to spare valuable programs such as outreach, the
budget outlook is bleak. While operations are already lean, Vice
Chancellor of Finance and Budget Steve Olsen, who also spoke at
the town hall, said the administration has asked deans and department
heads to look even harder for ways to pare costs, in close consultation
with faculty and staff.
“The process is not intended to be a top-down planning process.
... It’s very much a bottom-up process,” Olsen said.
Steps already taken to shave costs include imposing a soft freeze
on hiring and closing the campus for the winter holiday, Carnesale
said. While short notice for the closure last year was unavoidable,
if administrators decide to do it again in 2004-05, an announcement
will be made this summer.
The Staff and Academic Reduction in Time (START) program —
launched at UCLA in June — is generating a small payroll savings,
Carnesale said. About 200 employees have signed up to voluntarily
reduce work hours, added Lubbe Levin, assistant vice chancellor
for Campus Human Resources.
Carnesale reiterated a point that most in the audience already
knew — that proposed budgets contain no money for staff and
faculty raises next year and that it is unlikely that UC will renew
the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program (VERIP), which
helped offset state budget cuts in the early 1990s.
While legally barred from telling employees how to vote on any
ballot issue, Carnesale urged audience members to educate themselves
about Proposition 55, the $12.3-billion school construction bond
that would generate about $660 million for UC, including $70 million
for UCLA over two years. The measure will be on the March 2 ballot.
Despite the grim budget news, Shirelle Alexander, an administrative
specialist for Campus Human Resources, said after the meeting that
she appreciated the chancellor’s remarks.
“I felt that he was coming from an honest place,” she
said. “He didn’t sidestep any issues, and that’s
what we want.”
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