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©2004
The Regents of the University of California
 

UC needs a new deal with state

BY GLEN MACDONALD

Based upon our perspective as chairs, we are united in our belief that the newly proposed budgetary cuts and uncompensated differential increases to graduate fees will gravely impact the UCLA College; moreover, they will jeopardize the overall ability of the University of California to meet its legislated obligations as the state’s primary public research university and only public doctorate-granting institution, as described in the California Master Plan of Education.

The undergraduate mission of the College and UC will suffer directly from the proposed budgetary cuts, which will leave us unable to fulfill our mandate of providing the top 12.5% of California undergraduate students with access to the highest quality of education. Graduate students are vital to our research, our undergraduate teaching and the recruitment and retention of top faculty, who come to UCLA largely because of the excellence of our graduate programs. Because competition for top graduate students is increasingly fierce, graduate programs in the College must be able to provide such students with tuition and fee support comparable to that offered by other leading universities.

Fees and tuition costs for many of our top graduate applicants must be covered by increasingly limited departmental funds. The proposed 40%-50% increase in graduate fees and concomitant cuts in funding for graduate education will exceed the capacity of our financial resources, greatly diminishing our ability to attract and support graduate students. This will effectively remove us from the ranks of top research and doctoral universities, further compromising the quality of education provided to our undergraduates. The ultimate result of such an abrogation of our research, graduate and undergraduate educational missions will be a rapid decline in the intellectual, social and economic contributions of the College and UC to the state.

We first ask that the proposed differential fee increases for graduate students be rejected. Second, while urging that additional funding be allocated by the state to mitigate the crises we face, we recognize that California faces unprecedented budgetary pressures. In order to maintain the nation’s leading university system, uphold accessibility, and protect and enhance our contributions to the educational and economic well-being of the state, we call for the negotiation of a new compact between the State of California and the UC concerning funding and governance.

The new compact that we ask the state and the university to negotiate is one that would allow UC the freedom to directly implement strategies, including the adjustment of fees and tuition for undergraduates, graduates and students in professional programs, in order to address the consequences of budget cuts of the magnitude that we now face. Currently, UC fees and tuition remain significantly below those of many public universities in other states. Compensatory increases in fees and tuition in response to large state budget cuts offer a viable alternative to further degradation of our capacity to meet our educational and research missions.

To protect and promote accessibility, a sufficient portion of [additional university income and state savings from] increased fees and tuition must be allocated to financial support for the economically disadvantaged through grants and loans and to enhanced UC outreach efforts. By transferring a greater share of financial responsibility to those users of UC who can better afford to pay for the education from which they directly benefit, a new compact would contribute to relieving the current financial strains on the General Fund and the tax-paying public at large.

The above was excerpted from a letter to the UC Board of Regents authored by MacDonald, professor of geography, and signed by 31 chairs of the UCLA College.