Campus puts budget plan into action
by cynthia lee
ucla today staff
The budget plan campus leaders have been developing for almost
a year is now in place to cope with a reduction of roughly $35 million
in state funding and $13 million in new costs that won’t be
covered by state funds. These costs cover such priorities as utilities,
deferred maintenance, graduate student support and academic preparation
(outreach).
The Legislature’s agreement on a state budget earlier this
month dug deep into UCLA’s share of state funding, as campus
leaders anticipated months ago. “This $35-million cut follows
a $20-million cut in 2003-04,” said Vice Chancellor for Finance
and Budget Steve A. Olsen. “This $55-million cut over two
years amounts to about 8% of our state funding.”
The budget plan was developed under a lengthy process that involved
discussions among faculty, staff and students and consultations
with Academic Senate leaders, and concluded with final decisions
by the chancellor. Under the plan, the schools and administrative
departments sustained budget cuts ranging from 2% to 6%.
For example, academic programs that are central to emerging academic
initiatives or that provide critical support, such as the public
arts, the biosciences and the UCLA Library, were cut 2%; most UCLA
College units were cut 4%; professional schools were cut 4.75%;
and most administrative units, including the chancellor’s
organization, were cut 6%.
Even though 2004-05 will be a challenging year, UCLA plans to
continue to invest in its strongest academic areas and build on
its comparative advantages. Among the chancellor’s academic
initiatives are UCLA in LA, society and genetics, and the biosciences,
an emerging, interdisciplinary field that brings together some of
the university’s strongest units, including the Life Sciences
Division, the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Henry Samueli
School of Engineering and Applied Science, among others.
“At the heart of our discussions and my decision-making process
has been a determination to preserve UCLA’s academic core
and to maintain our momentum as a world-class research university,”
said Chancellor Albert Carnesale in his budget message to the campus.
Olsen said he does not believe widespread layoffs will occur across
the campus. “But these decisions are generally local. Some
organizations have kept vacant positions open and thus are in a
better position to absorb these reductions through attrition,”
he explained.
For administrators like Assistant Vice Chancellor of General Services
Jack Powazek, coping with the budget cuts boils down to stretching
an already thin staff even further to do the best they can. To cover
a $4-million deficit due to UCLA’s high energy costs, the
campus will dip into maintenance funds. “That’s essentially
a 10% cut to our maintenance funds,” said Powazek.
But there were also some upsides to the protracted budget battle
in Sacramento. For example, funding for enrollment was restored
to UC so that UCLA can now offer admission to the 2005 winter or
spring quarter to the roughly 300 applicants who accepted its guaranteed
transfer option.
UC’s Institute for Labor and Employment recouped all but
$200,000 of its $4 million in state funding after Democrats in the
Assembly fought for it.
UC Merced received an allocation of $20 million that will enable
it to open in fall 2005. Legislators also restored $29 million to
UC’s academic preparation programs. But lawmakers stipulated
that $4 million in UC funding that previously supported these programs
must now be used to fund enrollment. As a result, academic preparation
programs will see a net reduction of $4 million from last year’s
funding levels.
Although the final budget was primarily the result of political
bargaining, “our e-mail advocacy campaign did work in raising
both the governor’s and Legislature’s perception of
support for UC,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor for Government
and Community Relations Keith Parker. “If we had been silent,
it would have been worse for us. We needed to speak up on our own
behalf.”
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