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Photo by Reed Hutchinson
UCLA Photographic Services
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico addresses the board. |
compact reflected
UC budget plan includes raises
by anne burke
ucla today staff
The University of California Regents, meeting at UCLA on Nov. 18,
approved a 2005-06 budget proposal that aims to halt the state budget
cuts of the last several years and provides for modest increases
in instructional programs, enrollment growth, and staff and faculty
salaries.
The $2.8-billion budget proposal, which reflected terms set by
the multiyear compact negotiated between UC President Robert C.
Dynes and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, represents a 4.2% increase
over this year’s spending plan. Under the new plan, eligible
staff and faculty would receive an average 1.5% cost-of-living raise
on top of merit raises of 1.78% for faculty and 1.5% for eligible
staff.
The regents also set student fees for 2005-06. New fees include
hikes of 8% ($457) for resident undergraduates and 10% ($628) for
resident graduate academic students and professional students. Also,
fees for individual professional schools will be increased 3%. To
help students and their families cope with the increases, UC will
set aside 25% of the new undergraduate fee revenue and 50% of the
new graduate student fee revenue for financial aid.
The vote on the spending plan was 13-1, with student Regent Jodi
Lynette Anderson, a UCLA graduate student, voting no. The vote came
in a Covel Commons meeting room packed with student protesters from
San Diego to Berkeley. As regents voted on the budget, students
peeled off T-shirts, worn over their regular clothes, and flung
them toward the board as a symbolic gesture intended to mean that
“students have nothing left to give but the shirts off our
backs,” said Christopher Sweeten, 20, a UC San Diego undergraduate.
Even with Cal grants, loans and part-time jobs, students told
regents they face crippling debt after graduation. UCLA law student
Andrea Luquetta told the board she expects to make $900-a-month
loan payments for 20 years. “I’m never going to be able
to get ahead. I’ll always be living on a student budget,”
she said.
The university said that even after the 8% hike, resident undergraduate
fees would be about $1,100 below the average charged at comparable
public universities in Michigan, Illinois, New York and Virginia.
Total fees for resident undergraduates at UC would be $6,769, compared
to an average $7,781 at comparable universities.
In addition to the proposed salary increases, UC plans to add
funds to cover the cost of increasing employee health benefits and
to address market-based and equity issues where newly hired faculty
and staff are paid significantly more than current employees with
similar experience and skills. UC administrators cautioned, however,
that the proposed increases will not be enough to cover all health-care
cost increases in 2005-06 nor make up for the fact that UC faculty
salaries lag an estimated 8-10% behind those offered at comparable
institutions. A similar problem affects UC staff, they noted.
UC’s budget proposal, essentially the system’s request
to the state for funding, is only the first step in the process
of getting a final budget approved. The governor will issue his
budget proposal in January, and the legislature will hold hearings
and make its proposals in the spring. When a final state budget
is negotiated and approved in the summer, UC regents will then revise
the UC plan to reflect the final agreement.
In other matters, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson urged regents
to aggressively compete for the continued management of Los Alamos
National Laboratory. UC has administered the lab, along with two
others, for more than half a century, but a series of highly publicized
security lapses prompted Congress to open the process to competitive
bidding.
“There is no institution of higher scientific and technological
quality than the University of California,” said Richardson,
a former energy secretary. UC’s continued management of the
lab is in the best interests of the “country, its national
defense, the state of New Mexico, and, I believe, this university.”
But the governor strongly advised the university to join with an
industrial partner, which would handle security, safety and management
of hazardous materials.
In other action, Regent Ward Connerly’s effort to give students
the option of checking a “multiracial” box in application
forms went down to defeat. Currently, in compliance with federal
requirements, UC allows students to check any of 14 categories indicating
race and ethnicity.
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