Academic Senate, community leaders respond to proposed state budget cuts to higher ed

The UC Academic Senate, in response to Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed 10% cuts to UC and higher education statewide, released a report on April 8 stating that called for a major campaign by UC President Robert Dynes and the UC Regents to oppose these cuts.

"Since the early 1980s, higher education funding has suffered more than any other major sector of the state budget," the report's authors noted. "It is the only sector to have experienced a reduction in real per capita revenues between 1984 and 2004."

Budget cuts cannot be adequately compensated for by alternative means, the report said. While the university's efforts to increase the non-state funding sources of research and philanthropy have been very successful, "These efforts have not (and cannot) raise an endowment that is large enough to replace annual revenues of one or two billion dollars — the amount necessary to replace cut state funding. Private research sponsorship cannot support operations on this scale either."

The report quotes faculty from several campuses citing examples of the toll that budget shortfalls have taken on their departments, including delayed replacement hires, faculty retention problems, cutbacks in temporary teaching funds, overcrowded labs and teaching spaces, and deferred maintenance.

The Senate recommended that the Office of the President publicly oppose the cuts; engage in a systematic campaign to rebuild statewide support for public funding for UC, CSU and the Community College system; establish a minimum per-student cost of instruction no lower than the current, already-reduced, 2007-08 level; and limit student enrollments.

See the complete UC Academic Senate report.

On April 19, the Campaign for College Opportunity, a coalition of California business, community and education leaders and concerned citizens, issued its own response to the proposed budget cuts. The organization's Cumulative Impact report stated that if these cuts are adopted, there will be a compounding effect over the next years as enrollment funding could force UC and CSU to halt their existing student enrollment at current levels — turning away thousands of 10th through 12th graders who have worked hard to meet requirements. The study estimates that 27,000 students would be turned away from UC and CSU — the size of an entire campus.

Find this report at Campaign for College Opportunity.