Regents mull cuts to budget

By Cynthia Lee

The UC regents got a depressing analysis from administrators of how the board might have to close a proposed $417.4-million budget gap for 2008-09, based on the cost-cutting plan Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Jan. 10.

The governor is expecting the regents to deal with the shortage with a combination of fee increases; enrollment limitations; reductions to research, student services, academic support and public service programs; and administrative cost-cutting.

While he spared UC from mid-year cuts for 2007-08, Schwarzenegger wants to strip $332 million, or 10%, of state general funds UC had expected to receive in 2008-09. And he expects that 10% of the cut will come from the campuses and administration, regents heard at their Jan. 17 meeting at Covel Commons.

While no decision on cuts was made at the meeting, several regents called for UC to join forces with other segments of public higher education to march on Sacramento to emphasize the odious impact of the cuts on the state and its economy.

Said Lieutenant Gov. John Garamendi, an ex-officio regent: "We have to say to the public we need to support these public services with new revenue."

Katherine Lapp, UC executive vice president, gave the regents a set of cost-cutting measures to close the gap, but also promised to look again for other ways to trim non-core programs.

Student educational fees, already anticipated to go up 7%, could yield an additional $25.3 million if they were raised to 10%, she said.

Eliminating new initiatives that the board had included in its budget for next year — such as graduate student support, student mental health services and support for libraries and deferred maintenance — would save $73.8 million.

At least $28 million in administrative cuts were already anticipated, primarily in the Office of the President. But an additional $40 million could be squeezed from campus administrative budgets, Lapp suggested.

Staff Advisor Lynda Brewer pleaded for the regents not to "take the easy road" by eliminating a proposed 5% compensation increase (including salaries and health benefits) for faculty and staff for 2008-09, a move that would save $169 million.

Students opposed to fee increases say they don't want UC's budget problems balanced on their backs, Brewer said, but "faculty and staff don't want to be the easy target for meeting the budget crisis, either."

While Lapp said she is not recommending cutting academic merit increases for faculty this year, on the table is a move to drop the second year of increases in a four-year plan to close the faculty salary gap; that would shave $20 million off the spending plan.

Regents objected the loudest during a discussion of a possible enrollment cap that would devastate UC' efforts to increase student diversity and have political as well as individual consequences, explained Provost and Executive Vice President Wyatt R. Hume. A decision on this issue has to be made by March, when letters of admission are slated to be sent out to applicants.

UC's compact with the governor calls for campuses to enroll an additional 5,000 students next year. Forgoing the increase would save $54.8 million.

But it would come at a particularly bad time — the state is slated this year to have the largest graduating high school class in its history, Lapp said. UC has also had an increase in African-American, Latino and transfer applicants wanting to enroll next year.

Hume said that the campuses' academic leaders feel strongly that UC should accommodate an enrollment increase and that trade-offs should be made in other areas. "We would prefer not to step back on our historic commitment to the people of California under the master plan if at all possible." He will meet with key regents' committees over the coming weeks in pursuit of a solution.