Nov 07, 2009 | 10:57
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Nov 21, 2008
Chancellor Block briefs regents on how UCLA is coping with budget cuts
Chancellor Gene Block recently briefed the regents' Committee on Educational Policy on how UCLA is being impacted by the continuing barrage of budget cuts triggered by the state's worsening fiscal problems.
Block was one of three UC chancellors, representing campuses of various sizes, to address the committee, which met Nov. 19 in San Francisco. While the regents have watched the "big picture" of budget cuts whittling away at state funding, they said they need to see how those cuts are being felt at the campus level. "The academic enterprise of the university is the highest priority. And we must therefore do everything we can to mitigate the impact of the budget cuts on this most essential function," said Interim Provost of Academic Affairs Robert Grey before introducing the chancellors. But protecting the academic enterprise, he added, is proving to be more and more difficult in this third round of major budget reductions in a little more than a decade.
"We're in a perfect storm right now, unfortunately," Block told the regents. "State support is being reduced, but the cost of utilities, salaries, UC health and retirement benefits continue to increase by $31 million that we have to make up. Federal research, which is very strong at UCLA -- at almost $900 million -- is beginning to level off and decrease in some agencies." The global economic downturn has reduced the value of UCLA's endowment. Meanwhile, the campus faces increasing demand for admission, with the highest number of applicants in the country, Block said. UCLA is currently over-enrolled by 1,475 undergraduates, students for which the campus has received no state funding.
Budget cuts have already sliced $37 million from UCLA's 2008-09 budget, with an additional cut of $12 million proposed as the legislature meets in emergency session on the state budget. If that cut is approved, then UCLA will have lost $49 million for this fiscal year, the equivalent of 9 percent of its state funding -- 6 percent of its general funds.
In response, Block said, UCLA has tried to become as efficient as possible administratively, reorganizing where it can and using information technology where possible to reduce costs. On the academic front, he noted, "We've been able to improve our graduation rates to get our students out quickly," with 89 percent graduating within six years, a rate that compares very favorably with elite private universities, he said.
While UCLA's instructional program is the highest priority, he said, academic units have had to absorb $31 million for utilities, benefits and other necessities that the state failed to cover for 2008-09. The cuts have been especially hard on writing, language, mathematics and laboratory courses, said Block, who has been able to provide limited temporary funding to support these areas.
But that is not sustainable in the long run, he said. So UCLA is planning to reduce faculty hiring, filling only the most essential positions, and following a number of other cost-reducing strategies to prepare for what will likely be tough times in 2009-10.
"We're already fairly lean in the way we operate and the way we provide this remarkable educational product to students in California. But that's being challenged right now," the chancellor told the committee.To find out more, see UCLA's website on the budget.
