Senior administrators at UCSC met with students on Tuesday night to talk about the looming budget cuts to the state university system. The prognosis agreed to by everyone at the meeting was that the situation is “grim,” and that the impending cuts would be “devastating.”
The school is currently trying to trim $19 million from its budget, and Executive Vice Chancellor Alison Galloway told the students that layoff notices are in the process of being sent out. Her greatest fear, however, was that voters might reject an extension of temporary taxes when they expire later this year. Were that to happen, the UC system would lose another $500 million in state funding. Of that, UCSC would absorb $31 million in additional cuts, raising the sum total of cuts for next year to $50 million.
The possibility of using student fees to cover the losses seems unlikely. In fall 2010 student fees rose 32 percent, and they are already scheduled to go up an additional 8 percent this fall. That would make the 2011-2012 academic year the first time in the school’s history that student fees exceed the state’s contribution to their education.
A second meeting with students about the budget is scheduled to take place at 5:30pm this afternoon at the Oakes College Learning Center. Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
