The finger pointing is well underway as regents of the UC system meet in San Francisco to decide on how to implement the necessary budget cuts for the coming year. The meeting comes in the wake of an $800 million cut in state funding to the 10-school system, compounded by an additional $335 million deficit expected over the next two years because of increasing costs.
They will be voting on a plan unveiled by UC President Mark Yudof to impose furloughs and salaries on 100,000 staff members, which will reduce their pay by 4 to 10 percent. The biggest cuts would be borne by the highest paid staff members, with Yudof himself taking a 10 percent pay cut. This was unsatisfactory to protesters gathered outside his house this week, who pointed out that Yudof is already earning $800,000, while they are barely earning enough to provide for their families. Based on Yudof’s proposal, those earning $46,000 or less would take a 4 percent cut in pay. Faculty members at UCSC said that the furloughs, totaling $12.5 million in saving, would put their salaries 20 percent below what their colleagues are earning at comparable institutions.
Other measures under discussion are increased class sizes, faculty layoffs, and a reduction in the number of teaching assistants. More desperate measures include cutting off the hot water in the bathrooms.
Meanwhile, professors at UC Santa Cruz have rejected an alternative proposal by a group of professors at UC San Diego that the UC system consider closing smaller campuses, so that larger schools could avoid pay cuts. One of the schools they pointed to was UC Santa Cruz; the new campus in Merced was another.
UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal called the suggestion “ill-considered,” and pointed to some of the budgetary cuts already undertaken by the school: the freshman class was cut by 750 students, and 55 faculty and administrative positions have been slashed. He also said that research is threatened, citing Lick Observatory as a potential victim of the proposed budget cuts. Astronomy and astrophysics department chair Sandy Faber called the continued slashing of funds to academic programs akin to “eating your seed corn,” arguing that the most accomplished faculty members would eventually just leave.
Full board approval for the proposed budget cuts is expected for today. Read more at KCBS, the Central Valley Business Times and the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
