Text of Speeches
David Kliger
Remarks to the Academic Senate
November 12, 2008
Good Afternoon.
I’d like to join Chancellor Blumenthal in welcoming you to the Fall Quarter Senate Meeting.
As you might guess, I think the most important topic to address this afternoon is the declining state support for UC, and the impact that will have on UCSC. This will be the first of many discussions we will have this year on the budget.
The Governor has reconvened the legislature, and we are following their actions closely. But, as I said in my message to the campus last week, there is still much we don’t know.
However, what we do know is the following:
• Prior to any mid-year cuts, state support for UC this year had remained essentially unchanged from 2007-08.
• We received no additional funding for mandated cost increases, making this a de facto budget cut.
• Meanwhile, in a year of unsurpassed demand, UC absorbed all expected undergraduate enrollment growth without enhanced state funding to support it.
• UCSC has funded its own enrollment growth through campus operating funds.
Given these conditions, in July of this year I implemented a $4.5M budget reduction based on what our estimates of the funding shortfall. In implementing this reduction, Principal Officers were advised to:
• Consider both long and short-term objectives to ensure student access and excellence of academic programs.
• Protect instruction to the extent possible and offer the classes students need in order to make timely progress to degree.
• Maintain a stable control environment and a safe physical environment.
• Manage attrition to minimize layoffs.
I also strived to keep us on track to implement some critical initiatives like the Comprehensive Campaign and I provided one-time funds to maintain core academic support and administrative functions.
We now face mid-year cuts that, once adopted by the Legislature and imposed by the Governor, will leave us needing to implement further reductions.
As Chancellor Blumenthal will report to the Regents later this month, the anticipated cuts, compounded by the costs which must be covered – (academic merits, collective bargaining agreements, health and benefit cost increases, and the most significant of all, the restart of employer contributions to UCRS) – mean that we will put at risk not only the quality of our institution, but the basic access to the citizens of California.
And even as we don’t know the full extent of the impending mid-year cuts, we also need to anticipate that based on the economic situation in the state, that budget reductions could be significant and last for several years. We need to accept the fact that our university will no longer receive state funding at the levels we have in the past, and we will need to redesign our enterprise to reflect this reduction in state provided resources.
To provide further context to this:
• UCSC is highly dependent on state funding and student fees to operation.
• Close to 94% of our instructional budget and core administrative functions rely on these two sources of funds.
• Nearly 86% of these funds are budgeted for academic and staff salaries and benefits.
I believe this is not a situation that we can plan to “grow out of”, nor can we expect that when the economy recovers our funding will be restored. We have difficult choices ahead – choices that if not carefully considered will put at risk the quality of our institution. So, what happens next?
We are engaged in a dialogue with our Vice Chancellors, Deans, Vice Provosts, and Academic Senate about strategies to address the anticipated mid-year reductions and what could be even more significant cuts in 2009-10. We will explore every opportunity to further increase our efficiencies. We will consider deferring actions on new initiatives as I am not prepared to authorize moving ahead on new systems at the expense of having to cut deeper into the academic programs or of eliminating or further reducing core functions.
For 2009-10, we have proposed to the Senate that we limit the enrollment of new frosh to about 3,500 students – about 400 less than in the current year. This means we will essentially hold our overall enrollment flat.
We may need to limit the recruitment of new faculty to essential hires – either those that are critical to maintaining the momentum of specific academic programs or that are needed to address curricular issues on campus.
We will limit growth in student services, and work with our Student Fee Advisory Committee to consider every possible programmatic efficiency.
We will look at every program and/or activity to determine what can be cut – this must include some very popular activities, including our highly visible public services activities– to determine whether we can continue to invest in these programs. In the meantime, I've directed principal officers to implement all reasonable cost-saving measures and to engage their staffs in identifying ways to invest limited resources as efficiently as possible.
As you know, because you have experienced this in the past, the actions we will need to take will again result in change on campus. It’s true that change can sometimes be a good thing, but the uncertainty of the current situation and how we will make these adjustments is also very difficult for people.
Our students and their families are already feeling the stress of the rising cost of education and shrinking personal resources to support their aspirations. For many of our students, their families are struggling to cover the basic necessities.
Many of our staff face similar situations at home. Further, they are already working very hard but will likely have even more work to do with fewer resources.
For faculty, your workloads will continue to increase and the resources to support your teaching and research will be strained even further. At the same time, you have seen the second year of a promised faculty salary plan fall victim to the cuts. On campus, the UCSC Faculty Salary task force has completed its recommendations, and I am scheduled to consult with CAP and CPB in the near future. Following those consultations, we will decide what we can do locally to address the issue, but this will be challenging.
However, in a time of uncertainty and change, there are a few things that I am certain of:
• We are a resilient community: we have been here before and we will find our way through this yet again.
• We are a creative community: in difficult times, our campus has responded with hard work, imagination and an unfailing willingness to think outside the box to meet the challenges – we can do that again.
• We are a focused community: we will not lose sight of our priorities – we will continue to build on our strengths and provide our students a quality experience in the classroom.
• We are an accomplished community - this will allow us diversify our resources base and continue to be ambitious in our goals.
• We are a responsive community: we respond to difficult times with awareness, generosity, patience, perseverance, and respect for all.
• We are a community that values shared governance: The Senate’s work will be critical in helping guide our decisions over the next few months.
And although it would not be truthful to say that I am looking forward to working on the challenges ahead, I can say that I am glad to be working with you.
I want to thank you today for your continued commitment to our campus and our mission.