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May 16, 2002
To: UC Santa Cruz Campus Community
From: M.R.C. Greenwood, Chancellor
Re: 'May Revise' of state budget
Dear Colleagues:
Governor Davis has called for significant reductions in state spending to address a shortfall of almost $24 billion in California's budget. The Governor's "May revise" proposed cuts for the entire University totaling approximately $164M. The specific potential impact for UC Santa Cruz is mixed. On the positive side, permanent funding for student enrollment growth and some merit increases for faculty and staff has been preserved. There is new funding for fire sprinklers in Sinsheimer Laboratories. The revised budget also avoids across-the-board cuts and does not increase student fees.
While I applaud the Governor's effort to continue his commitment to higher education, his proposed cuts would have a direct impact on our instructional budgets, through reduced funds for state-funded research, instructional equipment, library materials, and information technology initiatives. The targets and magnitude of these cuts and whether they will be one-time or permanent are not known at this time.
It is clear, however, that the cuts proposed by the Governor would severely limit our ability to uphold successful partnerships with K-12 schools. A large number of faculty, students, staff, and our educational partners receive funding from the integrated effort led by the Educational Partnership Center. The Governor's recommended elimination of the statewide School-University Partnerships program and ArtsBridge will affect exemplary programs at UC Santa Cruz. Also proposed for elimination is the UC College Prep Initiative (UCCP), a unique program offering online courses that help high school students to qualify for UC admission. Initiated and led by UC Santa Cruz for the system, UCCP currently serves 2,500 students in 50 counties.
This campus should be very proud of our outstanding work done in outreach and K-12 partnerships. Despite fiscally troubled times, we now must pull together to sustain as much as possible these important partnerships. To that end, I have asked the Executive Committee of the Chancellor's Educational Partnership Advisory Council (CEPAC) to convene a working group to understand more clearly the impact of the proposed cuts and to develop a transition plan, identifying alternative funding sources and considering how to downsize, as needed.
We will not know the final outcome of any of the Governor's proposals until the legislative process is concluded and a budget is presented to the Governor for signature. That is expected to occur later in the summer, as the Legislature struggles with the best ways to address significant budgetary challenges facing California. As part of the process, the University will continue working with the Governor and the Legislature to emphasize the positive effects California realizes from strong investment in the University of California.
When more information is available, I will share it.
You can find full detail of the Governor's proposals at these web sites:
www.ucsc.edu/currents/01-02/05-13/budget.html (News release on impact to UC)
www.dof.ca.gov (The Governor's May Revision)
Maintained by:pioweb@cats.ucsc.edu