Crack Up: Campuses Beginning to Resist UCOP’s Allocation of Budget Cut

As things get tough, the notion of a unified UC system ultimately controlled from Oakland is beginning to crack. See the item below.

UC Berkeley asked to absorb $80M of Brown’s $500M cut (excerpt)

Feb. 7, 2011 | Louis Freedberg | California Watch

University of California President Mark Yudof has set a target for the Berkeley campus to cut $80,800,000 from its budget for the coming year, as the 10-campus university system struggles to come to terms with a $500 million reduction in funds proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown. A cut of that magnitude would constitute 16.2 percent of the proposed $500 million total, representing a disproportionate share of the system-wide cut. The budget targets – which university officials emphasize are provisional – are exposing a long-simmering issue in the UC system, which is just how equally the 10 campuses should be treated. On an even more fundamental level, it raises the question of how, or even whether, the state can afford to support 10 world-class research universities, including the opening of a new one in the Central Valley.

…”My greatest fear is that Berkeley will be driven into lesser and lesser stature and excellence to shore up the existence of other campuses,” UC Berkeley provost George Breslauer told California Watch. “The excellence of UC Berkeley, UCSF, UCLA and UC San Diego is something everyone should be proud of and share their glory, which most people do, and I don’t want to see a regression to the mean.” Breslauer said that UCLA, which unlike Berkeley also had a medical school, is being asked to take a $96 million cut, and UC Davis a cut in the $70 million range. Breslauer stressed that the targets do not take into account any cuts that UC’s Office of the President will be making. After those are factored in, he thinks the total amount Berkeley will end up cutting will be around $75 million – still a huge hit.

…UC spokesperson Steve Montiel said that the percentages provided to the campuses are “being used as a starting point, and are considered approximate,” in part because the actual funding level to UC is still unknown. Cuts in the Office of the President “could affect the campus targets,” he said. The Office of the President declined to provide the targets set for each of the 10 campuses…

TOTAL ENROLLMENTS 2009-10, UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE

UC Berkeley 35,362; UC Davis 29,363; UC Irvine 26,864; UCLA 35,157; UC Riverside 19,185; UC Merced 3,472; UC San Diego 28,375; UC Santa Barbara 23,250; UC Santa Cruz 17,160; Total Enrollment 218,155

Full article at: http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/uc-berkeley-asked-absorb-80m-browns-500m-cut-8507