UC budget crisis

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Waiting Anxiously for the State Budget

Byuclafaculty

Under the state constitution, the governor’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2013-14 is due on Thursday, January 10.  As prior posts have noted, the leaks so far seem to indicate a focus on K-12 budgetary reforms rather than higher ed.  We will see.  Last year, as I recall, the budget was accidentally unveiled early when someone put it on the web prematurely.  Presumably, given that misstep, this time precautions are being taken to prevent such early disclosure. So what will the UC budget be?  Let’s hope it isn’t the wrong number.  Until Thursday, we’ll just have to be in suspense:[youtube…

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Some Closing Thoughts for 2012

Byuclafaculty

U of Chicago Economics Professor Steven Levitt, co-author of the Freakonomics books, radio programs, blog, etc., made some interesting comments about business and MBA education in the context of a larger discussion of confirmation bias. Basically, he says that willingness to admit ignorance and non-expertise is not part of the business culture and that MBAs learn confidently to provide answers to questions for which they don’t know the answers. Admitting you don’t know is unacceptable. You can hear his comments at the link below. One suspects that the problem is not just one of business but of management of all…

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We might as well join the fiscal cliff discussion with this cheery note

Byuclafaculty

…The University of California system estimates it would lose $335 million in federal research funding this fiscal year, according to Christopher Harrington, spokesman for UC’s Washington, D.C., office. That represents roughly 8 to 9 percent of UC’s research portfolio from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy… And on the state budget:…Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist with the UCLA Anderson Forecast, said he believes the U.S. would experience a “mild recession” absent a fiscal cliff deal, largely because of lower consumption. He also warned that reduced profits in 2013…

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More on State Budget Leaks

Byuclafaculty

As a previous post noted, this is the season in which there are leaks about the governor’s upcoming budget proposal for 2013-14 which will be presented officially in early January.  Given the timing, the budget is already prepared, or 99% prepared. So far, there has been no leak about higher ed.  However, there is an item today in the Sacramento Bee about K-12 (a much larger chunk of the state budget) that suggests the governor will propose revamping the K-12 allocation formulas to give more assistance to disadvantaged children and districts with concentrations of such children. He pushed for changes…

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It’s Budget Leak Time

Byuclafaculty

There are formal and informal elements of the state budget process.  One formal part is the requirement that the governor present a budget proposal to the legislature in early January (Jan. 10).  The legislature is supposed to enact a budget by mid-June.  But there are also informal elements.  For example, it is traditional that the governor present the legislature with a “May revise” modified proposal for the budget in mid-May.  Another tradition is that bits of news about the budget begin to leak out around this time. Given the realities of the complexities of the state budget, by now the…

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Cautionary Tales for the Regents

Byuclafaculty

The New York Times today runs cautionary tales today about universities that go on building booms, build up debt, and get into trouble.  The opening lines give you the flavor:  Some call it the Edifice Complex. Others have named it the Law of More, or the Taj Mahal syndrome. A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill. Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011…

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Trivial Pursuit?

Byuclafaculty

The California State Auditor examines the accounts of state agencies including UC.  Chapter 8 of its latest report focuses on an unnamed administrator who came from CSU and apparently misspent travel funds there to the tune of over $150,000 before arriving at UC.  When this problem at CSU became known, UC tightened up the oversight of the administrator’s UC travel.  Nevertheless, the auditor found a few thousand dollars in improperly charged UC travel expenses. From Chapter 8: …In October 2012 the university reported that it intends to seek reimbursement from the official for the wasteful expenses identified in this report….

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Rebenching: UCLA Academic Senate Prefers More Rather than Less

Byuclafaculty

The benches may be old but we like them. The “rebenching” issue has resurfaced.  Basically, what is at stake is the formula by which UC money is divided up among the campuses.  The Daily Bruin today reviews the issue and the view of the UCLA Academic Senate: The response states that the Senate is “adamantly opposed” to the current proposal – known as rebenching – and outlines the potentially negative impacts it could have on the UCLA campus… …Rebenching aims to equalize funding per student across all of the UC campuses by distributing state funds to each campus based on set student enrollment…

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Whoops

Byuclafaculty

No, things are not as bad as the picture suggests. But the state controller reports that through November, receipts are about $800 million below the original budget estimates (which include Prop 30).  About half of the missing revenue is attributable to corporate profits tax net receipts.  The controller also notes that Facebook’s IPO produced less for the state than expected.  And expenditures are up more than $2 billion above estimates.  The state isn’t running out of cash.  And there are 7 months to go in this fiscal year.  But note that these numbers are coming in at a time when…

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Neon Tommy Report on UC Fundraising

Byuclafaculty

Neon Tommy is an online student news service of the USC Annenberg School.  The service features a news item dated Nov. 28 which reviews UC’s “Onward” fundraising campaign.  That’s right; USC is reviewing UC.  What is interesting about the piece is what isn’t in it.  Back in the day – say, the 1950s or 1960s – any such story would deal with the impact of a public university competing with privates in fundraising.  Private universities would complain about the competition and say UC should be getting its funding from the state.  But despite the traditional USC-UCLA rivalry, no such view…