UC budget crisis

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UC Undergrad Applications Over 6%, Especially Out-of-State and International

Byuclafaculty

UC sees another big jump in undergrad applications Terence Chea, AP, Orange County Register, 1-14-11 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Despite big tuition hikes, the University of California again received a record number of undergraduate applications for the fall, driven in part by sharp increases from out-of-state and international students, school officials said Friday. They said the number of applications rose 6.1 percent to more than 142,000, with a 5.7 percent increase in freshman applicants and a 7.3 percent increase in transfer applicants. “The University of California experienced record demand,” said Sue Wilbur, director of undergraduate admissions. “With the increase in…

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Headline: UC Berkeley slashes jobs

Byuclafaculty

UC Berkeley slashes jobs (excerpt) San Francisco Chronicle, 1-13-11, Matier & Ross The hammer is falling at UC Berkeley, with word that the university is laying off 150 managers and support staff. The news, which was delivered in a campus bulletin late Thursday, comes just days after Gov. Jerry Brown proposed slashing $500 million from the UC system next year. The job cuts are on top of 600 positions that Cal has already eliminated since last year. Campus officials say they got a jump on the problem last summer when they hired an outside consultant — at a cost of…

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LAO Doesn’t Think “No Pay/No Say” Applies to the UC Budget

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst has released his analysis of the Brown budget proposal. It generally follows the polite format of not being to assertive about risks, etc. It actually suggests a somewhat brighter economic outlook than the governor’s budget was based on. However, it does not fundamentally challenge his numbers. You can find the analysis at http://lao.ca.gov/reports/2011/bud/budget_overview/budget_overview_011211.pdf Of special interest to readers of this blog are comments made about the higher ed elements of the budget. These comments are reproduced below. However, the LAO continues to assume that good public policy is for the legislature, while cutting the higher ed budget,…

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Come July 1, UCOP and the Regents Better Have a Plan B

Byuclafaculty

As appeared more and more likely when the Brown budget proposal was being leaked out, a critical part of the plan involves getting voters to approve an extension of temporary tax increases that were originally approved in Feb. 2009. An added complication – more political than legal – is that the income tax increase has expired. So withholding from paychecks has dropped and would be restarted retroactively if such a measure were passed. This fact will add to the argument that the ballot measure is a tax “increase” rather than an “extension.” Republicans have been increasing emphatic that they will…

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Mystery Phrasing: Budget Calls for Minimizing Tuition and Enrollment Impacts But What Does That Mean?

Byuclafaculty

Excerpt below in italics from the UC portion of the governor’s proposed budget, page 150. See earlier blog entry for link to budget. What does the statement mean? Minimizing tuition and enrollment impacts is not the same thing as averting them (or trying to prohibit them). Targeted Reductions — A decrease of $500 million in 2011‑12 to reflect necessaryfunding reductions to help resolve the budget deficit. These reductions are intendedto minimize fee and enrollment impacts on students by targeting actions that lowerthe costs of instruction and administration. The Administration will work withthe Office of the President and the Regents, as…

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Preliminary Overview of the Brown Budget

Byuclafaculty

The Brown budget, based on its budget documents, can be rearranged to break down the problem into manageable pieces. I cannot disentangle “revenue and transfers” – a mischievous term because of the word “transfers” – from what we think of as revenues (taxes, fees, and a few miscellaneous sources). Moreover, the “fund balance” in the general fund is not quite the same as a reserve. (To get the reserve, subtract $770 million from every entry below labeled “fund balance” on the tables.) But the breakdown below will help. (Apologies for odd formatting that the blog program creates.) Highlights First, Brown…

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Countdown to the State Budget and More Speculation on the Forthcoming Brown Plan

Byuclafaculty

In the final countdown to Governor Brown’s budget message at 11 AM today, Dan Weintraub – longtime columnist for the Sacramento Bee and now with healthcal.org – suggests that there could be a variation on the Budget from Hell strategy we have noted in earlier posts. Under that strategy, Brown presents a Budget from Hell which is all cuts and no added revenue. He then puts on the ballot by June, tax extensions of the Feb. 2009 temporary tax increases. (See the earlier posts for more on possible roadblocks and work-arounds to getting such a proposition on the ballot.) The…

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More State BudgiLeaks Suggest UC Will Be Cut

Byuclafaculty

As a prior post noted, it is traditional for governors to leak bits and pieces of their budget plans to the news media before the formal presentation. Jerry Brown will be sworn in today and undoubtedly make some budget-related remarks in his inaugural address. The formal budget comes next week. But the reality is that because the budget is a complicated document to prepare, it is already 99% done, if not 100%, and lacks only an unveiling. The latest leak explicitly mentions UC: Brown to propose broad list of budget cuts (excerpt) Jan. 03, 2011, Sacramento Bee, Kevin Yamamura The…

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The Coming Budget Brownout

Byuclafaculty

Wikipedia defines a “brownout” as follows A brownout… is a drop in voltage in an electrical power supply. The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by lighting when the voltage sags. Wikipedia then goes on to describe the impact of a brownout on various devices. Here are some of those impacts: * The heat output of any resistance device, such as an electric space heater will vary with the true power consumption, which is proportional to the square of the applied voltage. Therefore a significant loss of heat output will occur with a relatively small reduction in voltage. Similarly,…

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In Radio Interview with Marketplace Yudof Eschews Privatization; Says Most State Politicians Don’t Understand UC

Byuclafaculty

In a radio interview today, UC President Mark Yudof discussed UC in the context of the state budget crisis. Issues that came up include privatization, faculty pay, and relations with the state in the context of the budget crisis. The portion aired was an excerpt. A full transcript – not just the excerpt – and audio of the full interview is below: Yudof Full Interview on Marketplace Jeremy Hobson: Mark Yudof is the President of California’s system and he joins us now. Mark Yudof, welcome to Marketplace. Mark Yudof: Well thank you. Thank you for inviting me. Hobson: The University…