It's a Sad Day For California-Letters From UC President Mark Yudof- See His Facebook Page

UC President Mark G. Yudof


This week, all of us who work in the University of California system have received this
message from the University of California  President Mark Yudof.
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"Dear Friends of the University of California, Irvine:


Today, Governor Brown presented a State budget proposal under which, for the first time, the State will be investing less in the education of University of California students than the students themselves pay through tuition. This is a historic marker of disinvestment in public education that should be disturbing to all Californians -- whether they have family members attending a UC campus or not.

The proposed budget will cut the taxpayers' commitment to the University by half a billion dollars, reducing the level of State support for UC to 1998 funding levels (in nominal dollars). The number of undergraduate students at the University this year is 175,000, compared to 116,000 in 1998-99 twelve years ago.

Undeniably, the State's economic and budget crisis has forced the Governor's hand; the proposal is, as he calls it, "a tough budget for tough times." The University will stand up and do all it can to help the State through these fiscal challenges. There can be no business as usual.

To that end, I will be giving each of the campuses' Chancellors specific budget reduction targets and directing them to develop and report back to me within six weeks their plans for meeting them. The systemwide office will do the same. I will then present The Regents with a detailed scenario of the steps required to absorb a $500 million reduction -- a budget cut that will lower the State's per-student support to $7,210, compared to the $7,930 paid by students and their families.

Today I am issuing an open letter to Californians, elaborating on these issues in greater detail. If you haven't already, I invite you to read it at http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=483652793378

The stakes for the University -- and California -- have never been higher. In the coming weeks, we will need everyone who cares about and who benefits from the University of California to urge the Governor and their State legislators to support public higher education. Please join us on our advocacy network at http://ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/home/

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely yours,

Mark G. Yudoff


PS - Although I will read all your e-mails, I am not able to personally respond to every one. I encourage you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter, where you can share your ideas and look for answers to many of your questions.


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Here is the text of Yudof's Facebook letter.

"This is a sad day for California. In the budget proposed by Gov. Brown, the collective tuition payments made by University of California students for the first time in history would exceed what the state contributes to the system's general fund. The crossing of this threshold transcends mere symbolism and should be profoundly disturbing to all Californians.


Early and enduring support for the University of California has been critical to the state's success, seeding the world's eighth largest economy, shaping its society and serving its citizenry in myriad other ways. California emerged as the Great Exception, to borrow Carey McWilliams' phrase, in large part because of this investment, made across generations by all California taxpayers in the service of a common good.

Undeniably, the governor's hand has been forced. He has produced, as he calls it, a tough budget for tough times, and the university will stand up and do all it can to help the state through what is a fiscal, structural and political crisis. There can be no business as usual.

To that end, I will be giving each of the system's 10 chancellors specific budget reduction targets and asking them to develop and report back to me within six weeks their plans for meeting them. We will do the same at the system's central office. I then will go to our governing Board of Regents with a detailed scenario of what steps would be required to absorb a $500 million reduction — a reduction that will take the state's annual per student contribution to $7,210, compared to the $7,930 to be paid by students and their families.

Precision is difficult with a reduction of this magnitude, but every effort will be made to protect the quality that has made the University of California — and the state it serves — the envy of the world. My intent is to preserve the core academic and research mission as much as possible. My preference at this point, and my sense of where the Board of Regents stands on this issue, is to not seek an additional fee increase; that said, I cannot fully commit to this course until the board and I have assessed the impact of permanent reductions on campuses. I also will attempt to maintain, if feasible, the programs of financial aid that are so crucial to our public mission of serving all qualified California students, regardless of family income level.

But let me be blunt: This won't be easy, and all possible remedies must be considered. The cuts the governor proposes will require sacrifice, pain and courage. Already we are working hard to streamline administrative functions, looking to create $500 million in savings within the next few years. While we are striving to realize the savings as quickly as possible, it still won't be enough. With the governor's budget, as proposed, we will be digging deep into bone. The physics of the situation cannot be denied — as the core budget shrinks, so must the university.

All of this comes at a time when more California students than ever are applying to attend a University of California campus. My hope is that going forward, Californians will begin to ponder the implications of declining state support for their university. The proposed budget will reduce taxpayer investment by an additional 16.4 percent; in just 20 years state support, as measured on a per-student basis and adjusted for inflation, will have declined by 57 percent. Rising tuition and fees have made up only half of this shortfall. The cost of producing a credit hour actually has decreased; it's the students' co-pay, if you will, that has risen.

The governor in his inaugural address invoked the irrepressible California spirit. He quoted from the crossing journals of his great-grandfather, who endured many hardships as he trekked to California in 1852. It is interesting to note that, even as the governor's ancestor embarked on this journey, newly arrived Californians already were making the case for an educated populace that would ensure prosperity long after the gold mines were played out.

"We hope for a better time; for a time when our people will call California by those good old words ‘Our Commonwealth'," proclaimed The Pacific newspaper, in an Oct. 10, 1851 editorial. "... When we have reached this condition, teachers will be welcomed, schoolhouses, academies and colleges will be built and filled, and the means of a varied and large education provided."

It continued: "Whatever difficulty and discouragement may now surround the effort to make California as rich in mind as she is in gold, they are to diminish. The institutions profitable for wisdom, as well as all other institutions which mark the progress, character, honor and virtue of a State, are to be here. It is only a question of time...."

Now, 160 years later, California must take up the question of whether it wishes to turn back from the wisdom and foresight of these earliest Californians. With the advantage of hindsight, it should be abundantly clear: The stakes are as high today as they were back then.

Sincerely yours,
Mark
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Fousesquawk comment: That's very interesting. You know what makes me sad?



YOU DO, Mark.

What I would like to know is where were all the university communities the past few decades when our political leadership in Sacramento was spending the state dry on every feel-good liberal waste of tax-payers' money? They were cheering them along, that's where. They were electing these tax and spend Democrats-including Arnold Schwarzenegger into office. Now, after all these years, the money is gone and the state is broke. All these protesting professors and students on campus should be camped in front of the state capitol with their chants and posters.

And this talk about tax-payer investment in paying about half of students' tuition costs. How many of the California tax-payers (investors, if you will) are aware that the UC system is now bringing in an increased percentage of students from outside the state or outside the country because their tuitions are about 3 times higher? What that means is that if you are a California tax-payer supporting the UC system, your chances of getting your own kids into a UC school have diminished. You may have to send your kid out-of-state and pay the higher tuition cost yourself-as you continue to "invest" in the UC system.

At the same time, we have the upper-level cream of the crop university honchos threatening to sue the state if their retirement benefits are cut. These folks are all making salaries in the hundreds of thousands and will draw pensions in the hundreds of thousands as well.

So I encourage President Yudof to go ahead and cut as much as he likes. He can start with all these useless departments like UC Santa Cruz's Community Studies Program and History of Consciousness Department. Then get rid of all these gay-lesbian, trans-sexual and womens' studies departments. Everybody with half a brain knows they are useless, but because of PC, they are considered sacred cows. The same goes for ethnic studies departments that do nothing but practice their own form of ethnic chauvinism and victimization. They could easily be reduced to individual courses instead of a four-year major field of study.

Finally, President Yudof should do some serious study and determine which of the UC professors are really teaching their subjects as opposed to trying to indoctrinate their students to their own world view. I could name several in the UC system, but I already have.

I would send this directly to President Yudof, but I don't waste my time communicating on Facebook and Twitter.

Tissue?