THE CONCERNS OF THE UCLA COLLEGE CHAIRS AND THE CALL FOR A NEW COMPACT BETWEEN STATE AND UNIVERSITY

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THE CONCERNS OF THE UCLA COLLEGE CHAIRS AND THE
CALL FOR A NEW COMPACT BETWEEN STATE AND
UNIVERSITY
Facing the Reality of the Acute and Chronic
Crises of Funding and Governance at the
University of California
Glen M. MacDonald - Geography
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On Jan. 21, 2004 the following Chairs/Directors
of the College sent an open letter to the
Regents, President and Chancellor
Lyle Bachman Chair of Applied Linguistics and
TESL Robert Bjork Chair of Psychology Robert
Buswell Acting Chair of East Asian Languages and
Culture Massimo Ciavolella Chair of Italian and
Romance Languages and Literature William Gelbart
Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry Andrew Hewitt
Chair of Germanic Languages Douglas Hollan
Chair of Anthropology V. Joseph Hotz Chair of
Economics Cecelia F. Klein Chair of Art
History Efrain Kristal Chair of Comparative
Literature Jan de Leeuw Chair of
Statistics Francoise Lionnet Chair of French and
Francophone Studies Michael Lofchie Chair of
Political Sciences Gerardo Luzuriaga Chair of
Spanish and Portuguese Glen MacDonald Chair of
Geography Neil Malamuth Chair of Communication
Studies Jeffery Miller Chair of Microbiology,
Immunology and Molecular Genetics Claudio
Pellegrini Chair of Physics and
Astronomy Teofilo Ruiz Chair of History William
M. Schniedewind Chair of Near Eastern Languages
Cultures Gerald Schubert Chair of Earth and
Space Sciences Robert Simons Chair of Life
Sciences Core Timothy Stowell Chair of
Linguistics Tim Tangherlini Chair of
Scandinavian Section Blaire Van Valkenburgh
Chair of Organismic Biology, Ecology and
Evolution John Vidale Interim Director of the
Institute for Geophysics and Planetary
Physics Ron Vroon Chair of Slavic Languages
Literatures Roger Waldinger Chair of
Sociolology Robert Walser Chair,
Musicology Thomas Wortham Chair of English
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Our Mission under the California Master Plan for
Higher Education (Donahoe Act)
4. The University of California shall be governed
by The Regents as provided in Section 9 of
Article IX of the California Constitution. The
University shall provide instruction in the
liberal arts and sciences, and in the
professions, including teacher education, and
shall have exclusive jurisdiction over training
for the professions (including but not by way of
limitation), dentistry, law, medicine, veterinary
medicine, and graduate architecture.
The University shall have the sole authority in
public higher education to award the doctors
degree in all fields of learning, except that it
may agree with the state colleges to award joint
doctors degrees in selected fields.
The University shall be the primary
state-supported academic agency for research, and
The Regents shall make reasonable provision for
the use of its library and research facilities by
qualified members of the faculties of
other higher educational institutions, public and
private.
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Motivation Acute impacts of Governors
proposed budget

• 197.7 million reduction in G. Fund Support (7)
• Governance 10 reduction in UC and CSU student
  intake
• Governance complete cut to Outreach
• Governance 40 to 50 increase in Graduate Fees
  to offset 57 million in cuts

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Motivation Chronic Under-funding and Collapse
of Most Recent Partnership Agreement (1999-2004)

• G.F. Funding Reduction 2002-3 of
• 282 million (9)
• G.F. Funding Reduction 2003-4 of
• 198 million (7)
• G.F. Funding Reduction 2004-5 of
• 197 million (7)
• (We never really recovered from the early 1990s
  cuts when this new round occurred and the
  pattern of decline predates that)

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Impacts Examples from Graduate Studies at UCLA
(retreat from our Mission)

• Since 1970 absolute numbers of Grad Students
  declined by 9
• 1995 UCLA drops from top 5 in NRC rankings
• Only 59 of UCLA Grads offered multi-year
  packages vs 72 at competing institutions
• First-year stipends at UCLA average 2288 less
  than competing institutions
• 2/3rds of Departments at UCLA report growing lack
  of success in graduate recruitment
• UCLA second to last amongst UC campuses for
  graduate funding levels (retreat exacerbated at
  UCLA?)

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College Chairs Letter Calls for -

• End to declines in funding (if possible)
• Rejection of proposed 40-50 uncompensated
  differential fee increase for College Graduate
  Students
• New Compact with the State that Recognizes
  Regents and Universities responsibility and
  right to raise Fees and Tuition (general,
  undergraduate, graduate, professional,
  programmatically and inter-campus) to off-set
  retreats in State General Fund support

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College Chairs Letter cont. -

• Recognition by State that the Regents and the
  University are in the best position to make
  strategic decisions on governance (including but
  not limited to fees and tuition policy) in order
  to maintain our capacity to meet our Mission
• Recognition that a sufficient portion of
  increased fees and tuition, and savings to State
  G.F., must be allocated to support disadvantaged
  students and Outreach efforts

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Why we need to do this now (and we cannot simply
wait until the economy turns-around) -

• The current funding crisis will be acute for at
  least the next 2 to 3 years no matter what
• The post Proposition 13, post Tax-Revolt State
  of California will likely not ideologically
  return to the public-good program building ethos
  of the 1960s
• State revenue streams and legislated expenditure
  commitments and priorities will not allow
  sufficient resources to be allocated back to UC
• The proposed referendum measure (March) to cap
  State spending increases will make it almost
  impossible to restore UC funding in a timely and
  sufficient manner
• We have been in a long decline that predates the
  current crisis anyway

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Why we can do this now( arguments) -

• Moderate increases in all fees (particularly
  undergrad) go a long way. A 10 increase in
  undergrad fees results in 61 million in
  increased UC revenue and more than compensates
  for the hypothetical income from a 40 Grad
  increase
• Fees and Tuition are equal to 1/3 General Fund
  support - 3 billion versus 1 billion (even a
  tripling of our fees places our costs for instate
  students substantially below competing private
  universities - 25,000 to 30,000)
• Our current instate fees are gt1000 lower than
  the AAU top 35 public universities and 3000 less
  than Michigan and gt4000 less than Penn State.
• We currently have gt44,000 applicants
  (approximately 10x what we can accommodate - the
  market is there

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Why we can do this now (Other Arguments)

• Quality of our students will remain high for
  example USC has caught up and in some cases
  exceeded our SAT and GPA numbers for incoming
  students (demand is there even at a higher price)
• The State Government is in a crisis and cannot
  meet its funding commitments anyway (willing to
  negotiate)
• The General Tax-Paying Public reacted very little
  to the recent 40 across the board fee increases
  at UC. They will accept Fair Share fees for
  the users and beneficiaries of UC rather than
  increased taxes (public acceptance)
• Students and parents will be more open to higher
  fees if they are informed that without increased
  fees UC will have to cut enrollment significantly
  (gt 400 at UCLA) and many of them or their
  children will not be able to get into the
  University of California despite being qualified
  for admission (public acceptance)

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Why we can do this now (Other Arguments)

• Increased money for Outreach to recruit the
  under-represented and the increased funds to help
  truly disadvantaged with financial support will
  benefit efforts to create a student body
  representative of the state (public acceptance)
• Such compensatory fee increase arrangements exist
  in Michigan and Virginia, and are being pursued
  in other forms in other states. This week the
  United Kingdom introduced sizable university
  fees with the strong support of UK universities
  (precedent)
• The Regents have the constitutional power to set
  fees and tuition (and with the President and
  Chancellors govern the system) - even
  unilaterally if necessary (ability)

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USC 2000 Entering Class compared to top private
schools
Some comparative data from across town
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Alternatives? -

• Given the current budgetary situation, the
  probable future limitations on state funding, and
  the clearly deleterious nature of such recently
  proposed state interventions as the changes to
  our graduate fee structure, we see a new funding
  and governance compact as essential to preserving
  the quality and accessibility of the UCLA
  College of Letters and Science and the entire UC
  system. Without a new funding and governance
  arrangement, we fear that we will be able to
  provide little more than an undergraduate degree
  that is relatively inexpensive to the advantaged,
  inaccessible to the disadvantaged, and of such
  diminished quality as to be of substantially less
  value to everyone.

UCLA College Chairs Letter Jan. 21, 2004