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Regents
Adopt Budget Proposal
with Good News for Faculty and Staff
By Heather Holliday I December 13, 2004
Last
month, the University
of California Board of
Regents adopted a state
budget proposal for 2005-06
that, if accepted, would
offer some good news to
faculty and staff. Budget
highlights include money
for merit pay and cost
of living adjustments
for faculty and staff,
which UCSD hasn't seen
for two years. In addition,
there will be some funding
for new space, which UCSD
also hasn't received in
a few years. The budget
also includes funds for
enrollment growth. The
flip side of all this
good news is that student
fees will increase.
None
of this is much of a surprise,
though. The real news
of the budget proposal
is that the proposed budget
is right in line with
the compact that Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
UC President Robert Dynes
and CSU Chancellor Charles
Reed reached last May,
said Margaret F. Pryatel,
assistant vice chancellor
of resource management.
"What the regents adopted
at the meeting reflects
the compact that was reached
with Gov. Schwarzenegger,"
said Pryatel. "It was
all part of the compact,
so unlike past years,
we're not going to have
to just react to the budget."
All in all, Pryatel said, the budget proposal is much better than we've had in the past few years. "We're still not out of the woods in our financial situation, but this is much better news than we've had in past," she said.
Below are highlights of the UC budget plan. The new spending is based on revenues from proposed additional state funding and from student fee increases.
- Faculty and staff compensation: After two years without funding for general salary increases, the 2005-06 budget proposes funding for a 3 percent pool for salary increases, including a 1.5 percent general salary increase for all eligible employees, funding for faculty and other academic merit programs and 1.5 percent for merit-based increases for eligible staff employees. Additional funding is proposed to help cover the cost of increasing employee health benefits and to address market-based and equity issues, such as cases when newly hired faculty and staff are paid significantly more than current employees with similar experience and skills.
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- Student enrollments: The budget includes funding for growth of 5,000 full-time-equivalent students, which should allow every UC-eligible freshman applicant to be offered a place within the UC system. Of the 5,000 students, 1,000 will compose the entering class of UC Merced. Funding for 2,000 students will go towards state support for summer instruction at the four campuses – UCSD, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz – that do not already receiving this funding.
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- Capital improvements budget: The budget proposal requests $355 million in state funding from a voter-approved general obligation bond measure in order to expand and upgrade academic facilities. This money will support enrollment growth and life-safety improvements such as seismic retrofitting.
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- Instructional
program:
The proposed
2005-06
budget includes
$10 million
for instructional
budgets.
This is
a first
step to
recover
lost ground
from the
last two
years, when
the university
absorbed
$70 million
in reductions.
This initial
funding
installment
would be
used to
bolster
the student-faculty
ratio, improve
instructional
support
and acquire
instructional
technology.
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- Maintenance of new space: The 2005-06 budget includes $16 million to cover the maintenance of new buildings at UC, reversing the trend of the last two years, which did not provide increases in funding.
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- Academic preparation: UC is requesting that the current level of funding for academic outreach programs be sustained, after being cut by $4 million in the 2004-05 budget.
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- Student fees for California residents: the budget proposal includes 8 percent ($457) fee increases for resident undergraduates and 10 percent ($628) increases for resident graduate students. With these increases, fees will be $6,141 per year for resident undergraduates and $6,897 for resident graduate academic students.
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