Chancellor Briefs Campus on Financial Challenges Ahead at Packed Town Hall

Ioana Patringenaru | Febrary 17, 2009

Diversity, retirement benefits and sustainability were on the minds of more than 300 members of the UC San Diego community who turned out Thursday for a Chancellor’s Town Hall focused on the campus budget.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox gave members of the UC San Diego community an update on the campus’ budget situation during a town hall meeting Feb. 12 at the Student Services Center. Fox pledged to do her best to protect classrooms, laboratories, jobs and diversity initiatives.
Watch a video of the town hall.

These are difficult times in California and in the nation, but there is hope, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox told a standing-room only audience at the Student Services Center. Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have come to an agreement on a stimulus package, Fox said. But families are still feeling the impact of the economic downturn, she added.

“At work and at home, we know this recession has taken an enormous toll,” she said.

During the hourlong meeting, Fox sought to reassure faculty, students and staff, while giving them a clearer picture of the financial challenges the campus faces. The University of California as a whole has cut back on student enrollment and has frozen pay for the system’s top executives. Many construction projects have been halted. UCSD took a $4 million hit during the 2008-09 budget year, and the campus is expecting a $12 million mid-year cut, Fox said. All along, officials have tried to make sure that cuts have a minimal impact on classrooms and laboratories, she added.

“We’re here because of the students and we have to protect our students,” she said.

Patient care and health and safety can’t be compromised, she also said. Saving jobs also is a major priority, she added “We’re going to do everything we can do to avoid layoffs and furloughs,” she said. Officials have cut back by 52 percent the number of academic hires the campus planned to make. In addition, a soft hiring freeze is in place, meaning that vice chancellors must authorize new hires. Some academic enrichment programs have been suspended. As a result, core funding for classroom teaching, teaching assistant and lecturer positions as well as student financial support have been spared, Fox said.

Diversity outreach efforts are another area that Fox said the university will protect. During the town hall’s question and answer session, she fielded several questions about this issue. The UCSD Chicano/Latino Concilio, a group of Chicano and Latino staff, faculty, students and alumni are joining forces with other campus groups, such as the Native American Student Alliance, UJIMA and the Black Student Union, to make sure diversity outreach efforts will not be cut, said staff member Patrick Velasquez. Representatives of the group would like to meet with Fox, he added. “We’re not naïve about this process,” he said. “We understand the need to make cuts and the complexity that’s involved.” Preserving diversity initiatives is a high priority for the university, Fox said. That doesn’t mean there won’t be cuts but preserving diversity activities and initiatives will be a high priority, she added.

More than 300 faculty, staff members and students turned out for the meeting at the Student Services Center.

UCSD and the Budget Crisis Visit UC San diego’s new Budget Line site for the latest on the state budget and its effect on campus. Get budget news, read answers to common questions, offer cost-saving ideas and more

“Diversity is part of our heart and soul,” she said. “I pledge to you that the heart of the university will not be allowed to erode.”

Melissa Perez and Thai Do, two freshmen, urged Fox to preserve OASIS, a program that provides mentoring and tutoring for students, and the Summer Bridge program, which is designed to prepare incoming freshmen, especially those from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, to successfully transition to UCSD. Perez said that when she first visited UCSD, she wasn’t sure she wanted to enroll here. She saw few students who shared her background and ethnicity, she said. But as she spent time on campus during Summer Bridge, she began to believe she could thrive here. Do echoed her comments. “These resources are essential for us as students,” he said.

The university will keep supporting Summer Bridge and OASIS, Fox said. “I pledge to you that programs like OASIS will remain intact,” Fox said. “OASIS is a proven performer.” But most of the funding for student educational advancement programs is based on grants, said Vice Chancellor Penny Rue. “So they’re not ours to cut,” she explained.

Meanwhile, staff member Dawn Reser, who works in the office of the vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, asked Fox to give an overview of the UC Regents’ plans for the UC Retirement Plan. UCRP has taken a hit from the downturn on Wall Street, as have all other retirement plans, Fox said. Because UCRP needs to be 100 percent funded, the Regents decided to restart contributions from employees in April 2010. Employees will contribute 2 percent and the university will contribute 4 percent, according to the UC Office of the President.

The pension plan shortfall has made it impossible for the university to save money by offering early retirements, said Senior Vice Chancellor Paul Drake. That cost-cutting strategy helped UCSD withstand the economic downturn in the 1990s, he said.

The university also could save money by turning down both heaters and air conditioners, said Chris Palmer, a physics graduate student. Employees also could turn off their computers, he said.

Vice Chancellor Penny Rue answered a question from the audience.

UCSD is one of the co-founders of the nationwide Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which aims to curb by 50 percent the campus’ CO2 and energy emissions generated by computers, Vice Chancellor Steven Relyea said. Other co-founders include UCLA and UC Berkeley. In addition, the campus is looking into using water from a cold, underwater canyon off of Scripps Pier to cool buildings, Relyea said. The move would save about $4 million per year in energy costs and more than 100 million gallons of potable water currently used for cooling.

Meanwhile, Fox thanked audience members for their loyalty and their patience. “It’s the students, staff and faculty that constitute this university,” she said. “We work for you, not vice-versa.”