Top Administrators Update Medical Center
Employees on Campus Budget at Town Hall
Ioana Patringenaru | March 30, 2009
Jobs, retirement and construction were on the mind of faculty and staff members who took part in a Chancellor’s Town Hall meeting Thursday afternoon at the UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest.
They had come to hear Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Health Sciences Vice Chancellor David Brenner give an update on the campus’ budget situation. Fox said that patient care and safety are a top priority, as are employees and diversity programs.
“We all know these are serious cuts and they affect people’s lives,” she said. “I wish I could say this is the end of it, but I can’t.”
Fox did say that the federal stimulus package signed into law Feb. 17 provided a great opportunity for the campus. She also pointed out that the UC Regents endorsed Prop. 1A, one of six California ballot initiatives that would enshrine into law the budget deal lawmakers struck earlier this year. If the proposition doesn’t pass, budget negotiations would have to start all over again, Fox said. The ballot measure will be put to voters during a statewide special election May 19.
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Vice Chancellor David Brenner took questions from the audience.
Later during the town hall, an audience member pointed out that other UC campuses have talked about layoffs and furloughs for their workforce. How much local control would campuses have if such measures are enacted, he asked.
Though UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has said earlier this year that he is ready for layoffs and furloughs, they are subject to labor negotiations and won’t happen any time soon, Fox said. In the past, UC Regents have passed budget cuts, but have let campuses decide how to make adjustments, said Vice Chancellor Brenner. Also, UCSD is in better financial shape than some other UC campuses, Vice Chancellor Gary Matthews pointed out.
Earlier this month, UC President Mark Yudof told the Regents that he is now asking UC staff to begin developing a framework of policies and procedures that would be required to implement furloughs and/or temporary or permanent salary reductions should they become necessary in the coming months due to the state funding situation.
One audience member asked whether construction would be stopped on the Sulpizio Family Cardiovascular Center and the UCSD Medical Center new tower as a result of the state cutting back on funds for new facilities. Both those projects are funded locally and will continue, Matthews said. A housing project near the school of pharmacy also is safe, he said. The hospital’s seismic retrofit was at risk, but will go on, said Brenner. However, work on a new medical education building has been stopped.
Vice Chancellor Gary Matthews also answered questions.
The University of California system as a whole 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 as well as 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.
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.
“We are really committed to making sure we preserve our tradition of excellence,”
she said.
|
