CalAggie.org

Click here for a master compilation of comments submitted before, during, and after a meeting that was held on this topic.

calaggie9-dec09-budgetcommunity-011210

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The Topic — “The Budget Cuts and the UC Davis Community”:

Rather than commenting on what type of financial measures you believe must be taken to solve our budget shortfall, a prompt which is sure to lead to a discussion dominated by how the legislature should fund the UC at higher levels, please take a few moments to share how the budget cuts have or would have affected you and your specific affiliation with the campus. To be more specific:

Students/Staff/Faculty/Administrators: How have the budget cuts affected the clubs, organizations, communities, departments, units, and other activities (including attending or paying for school) in which you are involved or serve? What is different now, both in terms of your new limitations or goals as well as in terms of new issues you have had to address?

Alumni or Associates away from Campus: Your prompt is more of a challenge, but will give us a historical perspective on this situation. Think about with what you were involved while you were at UC Davis. How might budget cuts during your time on campus have affected the activities in which you were involved?
You can include as many or as few issues/problems/positive outcomes that have resulted from the budget shortfall as you like, in as many sentence(s) as you like.

Lastly, if you have the time, feel free to also comment on what creative (in other words, nothing related to more funding, reducing tuition, etc.) short-term or long-term solutions you might have for either the specific impact you share or for tackling the entire budget shortfall itself.
NOTE: Each response has been given a heading in bold at the top indicating the topics that it covers. This is to make it easier for you to browse the document. Enjoy!

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PRE-MEETING RESPONSES (sent on or before December 1)
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Administration, Private Support

The budget cuts have caused my managers and me to rethink how we do business. We will have to lay-off some members of my team and reduce other employees’ time permanently, and we’re going to have to set aside some replacement hiring as well. Of course, I hope that our thoughtful approach will help us get through this without too much impact, but it’s difficult to downsize while at the same time having pressure to raise the profile of UC Davis and raise more private support.

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Reducing Athletic Scholarships, Athletic Program

From an alum with a “historical perspective”: A thought for budget cuts that comes to mind is a reduction of athletic scholarships or consideration of shifting the athletic scholarships to a more high school academic, leadership, activity thrust with a reduced focus on athletic capabilities. I was offered scholarships for my wrestling capabilities, but opted out as I could not foresee a life at university simply dedicated to the sport side of life and hence decided to attend UC Davis which in those days had no athletic scholarships. And, I ended up playing football and was eventually involved in the establishment of the initial wrestling team. The athletic programs at that time were popular and good without scholarships dedicated to athletics and the emphasis was on academics as it should be (that’s what universities are for - no?). My impression of sports at universities is that athletes are recruited and provided scholarships based on sport capabilities primarily with little regard to academic background in all too many cases in the USA. And, in these cases, high school level courses are created for these athletes with baby sitters assigned to get them thru the academic requirements of the university. However, I don’t believe UC Davis bows to this level, although it is food for thought.

My impression of sports is that the athletes at professional levels receive pay that is totally out of proportion with other professions, just as the pay for the financial geeks on Wall Street are out of proportion. Regardless, sports play a significant role in life and, as a previous athlete, I am a fan and supporter of sports programs (:-)!! Yet I do feel that universities must focus on the academic side of life. Therefore my thoughts are about budget reductions on the athletic programs as opposed to the academic arena.

Perhaps I am influenced by the universities in Germany where I now live. They have no sports programs and are focused entirely on academics. If a student wants to play soccer or basketball, he/she goes to a club. Sport activities are simply not a part of the university system. In the USA, sports will remain within the universities - but the emphasis should be on academics!!

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Private Funding, Increased Student Fees, Decreased Public Service, Less Diversity

My comments about the effect of budget reductions are focused on changes that have been and are occurring currently in the basic fabric of the institution. I relay these as concerns for the future and hope that we can put in place action to retain many of the characteristics of our campus that have made us a leading educational and public service entity.

Below are some thoughts and facts on how budget constraints are influencing, in a negative way, our institution.

The Davis campus due to reduced funding will gravitate towards private and government funding, with an increase in student fees (tuition) and faculty reducing their teaching loads to service research grants, an essential aspect of the future survival for faculty.  Increasing our partnership with the private sector will restrain our commitment to public service. These subtle changes will result in more top-down administration, more lecturers in the classroom, reduced diversity due to increased student fees and decreasing collegiality; trends already in place. I relay my concerns in anticipation that the retention of the very positive characteristics of our “public” campus will be included in a vision of the future as we discuss the impact of the budget crisis.

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Fewer Picnic Day Events, Inter-Department Collaboration

Picnic Day is a time honored tradition at UC Davis. It is known for its 150 plus events stretching from the field behind Dutton Hall to the Vet Med area. To put on Picnic Day, not only do departments put on their own events for the public, there are departments who work behind the scenes to make the event run successfully (i.e. TAPS, UCD Police, UCD Fire, Facilities and Grounds). In the past, these departments either do not charge or heavily subsidize their costs. With budget cuts, I foresee this not being able to continue. Unfortunately, this would mean putting on fewer events on Picnic Day. That would mean possibly having no animal events, not having a parade, etc.

It is unfortunate that these departments look out for their own, instead of taking the approach of working together to help each other put on one of the best events UC Davis has to offer. I hope that none of the above will happen, but it will need a lot of creative planning, and teamwork.

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Increased tuition for certain fields, Lobby capitol & find scholarships instead of protest

My tuition has gone up and will go up significantly, especially as a non-undergraduate student. It is assumed that students in my field can afford to take out the loans for the increase because “they will make the money back.” Is this true? Hopefully. However, unlike the protesters, I have just accepted it as a fact. The UC system does not have the money to maintain the high level of education it intends to supply to the students.

It is sad to see that many of the protesters are non-students or 5th year students (or to be 5th year students). My advice to these people: graduate in 4 years and instead of protesting (something that will do absolutely nothing) look for constructive ways to make a difference (look for scholarships, write/call your elected state assemblyman, etc.)

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Accountability, Administrative Inequality & Bureaucracy

There is no question that University staff is getting pressed more and more to do a lot more with a lot less. To some extent this is necessary, because the relative comfort of the University work environment has allowed perhaps a too “unaccountable” atmosphere. Granted, the budget cuts of the early 90’s took care of some of this, and subsequent cuts have continued the process. However, it is starting to seem like now we are reaching a point where one wonders how those in the ivory tower can expect more. In any case, the reality is there is less money and less staff. More and more, it seems like the “bosses” are delegating more and at the same time not funding lower level assistants.  Those in the middle start dropping more balls, delaying action on paperwork, and so forth - it seems like the pile keeps getting taller even though more effort is being made. It gets frustrating. To some extent you start trying to see who you can pawn tasks off on. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, in that new ways of getting things done might become evident.

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Student Athlete Advisory Committee, Aggie Idol

For the past 3 years now, SAAC (student-athlete advisory committee) has put on the event Aggie Idol. It’s a talent show in which student-athletes perform in order to fundraise money for a charity. We’ve rented Freeborn Hall in the past and the athletic department usually helps us out with paying for Freeborn Hall. Unfortunately due to the budget cuts they were unable to pay for it last year and will not be paying for it this year either. It’s difficult to pay for the Hall as well as try to raise enough money to give to a charity. I truly enjoy putting on this event because it’s a great opportunity for the athletes to interact as well as get involved with the community since many members of the community attend the function. This year we’re going to have to really push to sell tickets so we can guarantee we’ll raise enough money to pay for Freeborn as well as raise money for a charity. Another struggle I’ve experienced in S.A.A.C. is that we have $0 as a budget and therefore organizing events with the student athletes becomes difficult. Putting on such events gets more people involved with SAAC and more enthusiastic about it. However it’s been really hard to think of creative ways to organize such events so that student athletes can interact and reach out to one another. The biggest disappointment for me at Davis is that even though we have 800 student-athletes they seem disconnected not only with one another but also with the larger student body. My hopes through SAAC were to improve these relationships, but it’s proved a difficult task, especially with no money.

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Fundraising, Internship & Career Center, Student-Administration Communication

UC (and UC Davis) is no stranger to facing budget cuts. It comes from a lack of a consistent funding source other than state funds. Our new Chancellor is on the right path with a fundraising campaign and increased research. I was hesitant at first that this budget “crisis” would be any more different than other ones I have seen. However, this one is particularly taking its toll on staff and student services. Long-time campus departments are losing (or retiring staff) and not getting new staff. More often than not, staff are being asked to do more for less. For example, 7 full time staff and nearly 25 student staff were cut from the Internship & Career Center this year. These are big cuts that run under the radar because they are small in terms of the overall budget, but have serious effects on services for students and maintaining a program considered #1 on the West Coast. I think the administration should explain the overall budgets more with student leaders. Perhaps students can assist them in coming up with some of the creative solutions needed to get us out of these problems.

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Advising Services & Student Housing, Cross-Campus Compromise

As far as budget cuts go, for me it has been hard seeing two of the major departments I have been involved with at Davis combined into one. Advising Services now falls under Student Housing, and that is a personal example that has affected me greatly. The overarching point, however, is that people need to be prepared to make sacrifices in a troubling economy. Budget cuts are upsetting, nobody likes them, and unfortunately they are the current reality. We need to do our best to support those aspects of campus that are important to us, while at the same time, being prepared to give a little and take a little. We are all in this together.

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1992 Registration Fees, Thriving Within a Budget, Creative Solutions & Marketing UC Davis effectively

I graduated in 1992 in the midst of an economic slump. I sat through a boring commencement speech about how ours would be the first generation to do worse than our parents, blah, blah. 5 years later, the Internet came to fore, led in great part by our “under achiever” generation. Sure that bubble burst, in large part, but the tech boom continues and it probably will lead us out of this downturn. And plenty of my peers are doing better than their parents.

The bigger issue is the topic of your discussion, Budget. Budgets should and always will exist, both big and small. I started college during an economic boom and finished during a bust. But budget was always a concern. There was never enough money for what we wanted but plenty of money for what we needed. And we did well with what we had. Registration fees went from something like $500 a quarter to $1500 a quarter during my time. Today’s constraints are surely the toughest I’ve seen but the secret to success is living intelligently within a budget and achieving the most with what you’ve got. Don’t complain about the size or constraints of the budget, live within it successfully. And if you need more, go earn it. And when you earn it, spend it wisely. If you can lobby for it great, but we’ve got tens of thousands of creative minds on campus, and hundreds of thousands of Alumni. We ought to be able to get what we need out of what we’ve got and outperform regardless. My first donation to UC Davis went to the wrestling team after they posted the first ever UC Davis Div. 1 championship. I didn’t find this out on my own, the head coach sent me a newsletter. We’ve got achievements up the ying-yang, we ought to be able to turn that into corporate grants and Alumni contributions. Is the score board at the new stadium for sale? It wasn’t when I was there although Coca Cola offered to buy it.

Lastly, in my opinion, you won’t get much compassion, let alone money, for expressing a need for more budget these days. You’ve got to give your funders a value proposition to support your budget requirements, and you need to remind them again and again of that value. They’re not going to go out of their way to find you. And if you can produce more or better with less, you’ve got a good story. But most importantly, you’ve got a greater discipline for better economies and bigger budgets to come.

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Student organization expenses, Department support to clubs

As a student leader of a club affiliated with a department, the biggest impact I see is that the department cannot help as they have before. A Fleet Services’ car rental in the past was easy to get sponsored, and now there is hesitancy if not outright denial. Miscellaneous expenses are difficult to get funded or reimbursed, forcing students to rethink how badly something is needed. It also seems like main office staff are busier than ever, and although they are usually helpful, one can sense they would like to be of additional help. My department generally has good morale but I can see that we are close to a tipping point. I see a major shortcoming of department chairs in terms of establishing fundraising drives and helping students connect with alumni via departmental alumni networks. I would like to see university development officers
perhaps be more proactive with individual departmental clubs to help them with this kind of activity. Of course, department chairs are research professors who typically become chair when they meet general qualifications but do not have enough research money coming in to “get out of being chair”, I am told.

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Declining Education System, November Topic Responses, Paying Tuition in 1959, Tuition Increases

“Our [California's] public university system - which has prided itself in providing perhaps the most numerous high-quality research opportunities for its undergraduate students anywhere in the world - is now on a crash course toward its biggest decline in history.” (Professor Steve Oppenhieimer, Cal State Northridge, in the Los Angeles Times Dec. 1, 2009).

The recent discussions regarding “U.C. Davis one hundred years from now” really missed the point. At the present rate of decline along with rapidly rising costs, there will be no public university system in California one hundred years from now. I would suggest an in-depth study of what the University of California will be like ten years from now, or even 50 years from now, which is a date many of you will live to see.

Fifty years ago, I graduated from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine with no debts (and no money). During my time at Davis (1954-1959) I never worried about tuition. For the first four years, my G.I. Bill income of $110 per month covered school costs as well as room and board at the SAE Fraternity house ($55/mo. room and board). I can’t even remember what tuition was - I didn’t worry about it. The $50 I received from ASUCD for being El Rodeo Editor was a very substantial amount. Savings from my military pay and small jobs around Davis and a small State GI bill ($50/mo. for 1 year) kicked in to allow me to finish school. After that, I went to work as a veterinarian at $400/month!
Look at the tuition rises:
1979 - $685/yr
1987 - $1,374/yr
1998 - $3,609/yr
2004 - $5,684/yr
2008 - $7,126/yr
2010 - $10,302/yr
How long can this go on?? What will tuition be in 2020?
I think a good topic would be: How can the University of California at Davis survive?

Sorry……….I think the outlook is very sad…

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More resources/advising for Greek Life: Change from SPAC to Student Housing

From a Perspective of a member of the Greek Community, the budget cuts have been somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Greek Life for the past few years has been housed under the Student Programs and Activities Center, which was severely underfunded. This situation in effect starved the Greek Community of the proper advising and resources necessary to sustain a successful community of nearly 12% of the student population. With the mid-year budget cuts that happened this spring SPAC was cut completely, leaving Greek Life without a home. Luckily we were placed under student housing one of the few campus departments that has available funds. Because of this shake up and change in location there are now four full time employees dedicated to breathing life back into the relationship between the administration and over 71 Greek organizations. Although we lost a great resource in SPAC, the Administration was effective in ensuring that the resources students needed were still provided, and in the case of the Greek Community were provided two-fold.

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Washington Program, Cross Departmental Collaboration, Targeted Alumni Support, Financial Planning Workshops

As a political science major and peer advisor for the department I have seen first-hand the budget cuts in action. One program in particular, the Washington Program, is in serious trouble. The Washington Program is facing significant cuts that severely threaten the program. Recently, I was speaking with the program director, Prof Larry Berman, and he described the cuts the program is facing. The program is reducing the number of students from 45 to 30, considering eliminating the faculty director (who oversees the programs research component), and reducing the number of TAs to one. These cuts are on top of previous cuts including a loss of library privileges at the Georgetown Library (an essential part of the required research project). As an alumni of the Washington Program, I’ve experienced the value of the program. Political science majors are not required to complete any research or internship as part of their major. The Washington Program provides students the chance to engage in these critical aspects of education. With the tough budget situation, I don’t know the best solution to the Washington Programs problems or the universities in general, but I feel that in small steps we can find solutions.

Some ideas:

Cross Departmental Collaboration- Many departments do not communicate with each other. Collaboration between departments could lead to better efficiency and enhance educational opportunities.

Targeted Alumni Support- Campaign for support/ scholarship donations from targeted alumni such as Greeks, former ASUCD students, former athletes, and so on. Use students currently involving in these activities to solicit responses.

Financial Planning Workshops- Offer a 1 unit p/np course to students providing information on personal finances, financial planning, and financing your education.

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Reorganization of Student Affairs Units, Inefficiency, De-prioritization of student interests

I’ll be brutally honest. The current budget situation is frustrating. In order to save money, the campus has disbanded some Student Affairs units and placed the services in auxiliary departments. Auxiliary departments like the Campus Unions and Student Housing have had to undertake more services but the way in which they operate may not be the most effective for students. For example, the Advising Services department was disbanded. The services that were in that department remain but are under new management in either the Learning Skills Center or Student Housing. The unit, New Student Services, which was funded by the Orientation budget is now managed by Student Housing and is now called First Year Experience. Both the Orientation budget and Student Housing budgets are self-supporting (meaning the services exist off of fees from Orientation and Housing, rather than tuition or state money). Even though the Orientation was a self-supporting unit, it was part of a Student Affairs department. Therefore, the Orientation team spent a great deal of time and energy to recruit as many students to attend Orientation (i.e. bring in revenue) and more effectively spend money. They partnered with various Student Affairs units to streamline processes, make efficiencies, and collectively save money on projects that would serve us all. Now, Orientation is part of Student Housing which in an addition to being self-supporting is also an auxiliary to the campus (essentially they are their own business separate from the University). Therefore some of their decisions are not as student data driven, collaborative to other Student Affairs units, or cost saving. For example, the Transfer Orientation dates have Fridays removed for 2010 even though those were the highest attended days because Student Housing can get more money to have off-campus conferences come on campus than from having the University Orientation. But when it comes to making decisions about other items in the budget, the Orientation staff have been told “You worry too much about money and the budget.” It is frustrating to know that there are so many students who will not have access to certain programs and services, because auxiliaries who don’t always put the student first in decision making. Please note, the frustration is not at the people, it is the system in which they operate.

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Relationship between UC students and CA Government

The cuts to the budget of the University of California have driven a stake through potential relationships between the students of the University of California and the Government of California.
Why would students who are having to pay more, for less, want to then take low-paying jobs serving California? Why would we want to work as public school teachers serving California? Perhaps our parents did this, and then sent their children to the UC, only to see fees skyrocket. Why would we want to send our children to the same University, if Sacramento’s goal is not to provide reasonably priced education for the children of California?
Now, money that I expected to put towards achieving future goals is having to be diverted to this current goal.

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Scenario Planning Exercise

The university or perhaps interested groups should structure a scenario planning exercise. In other words, we should come up with four different scenarios for dealing with the funding crisis. All would involve reductions in support. A broad range of viewpoints should be brought together for a table-top exercise where each table has multiple constituencies represented: students, faculty, staff, alumni, unaffiliated citizens, etc. Each table would be tasked with choosing from among the scenarios and then modifying their selection as they wish. At the end, each table reports out on the scenario it preferred and the modifications made. Subsequently, a consensus team would try to find the areas of common agreement among the various tables. One scenario I would consider would be the elimination of departments with the result that their functions would evolve to the school level or broad subject level, e.g., “social sciences”, “physical sciences” etc. Good cost figures would need to be developed in advance so that potential savings could be identified to assist in the task of choosing among scenarios.

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Department support to clubs, Fundraising & Alumni Outreach

When I was a student, a club I belonged to relied on alumni to provide incredible support. But also on the department. It seemed that we could “overdraft” our departmental account, sometimes to the tune of several grand by the end of the year. Somehow, faculty would throw a little discretionary funding our way, or the chair would do so out of department funds. That is no longer the case, and in fact some basic administrative and operational support is being required to be paid by the club. I am very open to making donations, but I get turned off by the General Fund requests by everyone but my old department’s chair(s). I don’t know why department chairs can’t send out letters to alumni, asking for donations to specific parts of their department.

Frankly, I am tired of letters from higher up asking for essentially unrestricted donations. All that means to me is that the campus will use monies they had set aside for “my” interest to pay for something they want because now they have me myself paying for “my” interest. I think there needs to me much more relationship building at the departmental level by department chairs between alumni and the alumni’s clubs, faculty, or department in general.

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POST-MEETING RESPONSES (after December 1)
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Graduate Programs, Lobbying State Legislature, Undergraduate Decisions

I’m in a somewhat unique position concerning the budget crisis, seeing as I’m an alumnus of Davis and a current graduate student at Berkeley. Curiously, this means that I’m not affected in a very important way: I’m not paying tuition. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a fellowship that covers all my tuition expenses and provides a generous living stipend. However, I’m still concerned.

As an alumnus, I want my alma mater to be in the news for its academic accomplishments, not because it’s running out of money or because students have occupied Mrak Hall. Not that I’m condemning the students who took that action. I applaud them for taking a stand and at least bringing some attention to the issue, though I hope they’re willing to take further actions that might not garner as much spotlight, like lobbying state and federal legislators – and even family and friends – so they can understand the value of public higher education and why it should remain accessible. As a graduate student, I’m concerned that rising fees will mean fewer students for me to teach in discussion sections, and that layoffs will affect my department’s incredible staff.

So, what’s to be done, short of sparking a revolution that revokes Prop. 13 and augments a vital revenue stream? For one, my colleagues and I have been talking to the undergrads at Berkeley. If we find out that any of our students are from low-income families, we tell them about the Blue & Gold Program. We’ve been encouraging them to look into outside scholarships and grants, so that they don’t have to rely too much on student loans. I would also encourage current students to make a strong effort to graduate in four years. Think twice before registering for an elective class outside your major: you might be taking the spot of someone who needs it, and in the future, you might not be able to take a class you actually need. All of us should also get in touch with our state and federal representatives, and we should be talking to our friends and family about how important the UC system is, so that they can lobby Sacramento and Washington as well. And, we should become better informed voters, especially when it comes to ballot initiatives that require borrowing money or guaranteeing budget funds for a program. Remember that higher public education and the prison system are the two biggest pieces of the budget pie that don’t get a guaranteed percentage of funding every fiscal year; so the more that gets set away for something else, the more will be taken away from the UC, CSU and community college systems.

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Engineering, Value of hands-on experience

When I was in undergrad mechanical engineering, I spent a lot of time in the mechanical engineering and Ag Engineering shops in Bainer Hall, always more interested in the application than the theory of engineering. The time I spent in these shops, along with wrenching at Antique Mechanics, was the most valuable and memorable portion of my education at UCD. While the engineering theory and discipline I learned in the classroom was a great foundation, the shop was where I learned how machines came together and how to design. These skills gave me practical experience that has been very valuable in the workplace. I was always amazed by the quality of the staff and resources devoted to these shops and knew that it must take a significant amount of money to keep them running. Both shops were always completely spotless and had a tool or part for any project imaginable. In this time of budget cuts, I can’t help but worry that the engineering departments will make cuts to the engineering shops to preserve academic programs. I hope I’m wrong, because every engineer should have a chance at a hands-on experience before starting his or her career.

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Increasing Law School Tuition

As a law student, the budget cuts and increased tuition are going to make my final year at Davis almost 15K dollars more expensive. That is on top of an already tremendous law school debt. Fortunately, King Hall focuses on grants so I am partially covered by the generosity of the financial aid office, but the paltry grant sum is more of a gesture than a solution.

I was able to secure employment, but many of my fellow students who are extremely qualified couldn’t get a job in this horrible market. The increases will make it largely impossible for them to pay off their loans. Also, some who would have pursued jobs in public service must now seek higher paid employment in the private sector. This is terrible for graduates of the MARTIN LUTHER KING school of law - a school dedicated to service and equality.

Do I think the cost of my legal education is worth it? Maybe. King Hall is amazing. I am getting top notch instruction amidst some great minds…but will I ever pay the money back? I have no idea. No one I go to school with really knows if it’s possible. We just focus on the here and now and hope that the public law school survives this financial disaster.

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Recruiting, Tuition

With budget cuts, we don’t have the opportunity we use to. We use to travel across the nation to recruit students to come to UC Davis, now we are limited to northern and central California to recruit students.

Poem for the heck of it:

Dang you budget cuts
I hate you with all my guts
Tuition is raised
And all I could afford to eat is braised
Beef

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Staff Impact: Attrition, Projects & Tasks, Efficiency

The financial difficulties of the UC system have greatly impacted staff on campus. Annual programs and events to serve our students, faculty and staff are being put on hold indefinitely and will be potentially cut. The loss of staff members has caused the greatest change on my work responsibilities. Layoffs have not yet affected my office, but rather staffing levels are diminished due to attrition. Upon their departure, a staff member’s duties are divvied up among the remaining survivors who are now tasked with completing work that is often outside the scope and experience of their background. These projects are now being completed by someone who often does not have the skill set for those tasks and who has very little time to be trained properly for a job they hope they won’t have to do for long. While the diversity of projects is a welcome staff development opportunity, I believe that we have now met the limit of what skills can developed concurrently while still retaining the same level of quality that the University of California should be producing. At the same time, with these added tasks, there is less time for their original duties, so many projects are not being completed in a timely manner, or when it is time for their completion, they are rushed through due to a need to juggle so many different projects and things slipping through the cracks. I find that with my job, there is a lot more time being taken up with basic administrative tasks that I am required to complete because of a loss of staff members which takes away time devoted to important, but more in-depth projects. Given all of this information, I will still continue to do whatever I can to contribute to my office, as I strongly believe in the mission of the university.

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Fewer Classes, Affordability & Lost Potential, State Legislature

Admittedly, the budget cuts haven’t affected me more than the average student. In fact, they’ve probably affected me less than the average student. The clubs I am in (ASUCD, Financial Investment Club), don’t rely on school funding as much as other clubs or academic units. I am an international relations major so the largest difference I’ve noticed has been fewer classes to sign up for, which is quite frustrating. But none of this compares to students who can’t come to school now because of the increased fees.

I think the biggest effect the budget cuts have had or will have on me will be those friends of mine who can no longer afford to work towards their degrees. These bright, promising students are having to put a hold on their education and thus any contributions they may make as a result of their education. There’s no real way to measure the lost potential but I’m sure it is immense. The budget cuts haven’t affected me to any large degree but I have worked and will continue to work towards re-establishing high education funding levels in Sacramento.

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Davis Honors Challenge, Positive Publicity & Fundraising, Relay for Life & Colleges Against Cancer

When thinking about the recent budget cuts impacting our great university, it worries me how it will impact the organizations and clubs close to my heart. With faculty being stretched even thinner because of furlough days and larger class sizes, I wonder how this will impact the Davis Honors Challenge program. Will they be able to sustain the small class sizes for their honors challenge courses? I worry about how the financial situation will impact this program which prides itself on an intimate classroom setting.

At times like these, when there is a lot of negative attention for the budget cuts and student fee increases, I feel like our administration at UC Davis should try to bring more focus to all the incredible philanthropy and volunteerism. Relay For Life at UC Davis has been awarded Top College Relay in all of California for the last six years. I feel like this is an achievement that can be used as a selling point for this university.

Organizations like Colleges Against Cancer, which puts on Relay For Life at UC Davis, will most likely be around as long as there are students passionate about the cause. They will find places to meet, they will find ways to make their voices heard. The budget cuts will however impact the amount of CFC funding available and this will definitely have an impact on Relay For Life, Colleges Against Cancer, and all the other student organizations that rely on this money to help plan and put on the amazing events this campus boasts.

UC Davis has raised over $750,000 for the fight against cancer in the last 6 years. These successes are rarely highlighted. We need to rally around the amazing accomplishments going on, whether it is what the student-run clinics are doing, the success of Relay For Life, the great volunteer work through the Community Service Resource Center, and much more. Doing this not only highlights the caliber of students attending UC Davis, but it shows that we are still a university committed to helping others and it will provide a positive spotlight for our school. We alumni love any excuse to brag about our school and let’s face it, focusing on the volunteerism and successes of the student groups may even attract some donor dollars to help alleviate some of this financial burden.

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Notes obtained from an in-person meeting on this topic:

The meeting began by reading selected comments submitted prior to the meeting.

Speaker
How many responses were there?

Speaker
There were nineteen, total.

Speaker
Can you do me a favor and please read the prompt?

Speaker
I’d like to speak to my submission. Could you read it please?

Speaker
When I was a student, a club I belonged to relied on alumni to provide incredible support. But also on the department. It seemed that we could “overdraft” our departmental account, sometimes to the tune of several grand by the end of the year.

Somehow, faculty would throw a little discretionary funding our way, or the chair would do so out of department funds. That is no longer the case, and in fact some basic administrative and operational support is being required to be paid by the club. I am very open to making donations, but I get turned off by the General Fund requests by everyone but my old department’s chair(s). I don’t know why department chairs can’t send out letters to alumni, asking for donations to specific parts of their
department.

Frankly, I am tired of letters from higher up asking for essentially unrestricted donations. All that means to me is that the campus will use monies they had set aside for “my” interest to pay for something they want because now they have me myself paying for “my” interest. I think there needs to me much more relationship building at the departmental level by department chairs between alumni and the alumni’s clubs, faculty, or department in general.

Speaker
Is the University of California going to be public service oriented ? With more lectures, one of my favorite things is discussion. I always try to sign up for freshman seminars, even though I am not a freshman. I was reading in the California Aggie that freshman seminar instructors might be cut, and that they are asking instructors of these classes to not accept their pay. The quality of UC education is declining in subtle but sure ways, and now it is even costing much more. What is to stop students from choosing private schools over public schools, where they will soon only need to pay a little more while having a lot more financial aid to help them with their costs?

Speaker
To the point of the previous speaker; the UC will continue to be for the public; but, it will be for the wealthier public. The type of service you get at the UC is to the benefit of each spectrum of income. I think it won’t be able to serve the same populations it was founded to serve, and this will cause many people to question exactly how public of a university it is now.

Speaker
I was a faculty member for forty years, and sat through three major budget crises during that time. The trends of increasing privatization are very worrisome. Faculty do not owe their allegiance to the university anymore; when I joined the faculty I had an ownership. I was able to pursue research projects purely out of my interest in them.

Collegiality is decreasing so rapidly that everybody is an independent entrepreneur. The education that this institution strives to give is declining with these trends. I’m basically an optimistic person, but when I see more and more faculty coming in who will say, “I can’t worry about how I teach this class, I have to devote my time to finding research grants”, I fear that the trend toward privatization after each successive budget crisis will fundamentally change the way UC serves the state.

Right now, it takes about $250,000 to set up a faculty member to research. With less state funding, priorities shift and this money has to come from more private sponsorships.

Speaker
In response to some of the things previous speakers have said regarding the public nature of the UC and how it’s being jeopardized– Right now, with the UC operating on a model of high financial aid for those with high need: those with the most need will still be able to attend, but your average middle-class Californian will not. These types of fee increases are making it hard for those types of students to come here, and are probably making private schools more attractive to them. The effect of the fee increases essentially makes it possible for low-income and high-income families to afford public education, but not for moderate-income families to.

Speaker
Student allegiance to the public university and to the state of California is a very serious issue. Students see California turning its back on them; what motivation do they have to give back to society? Part of the problem with investing less in public education is that it sends a message to people that public goals are not important. It would be interesting to see how public service declines with increasing student fees.

Speaker
I have a question for a previous speaker. Were you allowed to look for grants when you did your research?

Speaker
Yes, but I had support from the university in terms of technical and lab support. It’s a little different these days, where you are expected to fund basic expenses through the grants you are able to obtain. These things are no longer covered by the university.

Speaker
I think all the things that are being said are very important. I don’t want to direct this conversation to where funding comes from. However, we should recognize that this will probably be the status quo; more often than not these trends will continue to dominate public higher education in California. You’re going to see more and more of this kind of fluctuation in funding going into the future. I don’t think it’ll go back to being like the “good old days”; rather, there will be continued divestment into UC and fees will continue increase.

Speaker
Going back to the original prompt with the effects of the budget cuts and fee increases: It has been harder for student groups, which must now pay $35 per year to establish a student account with the university. UC Davis has always prided itself on having 500+ organizations, and now the university is telling student organizations that they have to charge some sort of fee to their members or raise money another way.
In terms of student affairs, I see a lot of anger with the fees. People say that “they’re increasing our fees by 32%, where is the money going?!”. They don’t see how the money they pay is coming back to them; what little does come back is increasingly getting smaller. The frustration is good, I’ve seen a lot more people willing to take political action and willing to do something to fix California and fix the UC in these past few days than I ever have.

To tread where a previous speaker was going, even if the state had more funding it wouldn’t give it to the UC. This is because of major structural issues going on with the state. It isn’t just matter of California needing more money, it’s about California changing its priorities due to the way the political system exists. For example, the 2/3 majority required to pass a budget.

Speaker
Following up on a previous speaker’s comments about opportunity– Depending on how you look at it, the budget cuts are bringing about an opportunity to bend the rules on how things get done. I know in my own work, I am more comfortable cutting corners and getting things done. If I get busted, I can ask where people were to help me get the work done. Small instances like that can provide more ideas about how the budget cuts have affected people, but they also provide ideas about how we can change the way we do things in positive ways.

Speaker
I just wanted to pose a question to the group, as somebody who is planning on applying to medical school in the next year with the intention of going to a UC: With the changes happening to UC, how do you feel it will affect professional and graduate schools?

Speaker
There is an unknown here: We have a new chancellor. In the past, it has been easier to predict what an administration will do based on their previous actions. I’m not certain we know exactly what our chancellor will do regarding professional and graduate schools. I haven’t heard anything specifically, but she did meet with the National Academies of Sciences today. You should take a look at that story.

Speaker
On the topic of graduate and professional schools, there are two factors we must consider:

1) What will the budget shortfall do to admissions, and to the student composition of these schools?
2) How will the budget shortfall affect the schools themselves?

I do not expect much change, because most of these schools are profit-driven organizations. For instance, the med center’s furloughs are much different than those of the Davis campus. Their furloughs are about keeping the hospital as open for as much as possible; ours are about limiting hours as much as possible. In terms of fees, I know that King Hall’s fees will go up significantly over the next few years.

My question back to you: How will this affect people who want to go into the public sector in the long run? It’s possible to take on more loans, but they will be discouraged from going into public service if it does not pay as much as private practice. People have to repay their loans and debt, and it is easier to do this while working in the private sector.

Speaker
I think one of the unfortunate things that will come out of this budget crisis is the publicity for UC. I knew about the fee increases and budget shortfall, but I didn’t know about the protests until I turned on CNN and other news networks the day after. I can understand why students are upset about the fees, and I sympathize with them, but I am worried that people in Chicago or New York or elsewhere will look at these protests and not look at them favorably.

I hope that people will learn more about this situation when they hear about it, and take it at more than how it appears on face-value. However, I think that there will be a lot of backlash to the student movements on campus; people see our students breaking the law and ruining buildings. Protests only look favorable when you agree with the cause, a lot of people might not know too much detail to be able to evaluate it fairly.

Speaker
I think there’s good and bad with this situation. It is important for students to express their sentiments regarding the fee increases, and they surely are doing that recently. At the same time, it is also important for students to remain mindful of the fact that they represent the University of California, and that their actions can be interpreted by others in ways that might hurt it in the long-run. To some extent, we rely on the public support of those onlookers outside the UC system, and it is important that they do not think of us negatively because of the protests.

Speaker
I was also going to make a point about the images that our protesting might convey to people outside of UC. Is anybody familiar with the University of Michigan model, just with a show of nods? Basically, they created out-of-state quotas (around 25% to 35%) to drastically increase their revenue. They were obviously and without shame lining up out-of-state tuition as additional funding for students, and basically shutting out in-state students because the state was not providing them adequate funds.

Speaking to what a previous speaker said, it would be particularly ironic if the protests deterred potential out-of-state students from coming to the University of California. It would effectively go against what the administrators want in terms of revenue, because at some campuses there have been more of a push toward targeting and enrolling more out-of-state students. We spoke about the UC’s ability to attract its own residents away from private schools, but I think we should also consider how our developing image may make it difficult for us to attract the additional out-of-state residents we are targeting.

Speaker
A previous speaker talked about finding research grants. One of the things I’ve noticed is that in my department we are reaching across various departments to put on teams for research proposals. I’m not sure if that’s due to UC Davis being a major national agricultural program. That was one thing I thought was interesting, and perhaps something that other departments across campus should try.

Another comment I wanted to make was on furloughs, as a part-time staff person it is funny that I am subject to the furloughs. For some of us, it is an opportunity to get our work done more efficiently and on time. If nobody thinks I’m supposed to be at my desk, I’m likely to work better and quicker. I have less distractions, in other words.

Lastly, I actually heard something about what the Chancellor had in mind and can speak to that. She is planning on spending $1 million in California lottery tickets. I’m just kidding! But, you have to think that somebody’s thought about it, right? What would the chances be? One out of thirteen?

Speaker
It’s about 8:00 now, so that’s probably a good note to finish on. Thank you everybody for coming to the meeting despite it being the last week of instruction, and for submitting all these responses to our topic. Good luck with your finals!