UC Budget Cuts and Its Negative Effect on Education
Why Cutting Back is Such a Problem
The University of California, the nation's leading public university, saw a reduction of about $800 million between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. This has forced UC to increase student fees, reduce the number of admissions, cut courses, force furloughs, lay off lecturers, and enlarge classes.
Although all UC campuses are affected, each is affected in slightly different ways. For example, Berkeley will only recruit ten faculty members this year, instead of the usual 100 and UCLA cut 165 courses from the fall quarter schedule, which is a 10 percent drop. Every UC campus has cut classes; UC Santa Barbara is still determining what other classes to cut for the winter and spring quarters. And all campuses now have larger classes and 80 percent of UC employees have to take 11 to 26 unpaid furloughs this year. However, these furloughs only add up to a quarter of the UC deficit, and to pay for the rest there is a 10 percent increase in tuition. Also, by forcing non-paid vacation days, students have less access to faculty and staff members, which decreases the quality of education. These factors combined mean that many students may not be able to graduate on time, and it will be much more expensive to attend a UC school.
Currently, it takes about 4.5 years on average for a college student to graduate. However, with all the budget cuts, some people have projected it will take up to six years for students to graduate on average.
According to Time, more than "300 UC scientists have issued a white paper warning Schwarzenegger that the sharp reduction endangers the 10-campus system's position as the premier public university in the United States and could have a negative impact on California's future economic growth."
For such a progressive state, these budget cuts do not make much sense. If education is the future, why is California making it harder to receive a higher education?
Because of all these budget cuts, many lecturers have also been cut, even though they teach up to 30 percent of undergraduate classes in some departments, according to Time. Over the past decade, tuition has more than doubled at UC, and in fall 2009 it rose to more than $8,700 for in-state students. In about one week, UC Regents will meet and discuss another fee hike, which will "increase student fees 32 percent." This means students may have to pay an extra $2,200 per year.
It seems I graduated in the nick of time, so I was not directly affected by all the UC cuts. However, I have a lot of friends trying to finish their last year of college, and now they are forced to take out even more student loans and in some cases they have to stay in school longer because classes they need to graduate are now only offered certain times of year and cause conflicting schedules. I also have a sister in her senior year of high school, and even though she has a 4.86 GPA, and an incredible list of extracurricular activities, it's really uncertain if she can get into UCLA or UCSD, both of which are schools she is extremely qualified to attend. And even if she is accepted to these schools, at this point it is hard to tell whether it would be more expensive to attend UCSD or a private school.
References:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1911455,00.html
http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/article/101409_ucsb_teach_in/
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/21271
Published by Sabrina Ricci
Sabrina Ricci is a freelance writer and current grad student at New York University. She has worked and written for a variety of publications, including Noozhawk, Santa Barbara Magazine, and Examiner.com. Sh... View profile
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19 Comments
Post a CommentJust how widespread is the budget crisis at University of California Berkeley? University of California Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau’s ($500,000 salary) eight-year fiscal track record is dismal indeed. He would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving him every dollar he has asked for, and the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means.
A competent chancellor would have been on top of identifying inefficiencies in the system and then crafting a plan to fix them. Competent oversight by the Board of Regents and the legislature would have required him to provide data on problems and on what steps he was taking to solve them. Instead, every year Birgeneau would request a budget increase, the regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, and the problems just piled up to $150 million of inefficiencies….until there was no money left.
It
Thanks for the comment Ji, but I'm going to have to disagree. While there were a lot of cuts across the nation, I remember there being the most cuts in California, and private schools weren't as affected as public schools. Plus it's more important for public schools at least to be affordable so that more people have a chance for higher education. But yes, I agree with you that the cost of education is becoming ridiculous everywhere.
While the cuts in California are unfortunate, remember that the cost of education at UC was still low to start off compared to those in Eastern Coast, especially when compared to those at private institutions. Examples for 2010-2011: Yale University $49,800, Bucknell University $55,730, etc... List goes on. Cost of education is becoming ridiculous everywhere.
Someone has to pay the bills or cut the budget!
Very informative and well researched :).
Schools are getting the shaft around the country. It's very unfortunate. Good article.
California is so hurt right now. It's frightening. Nice article. You're on top of it.
Hi Sabrina, It is indeed very sad that students and their education are being effected.Global recession has effected many area and education is also not spared.One thing we all should keep in mind that at any cost education should not palyed with it effects whole nation.Great job,thanks Sabrina Ricci
Hi Sabrina. First time here, saw the headline. Clearly YOU received a great education, from the quality of your writing. I'm speaking from an older generation. Starting with Californians electing Reagan in the 1960s, anti-tax selfishness has prevailed. Legislators really have their hands tied. Older folks got THEIR low-cost educations and now won't help pay for you and your friends, Sabrina. Catherine Spencer says "it takes a village" and she's right, but a "village" might be a "millage," in other words a property tax, to restore funding for the schools. My 2 cents; I'm in Michigan and it's even worse. ~~~ mike ~~~
It's too bad that the federal government can't step in to help more students, but everyone is suffering in this economy. The really sad thing is, will there even be jobs for those coming out of college now??