Budget cuts strain Labor Institute
By Cristina Chang
Sept. 28, 2009 9:25 p.m.
Elena Shih relies on graduate student research opportunities to pay for her student fees and study a topic she’s interested in: labor studies.
Shih, a doctoral student in sociology, turned to the UCLA Labor Institute, where she received a graduate student research opportunity position to help plan the institute’s October conference on work and inequality in the global environment.
Shih worked as a liaison with experts on trafficking and labor exploitation in China, keeping a correspondence with them and inviting them to speak at the conference.
During spring quarter, Shih received an e-mail from Chris Tilly, director of the UCLA Labor Institute, informing her that the institute no longer had enough funds to pay her salary. She said she felt like she couldn’t enjoy the fruits of her labor after all the time and energy she and her fellow graduate student researchers put into the conference. Instead of continuing her position, she would have to rely on other ways to fund her education, such as being a teaching assistant.
Last fall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated all $5.4 million in state funding for the UC Labor Studies Program for the 2008-2009 fiscal year in response to the budget crisis, forcing the UCLA Labor Institute to rely on a one-year restoration of funds from the UC Office of the President, according to Kent Wong, program director of the UCLA Center on Labor Research and Education.
For the current 2009-2010 fiscal year, the state assembly has restored $2 million for the UC-wide program, with $1 million going toward the UCLA Labor program, in a compromise with the governor, he added.
“The legislature was concerned that this was an attack on academic freedom and unfair targeting of our program,” he said.
However, the budget situation is “still in flux,” and UCLA is considering cutting another 50 percent of the program’s current funding from the campus in December, Wong said.
He added that faculty, labor community members, staff and students made calls, wrote letters and signed petitions in support of the program, and a group of students visited legislators in Sacramento to urge legislators to preserve the program’s funding.
“With further budget cuts, countless families will lose dedicated and gifted advocates for equality, especially considering the vast amount of internships that the Labor Center offers,” said Jonathan Lee, a UCLA graduate with a degree in political science and a minor in labor and workplace studies. “UCLA cannot afford to lose one of its most important assets: a program that bolsters our reputation for social responsibility far and wide, sets us apart from other universities and instills pride in all who are involved.”
The UCLA program typically runs on almost $3 million each year, Tilly said. However, this year it currently runs on about $1.7 million, with $1 million coming from the state, $300,000 from UCLA and $400,000 in grants, he said.
To make up for the budget shortfall, the UCLA Labor Institute has received grants from around the country, such as $300,000 from the Ford Foundation and $50,000 from the city of Los Angeles. The institute is still in the process of submitting more proposals, Wong said.
The budget shortfall has forced a range of cuts, including the suspension of a small grants program for faculty and a postdoctoral fellows program, Tilly said.
“The worst thing is the unpredictability,” Tilly said. “There are things we’d like to be doing that UCLA would benefit from, but we can’t because we don’t know how much we’re getting.”
While the smaller budget has not led to any layoffs in staff, the workload has increased since the UCLA program cannot afford to replace those who have retired or left, Wong said.
It has also placed pressure on the program to raise external funding and reduce the number of student internships, educational workshops, leadership programs and conferences it can provide, he added.
The cuts have also affected the UCLA’s Labor Studies minor, which isn’t able to offer as many courses as before. But the minor’s core offerings are still in place, and students who start the minor will be able to complete it, Tilly said.
“Our work makes significant contributions to community engagement, which is one of the chancellor’s greatest priorities. And we believe that, in the long run, the value of our programs will make the case to keep them,” he said.
