Chancellor Gene Block announces cost-efficient plans to maintain academic excellence
By Shoshee Jau
Feb. 18, 2010 10:21 p.m.
As university administrators await final budget decisions for the 2010-2011 school year, they are taking measures to maintain academic excellence, from cutting less relevant courses to raising funds and speaking to government officials.
In an e-mailed statement to students Thursday, Chancellor Gene Block announced $7 million in bridge funding, which will be allocated to various departments to ease their transition to a leaner budget. The temporary funding will be used primarily to sustain untenured staff, particularly lecturers and TAs.
“The reality is that we have suffered an unprecedented series of cuts in state funding and are headed for another tough year,” Block said in the statement. “Across the campus, we are implementing cost-saving measures and taking steps to boost revenues.”
Block also detailed fundraising and lobbying efforts to aid students, including “UCLA Day” on March 19, when students and advocates can meet with district representatives to share UCLA’s critical role in the state. Efforts to generate funding include Project You Can, a joint effort among the 10 UC schools, and Bruin Scholars Initiative, which will raise funds for student scholarships.
The Restructuring Steering Committee, launched at the beginning of winter quarter by Block and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh, will also provide aid through strategic use of funds. The group aims to raise non-state funding, reduce cost and increase efficiency in the university.
Individual departments have yet to finalize their budgets, as they await notices of the bridge funding available to each department, said Julie Sina, dean of the College of Letters and Science.
“We will be getting everyone together next week when the letters come in,” she said.
Departmental changes will specifically address the positions of TAs and lecturers, who are vital to the academic quality of the university. Though they do not enjoy the security that tenured faculty have, both lecturers and TAs have significant contact with the student body, especially in the languages, said Kim Jansma, senior lecturer of French and Francophone Studies.
“The lecturers are not only responsible for the lower division classes, the first- and second-years, the skills and cultural background to get students ready for upper division courses, they also train the TAs, develop the curriculum, conceptualize the program and teach upper division courses in linguistics and writing,” Jansma said.
For students, fewer TAs will result in larger discussion sections, compromising the quality of their education. As a result, reducing the number of classes available may be preferable to removing TAs, said Victoria Sork, dean of Life Sciences.
“We’re cutting some of the smaller classes,” Sork said. “As class sizes increase, course offerings will decrease in order to protect course requirements for majors. In Life Sciences, we will also depend on TAs more than lecturers to support the graduate programs too.”
Science classes are also separating lectures from labs, which are costly and sometimes unnecessary for certain students, Sork said.
“We split lectures and labs so we can offer fewer labs,” she said. “Not everyone who takes the course with the lab needs the lab, so only the people that need them take them. Labs are expensive, and they need TAs.”
With more students enrolling in main core classes, summer sessions will be important for students hoping to graduate on time, Sork said.
“I think students are frustrated because we don’t have as many openings and it’s harder to get into classes,” she said. “To make sure they graduate on time, there will be more relevance on summer sessions.”
