Assembly speaker will push construction bond measure

By Benjamin Parke
Daily Bruin Contributor

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, will carry a bond
measure that would fully fund the UC’s $500 million-a-year
need for construction projects, partly to meet the needs of Tidal
Wave II.

Hertzberg will hold a press conference next week to announce his
support of the bond measure to fund the projects, said his
education advisor, Melinda Melendez.

The measure would provide a yearly $500 million disbursement to
the UC over a period of four years, and would be put to voter
approval on the March 2002 ballot if passed by the legislature and
agreed to by the governor.

The influx of an expected 63,000 more students into UC by 2010,
nicknamed Tidal Wave II, has university officials working to
accommodate the expansion. Construction projects are also needed to
make seismic improvements and replace obsolete structures.

Currently, the UC receives a little more than $200 million a
year from Proposition 1A, the current bond proposition that funds
public colleges and universities in the state. That money is
scheduled to run out after the final disbursement for the
UC’s 2001-02 budget.

“The speaker is intent on trying to secure the bond in the
amount that covers the need as opposed to rationing out a smaller
amount,” Melendez said.

UC President Richard Atkinson’s original plan was to
request a bond totaling around $300-350 million ““ making up
the difference with state, federal and other sources of support. UC
spokesman Brad Hayward said it was too soon to speculate how
Atkinson’s original plan would mesh with
Hertzberg’s.

“We are appreciative of the speaker’s efforts, which
send an important signal about the magnitude of our facilities
needs,” said Hayward.

As chair of the Council on Planning and Budget in UCLA’s
Academic Senate, Professor Richard Goodman of The Anderson School
at UCLA said Tidal Wave II will mean more construction funding will
be necessary. Professors will need more office space, and
departments will need labs, he said.

Goodman also said that UC Merced, the system’s planned
10th campus, will have to open soon if it is to mitigate any of the
crowding.

“We have argued strongly that there is a major capital
improvement issue to Tidal Wave II,” said Goodman.

“The obstacle is that neither the governor nor the
legislature has as yet reacted to this pressure,” he added,
speaking prior to the news of Hertzberg’s plans.