Admins address cuts

UCLA’s top administrators addressed fee increases, minority enrollment and scholarship programs Thursday in a town hall-style meeting hosted by the undergraduate student government to discuss growing concerns about the University of California budget crisis.

Executive Vice Chancellor Scott Waugh, Vice Chancellor of Budget, Finance and Capital Programs Steve Olsen and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Janina Montero sat with Chancellor Gene Block inside the Kerckhoff Grand Salon as they made presentations and fielded audience questions on the $49 million deficit UCLA faces in the 2008-2009 school year.

Cash-strapped California has cut UC and UCLA funding by $33 million and and $6 million respectively. The UC Board of Regents’ decision to cut freshman enrollment has exacerbated an already tenuous UC budget that will likely be dealt an additional $65 million blow in upcoming months, Olsen said in a statement released last week.

To prepare for future cuts, Block has directed deans and vice chancellors to prepare contingency plans for 3, 5 and 8 percent reductions in their programming for the next academic year, Olsen added.

While UCLA is unlikely to be touched by the UC-wide enrollment cap, teaching assistants and non-tenured lecturers have been laid off, cuts have been made to the language and writing departments and a significant hiring reduction of faculty and administrative staff has been implemented, according to department and administration officials.

When coupling utility cost increases with the decreased state support, UCLA faces a $49 million shortfall this academic year.

To air the concerns of students, who are most intimately affected by academic or financial services, Homaira Hosseini, president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, moderated an afternoon crowd of 150 students to interact with the administrators.

“We’re here to talk candidly with you about the budget,” Block said.

“I’m sure it’s impacting many of your families and is certainly impacting the university.”

Standing on a lectern under the backdrop of Moore Hall, he announced two scholarship initiatives to make college more affordable.

The first, an expansion of the Bruin Scholars Initiative, will raise $500 million toward undergraduate and graduate scholarships, he said.

UC President Mark Yudof will present the second initiative, the Blue and Gold Affordability Plan, at an upcoming UC Regents meeting to fully cover fees for students with families making less than $60,000, Block said.

Bowing out early due to prior commitments, Olsen spoke next, making a PowerPoint presentation, which he said contained “no charts, no graphs, but some numbers.”

California is laden with a $40 billion deficit, he said.

He said only a minority of UCLA’s funds comes from California, but said funding was “vitally important” to pay for faculty salaries, utility bills and administrative infrastructure. He said to expect $18 million in cuts as costs for utilities and employee benefits rise.

In a previously released statement, Olsen said that UCLA’s deans, vice chancellors and managers have been instructed to reduce spending on travel, entertainment, consulting services, office renovations and equipment purchases as part of the cuts.

Following Olsen, Waugh and Montero made short statements and said their respective areas, academic programs and student services would make cuts as well.

Following the presentations, the administrators answered questions from the students in the audience.

Law student Alejandra Cruz stood up first, saying “At this meeting, the administration has not said one word about what they plan to do to make sure that black and Latino and other underrepresented minority enrollment does not go down because of budget cuts.”

Waugh responded, “We’re doing everything that we can to make sure budget cuts don’t affect diversity. … We’re not going to use the budget situation as an excuse to turn our back on what we view as a fundamental value to our institution.”

Fourth-year history student Vahagan Karapetyan asked if the administration was considering out-of-state students for its higher tuition.

Waugh said no major changes in enrollment were being made for monetary purposes.

The last segment of the meeting consisted of USAC officers discussing the progress of four committees: affordability, sustainability, academic advacement and student engagement, which were formed earlier in the year.

Issues discussed included the deferred payment plan of student fees and a new bylaw requiring USAC to use less paper.