Experts said Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget cuts to the University could harm student enrollment and education quality.

The UC is facing over $270 million in budget cuts for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which could lead to reductions in course offerings and academic support services, according to the UC website. These cuts could worsen existing budget challenges across the UC, making it harder for campuses to manage rising costs, according to an item presented by the UC Board of Regents.

The California constitution mandates that the governor put forward a budget proposal in January, said Daniel J.B. Mitchell, a professor emeritus at the Anderson School of Management. The governor will then revise the proposal in May based on new findings, he added.

“They may have more information about how the economy outlook appears, or they may have gotten reaction from the legislature that maybe certain things that the governor is proposing are not really very popular,” he said.

The California legislature ultimately must vote to implement the budget, Mitchell said. The constitution requires state lawmakers to have passed a budget – or face penalties, including not receiving pay – by June. The governor can veto parts or the entirety of the budget, but is unlikely to given that the California legislature is dominated by Democrats, he added.

UC President Michael Drake expressed concern over the budget in a Jan. 10 statement, warning that cutting funding could impact student enrollment and university research.

“At a time when the University is enrolling record numbers of California students, I am concerned about the impact of the proposed $271 million funding reduction on our students and campus services,” he said in the statement. “With stable state support, the University can continue to invest in California’s students.”

Mitchell said the statement was a departure from Drake’s previous messaging on budget proposals, which showed more gratitude toward the governor – adding that this could arise from the fact that he plans to step down this summer.

[Related: UC President Michael Drake to step down following 2024-25 academic year]

“Typically, when you see the budget, and maybe is not entirely happy with what is there in the budget proposal, they (the UC) still will issue some kind of gracious thank you to the governor for considering our needs,” he said. “This time, both CSU and UC were not so patient about what the allocation was going to be.”

Mitchell said the governor will likely make adjustments to the budget in the May revision period based on pushback from the University.

During the UC Board of Regents’ bimonthly meeting which took place Jan. 22 to Jan. 23 at UC San Francisco, regents discussed the expected impacts of these budget cuts, including a $109.8 million reduction in the Middle Class Scholarship, which helps provide debt-free pathways for students.

[Related: UC Board of Regents discusses budget cuts, financial aid]

Christopher Newfield, a distinguished professor emeritus of English at UC Santa Barbara, said in a written statement that there are several impacts of budget cuts that are not discussed enough – including the degradation of educational quality for undergraduate students, the decline of doctoral programs and continued devaluation of arts, humanities and other qualitative research subjects.

“Higher levels of state funding is the only solution,” he said in the statement. “Politicians might consider doing this (as they did in the 1960s, 1980s and late 1990s) if and only if they understood how bad underfunding is for today’s students.”

Sylvia Hurtado, a distinguished professor of education, said that the lack of sufficient state support is contributing to a trend where some public institutions are effectively no longer public. One immediate effect of these budget constraints is likely to be tuition increases, she said, adding that while this would be an unpopular move, it is often seen as a necessary response to address funding shortfalls.

[Related: UC Board of Regents recommends tuition increase for out-of-state students]

Hurtado added that budget cuts force universities to make difficult decisions, particularly regarding personnel and program cuts. She said that funding reductions typically also lead to increased selectivity for universities, which can impact students’ access to education.

“If you have to think about limiting access, of course that affects students,” Hurtado said.

She added that some changes are already underway, including a reduction in the number of teaching assistants, which was first recommended by the UC in 2023. This will likely result in faculty and part-time instructors taking on additional students, Hurtado said, adding that while salary increases for teaching assistants are essential, the university simply does not have the funds to fully support them.

“Our hope was that we could weather some federal cuts by having additional state funding coming through, but it looks like that’s not going to be the case for next year,” Hurtado said.

Gov. Newsom could also revise the May budget in response to the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs, which have the potential to shake up the California economy, Mitchell said. He added that the governor may also consider in his revised budget allocation that UC campuses – particularly large research universities like UCLA – rely heavily on federal funding, which is currently at risk.

The Trump administration began threatening UC funding during its first days, issuing a guidance to cap the amount of indirect costs for National Institutes of Health grants to 15%. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order March 5, leaving the University’s biggest funder of research in uncertain territory.

[Related: Federal judge stops plan to reduce NIH grants that could limit UC research funding]

Trump also said in a March 4 Truth Social post that he would revoke federal funding for universities who allow “illegal” protests. Later that week, a U.S. Department of Justice task force that Trump said he created to combat antisemitism announced it was investigating the UC over treatment of its employees.

[Related: Department of Justice opens investigation into antisemitism allegations at UC]

The task force announced Friday that it had cancelled $400 million worth of federal grants and contracts to Columbia University because of the school’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” Columbia, like UCLA, has experienced pro-Palestine protests, encampments and sit-ins since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Newfield said in the statement that students can advocate effectively through protests – a strategy that has worked in the past to halt tuition hikes, such as those in 2011 and 2014. He added that faculty should have access to financial data and should share the truth about how university financing works.

Newfield added in the statement that parents and the public must shift their focus from simply getting students into prestigious universities – such as UCLA – to advocating for the quality of education students receive once enrolled.

“These very serious prospective cuts are a chance to fix serious funding problems that have been festering for years, even decades,” Newfield said in the statement.