Dear UC Merced Students:
I am writing today to provide you with an update on the funding and budgetary discussions held at the University of California Board of Regents meeting this week in Sacramento, along with their potential impact on UC Merced students. While these discussions were widely reported in the news media and elsewhere, I thought you might want to hear my personal assessment of the situation and also about your opportunity to get involved in influencing the outcome of the current legislative session.
It is no secret that California still faces a significant structural budget deficit. Revenues have not picked up sufficiently in the state to support projected levels of state expenditures for the next fiscal year. This means that legislators must either create a viable strategy to grow revenues or enact additional and very painful budget reductions. The current estimate of the gap between projected revenues and expenditures is a staggering $15.7 billion.
Although the revised budget recommendation issued by Gov. Jerry Brown this week spared the University of California from immediate drastic cuts, it includes a "trigger" mechanism that would result in a $250 million cut to the University of California in January 2013, if voters fail to pass his tax initiative this November.
While we are grateful for the support the governor and others on both sides of the political aisle have expressed for public higher education, the fiscal challenges faced by the state mean that public funding for the University of California remains in peril. Given the massive budget cuts already sustained by UC, the mid-year $250 million trigger cut, if implemented, would severely and negatively impact UC campuses and their students.
This week, UC Merced student leaders joined me in Sacramento along with UC regents, chancellors, government relations professionals and other students from across the University of California to urge legislators to work together to find lasting solutions to California’s fiscal crisis, to reinvest in public higher education and to join us in finding solutions to the escalating costs of public higher education for students and their families.
Additionally, we spoke in support of the following:
- The Middle Class Scholarship Act (AB 1500), which will provide tuition relief to families with incomes between $80,000 and $160,000. Both the University of California and the UC Student Association support this legislation.
- Protection against some proposed Cal Grant changes that could hurt the financial aid packages of UC students.
- Maintaining the funding included in UC’s 2012-13 budget allocation, with the addition of $125 million. That is the amount needed to prevent a tuition increase in 2012-13 while preserving the quality of the UC's academic programs and student services.
I want to thank the UC Merced student leaders who joined in this effort and also urge each of you to become involved in advocacy on behalf of the University of California and its students. You can make your voices heard and keep up-to-date on legislation that impacts the UC and its students at Advocates for UC Merced.
I regret the stress you and your family are enduring due to the current financial uncertainty in the state and across the UC system. Please know that we are doing everything we can to press for appropriate financial support. Since the situation is still fluid, we will provide you with an update later this summer.
In the event that a tuition increase does go into effect in the fall semester, the Financial Aid Office will work with you to seek solutions at that time. We do not want to lose any of you due to financial constraints.
Sincerely,
Chancellor Dorothy Leland
