Dear Colleagues,
I hope the spring semester is proving to be an eventful and productive time for you.
The University of California—and indeed public higher education in general—is off to a good start in 2013 thanks to the passage of Proposition 30 in November and Gov. Jerry Brown’s recently released budget proposal for fiscal year 2013-14. In it, the governor proposes re-investment in higher education by increasing state general funds for operating purposes by $256.5 million. This includes $125 million that had been promised in return for UC’s decision to forego a tuition increase this year. If enacted, the plan would restore $256.5 million of the $900 million cut from the university's state funding over the past five years.
Although I am encouraged by this temporary relief from further budget cuts, UC still faces significant fiscal challenges as a direct result of absorbing nearly $1 billion in budget cuts over the past few years. For example, President Yudof recently determined that the UC budget could not support system-wide salary increases this fiscal year, which I know disappointed our hard-working faculty and staff. Additionally, with the legislative session underway in Sacramento, it is clear that a number of elected officials think that UC can continue to cut costs, hold tuition flat, while still maintaining its historic levels of excellence in instruction and research. As a result, we can expect lawmakers and others to focus attention on online education, teaching loads, executive compensation and other areas where they believe changes can lower the cost of delivering a UC education.
During the current legislative session, our focus will include the ongoing effort to educate lawmakers about our campus needs, which include construction funding for the Classroom and Academic Office Building. In addition, it is vital to continue to educate state elected officials about the critically important research mission of UC and to work against any legislative proposals that could harm this mission or negatively impact our students. Your voice also counts with elected officials. If you haven't already done so, please sign up to be a UC Merced Advocate at UCforCalifornia.org. You'll receive alerts and calls to action at important points during the budget process when our elected officials need to hear from the UC Merced community.
We also continue to be concerned about sequestration at the federal level. As you may recall, sequestration is a mechanism for automatic budget cuts to federal agencies scheduled to go into effect on March 1. Because of its impact on research funding, UC has called upon the U.S. Congress and the administration to reach a compromise that will stop sequestration, and we have worked to ensure that our federal delegation is fully apprised of the negative impact that cuts in federal funding for research could have on our fledgling campus.
Back on the home front, our enrollment management office recently announced yet another significant increase in applications for fall 2013. Undergraduate applications reached 17,191 — a 14 percent jump over last year, according to admissions data released by the UC Office of the President. Our rate of application growth is among the highest in the UC system, indicating strong student interest in the UC Merced experience. We are making excellent progress in our mission to add critical capacity to the UC system, to conduct important research and to bring educational opportunity and economic investment to a long-neglected region of the state. All of us can be extremely proud of our rapid emergence as a vital component of the world’s leading public university system.
That being said, we must nonetheless continue to moderate the growth in student enrollment until the construction of new facilities catches up. Doing so is critical to the quality of the student experience and the ability of faculty to conduct research and teach classes. In March, I plan to present an information item at the Board of Regents meeting that describes UC Merced’s urgent space needs and outlines a path forward based on recommendations from the Urban Land Institute. This path will include making more efficient use of remaining buildable space supported by the current infrastructure spine and consolidating administrative support and outreach functions in downtown Merced or some other appropriate location. Our information item will outline a process that includes an amendment to the current long-range development plan and an alternative procurement process for designing and delivering a mixed-use (academic, research, housing, retail, etc.) master-planned development that will support growth to approximately 10,000 students.
You may know that the campus recently issued the budget call for fiscal year 2013-14. This is the first time that all previously separate budgets are being consolidated, which will allow us to have a more holistic grasp of budgetary needs across the campus. For more information on the budget process for the coming year, please visit the Budget Office’s website.
In other news, UC President Mark Yudof recently announced his resignation from office, effective August of this year. President Yudof has been a steadfast supporter of our campus since he arrived five years ago. Thanks to his leadership, and that of his top administrative officials, UC Merced has fared remarkably well during a deep global recession. I am grateful for that support and will miss his leadership. Fortunately, we will continue to have his assistance—and prolonged support from other top administrators at UC Office of the President— in the comings months and beyond.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
