By Maggie Robak
Staff Writer
Since Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown announced his proposed budget for 2011, University of California President Mark Yudof has outlined a five-year plan to deal with cuts laid out in the budget.
While this plan succeeds in improving the financial aid system, it has many flawed core ideas that undermine the essence and purpose of the UC system.
The aim of Yudof’s plan is to bring stability to the universities by increasing revenue and reducing expenses. A tuition increase of 8 percent has already been approved for the 2011 fall quarter, and other increases in costs will follow.
While budget cuts are most likely a necessity of any reform to the UC system, the effects of these cuts can be minimized through careful calculation and simultaneous revenue generating reforms.
To this end, several of the plan’s ideas need to be reconsidered. Yudof would like to increase the number of out-of-state students, who pay $23,000 more than California residents annually to attend UC schools.
While the extra revenue these students would generate is appealing, it would decrease the amount of in-state students accepted into the UC system.
The UC system is highly respected and is one of California’s greatest assets. If the number of California residents who attend the university decreases, the UC system would repudiate its main goal as stated in its mission statement: to provide “continuing education for Californians to improve their job skills and enhance the quality of their lives.”
If the number of out-of-state UC students increases too much, the integrity of UC’s public identity could be jeopardized. With universities such as University of Michigan relying more and more upon out-of-state tuition, many public universities have begun to seem more like private universities.
Another facet of Yudof’s plan is to charge more for certain undergraduate majors, like the sciences.
While in theory this is a practical solution because these majors tend to cost the university more money, this option has many negative components.
First, the UC should not penalize its students for academic decisions and choices of majors. Additionally, President Barack Obama and others have highlighted the U.S.’s under performance in the sciences.
Universities across the nation should incentivize these science majors, not punish students that select them.
The plan is also troublesome due to its effect on the number of undergraduates in science majors. The U.S. as a whole lacks science majors and the plan would continue to skew the distribution.
In order to make the necessary budget cuts, Yudof should consider increasing the student-faculty ratio. Although this is not ideal, the universities are already very large, and increasing the class sizes slightly will not have as drastic an effect on the education of students.
Plans to meet the budget must focus on the UC’s main goals, which are to educate Californians and help to keep the economy competitive.
In order to maintain the reputation of the UC system, these goals must be made a priority.
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