The changing face of UCSD is emblematic of the changes occurring throughout the University of California.

Judging by the campus books, UCSD can more accurately be called the University of the National Science Foundation or University of Ernest Rady, to reflect the shrinking role of the state and increasing role of private and federal funding.

Last year, the campus received less than 15 percent of its total revenue from the state of California. The amount is not even half of what it made just by operating UCSD Medical Center, and these kinds of numbers represent the transitions taking place around the entire university system.

Needless to say, the “”public”” face of the University of California is mutating, and these changes contribute to the fundamental transformation of the university.

More and more, we have come to rely on one-time federal grants — a dangerous position under the likely cuts we will see see in the federal budget — as our share of the state budget continues to shrink.

Slowly but surely, these transformations are eroding the university’s commitment to public service, a core ideal preached by the UC Board of Regents and manifested in the Master Plan for Higher Education.

UCSD’s decision to close down Hillcrest Hospital — serving primarily the poor — in favor of a richer La Jolla patient base shows the university’s changing values: profit over public good.

Though perhaps inevitable, these changes must be honestly acknowledged by the university and the state it once embodied.