Chancellor Marye Anne Fox hosted a town-hall meeting last week where she discussed the impact of the budget crisis at UCSD and opened the floor to faculty and staff concerned about the survival of vital department programs.
‘Every unit on every campus will be affected,’ Fox said. ‘We’re actively reviewing campus projects and trying to complete or delay them. These are not things we feel comfortable with, or things that we want to do.’
As state funding for higher education continues to decrease, the university has attempted to deal with its shrinking budget through cuts to student enrollment, a voluntary employee buyout program, suspension of academic enrichment programs, postponement of ladder-rank faculty recruitments and implementation of soft-hiring freezes.
Fox listed several key areas of state-funding allocation that will most likely be saved from the chopping block.
‘Cuts must have minimal impact on classroom and academic laboratory instruction,’ Fox said. ‘We have to protect our students. Campus diversity efforts, including outreach to public schools, must remain intact. Patient care and environmental health and safety cannot be compromised. Administrative efficiencies will be followed rigorously.’
Fox also promised that maintaining job security for campus employees would be a top priority for UCSD.
‘We’re going to do everything we can to avoid layoffs ‘mdash; whether we’re going to be able to do it, I can’t tell you’shy;,’ Fox said.
In response to concerns raised by several students and a representative from the UCSD Chicano/Latino Concilio about retaining minority faculty and students, Fox stressed the importance of supporting campus diversity programs.
‘Diversity is part of our heart and soul, and relevant to the success of this university,’ Fox said. ‘We need to keep [diversity programs] intact. Intact does not mean that there won’t be cuts. It’s very likely that every unit is going to be cut on some level, but I can promise that there will be a high priority on diversity activities.
Senior Vice Chancellor Paul W. Drake promised that diversity efforts will be redoubled.
Addressing several concerns about parking and public access to the campus, Transportation and Parking Services Director Brian d’Autremont said that the university plans to maintain ‘shy;’mdash; and even expand ‘mdash; public transportation operations.
‘We’ve tripled the size of [the] free bus program, added subsidies, frozen prices,’ d’Autremont said. ‘Recently we froze parking increases ‘hellip; We’re the only UC that’s done that. [These initiatives are] very salient demonstrations of the university trying to meet the needs of people coming into campus.’
Fox also announced the launch of budgetline.ucsd.edu, a new Web site’ providing budget-related resources and news.
Readers can contact Yelena Akopian at [email protected].