The regents officially confirmed Carnegie Mellon University’s Engineering Dean Pradeep Khosla as UCSD’s eighth Chancellor early in the meeting, which started with public input at 8:30 a.m.
Khosla, who officially takes over for current Chancellor Marye Anne Fox on August 1, will receive an annual salary of $411,084.
Like Fox, Khosla will receive university-funded housing and a relocation allowance of over $100,000 over four years.
In a May 16 interview with UCSD News, Khosla said that he looks forward to working with students to improve university life.
“I cannot imagine an education better than the one provided by UC San Diego, because of its great strengths in the arts and humanities, the sciences and medicine and engineering and technology,” Khosla said.”
Khosla will visit UCSD’s campus on Thursday, May 17 to hold a press conference, viewable online at 11:45 a.m.
The Regents held its meeting amidst talk of a controversial multi-billion dollar state budget gap and the possibility of more tuition hikes for in-state students. The meeting was interrupted at one point by a group of around 15 student protesters. According to the Los Angeles Times, the regents had to switch rooms to avoid disruption from the protesters.
Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a new budget proposal on Monday, where he said that the state would have to make up a nearly $16 billion shortfall for the 2012 fiscal year — seven billion more than had been anticipated in January.
The Associated Press reported in a May 9 story entitled, “University of California weighs more tuition hikes” that UC Regents is considering a 6 percent increase in tuition — roughly $731 per year — for 2012-13 if the state legislature passes a $50 million cut to each the UC and Cal State systems.
In a YouTube address to Californians released May 12, Brown warned that more cuts to education may be imminent if voters do not approve his new tax initiative in November.
“We can’t fill a hole of this magnitude with cuts alone without doing severe damage to our schools,” Brown said in the video. “That’s why I’m bypassing the gridlock and asking the people of California to approve a plan that avoids cuts to schools and public safety.”
Brown’s tax plan would raise sales taxes by a quarter of 1 percent over the next four years. Additionally, “high-income earners” would pay up to 3 percent more in income taxes for seven years.
UC administrators have said earlier this month that tuition may rise by a double digit percentage increase if the tax plan fails.
“We’re at a critical stage at the university. The Regents would face more draconian choices if the governor’s initiative fails,” UC Vice President for Budget and Capital Resources, Patrick Lenz said in a May 9 interview with The Associated Press. “Short of an ability of the state to buy out a tuition increase, I’m not sure how we would avoid one.”
The regents will not vote on the proposed 6 percent tuition increase until its next meeting in July at earliest.
