When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized formulaic “autopilot” spending, he wasn’t talking about the formula used to fund UCSD’s Office of Academic Support and Institutional Services. However, there is no more logic to the O.A.S.I.S. budgetary scheme than those of the programs Schwarzenegger criticized.

With the center facing cuts to its permanent budget, the way the university appropriates temporary funds needs to be re-examined.

Currently, those appropriations depend on the performance of broadly classified “at-risk” students, including those who never actually use O.A.S.I.S. Such a system is analogous to basing funding for Preuss School on how all low-income, potentially first-generation college students in San Diego County perform on state tests — whether those students actually attend Preuss School or not.

This page is definitely not opposed to a performance-based funding mechanism for O.A.S.I.S., but only as long as it is based on actual performance measurements. It seems reasonable that the center’s funding be based on two factors: how many eligible students actually use the service and how the students that do use it perform in classes.

Perversely, the current formula attempts to combine the two in such a way that appears to make little practical sense. Of course, it’s quite possible that there is some hidden logic behind the funding mechanism. In that case, however, campus administrators owe the fee-paying students of this campus the information necessary to understand it.

It’s unfortunate that they have, up until now, failed to offer that information.