Subject:

An important message from President Yudof to the UC community about State support for the University

Dear Colleagues:

Governor Brown is set to release his revised State Budget on Monday, May 14. At this critical time in California's budget process, the Governor and legislative leaders need to hear from UC supporters that the University of California has been cut enough: It's time to begin reinvesting.

I am asking members of the UC family and our advocates who object to further cuts to UC’s state budget to take action and contact leaders in Sacramento.

If you are concerned about UC’s level of state support, please contact the Governor and the legislative leaders of both parties and urge them to provide additional funding for UC in the 2012-13 budget and to support a long-term funding plan for the University.

Over the last several months, members of the University's senior leadership team and I have been in talks with the Brown administration to secure long-term, adequate funding. While we have reached conceptual agreement on the elements of a long-range plan, we need help to encourage Governor Brown to include the first installment of this funding plan in his revised budget and to ask legislative leaders to support this action.

It is crucial for California lawmakers to commit to reliable, predictable funding levels for UC and to end the cycle of repeated budget cuts and disinvestment in higher education.

On May 1, I joined the leaders of the California State University and the California Community Colleges systems and scores of alumni, faculty, staff and students in Sacramento to advocate for a long-overdue reinvestment in higher education.

And I will join UC Regents and students in Sacramento next week to urge that lawmakers make long-term UC funding a budget priority. We need to send a strong message to the state's political leaders to spare UC from cuts in the 2012-13 budget and to recommit to making higher education a state priority.

Expressing your views on political matters, including the state budget, is a personal choice. But I do encourage you to take action to support what you believe in.

If you want to join this effort and make your voice heard in Sacramento, please go to http://ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/issues/alert/?alertid=61302976 and let your elected officials hear from you.

Note: As a reminder, UC faculty and staff may express their personal views about political matters and engage in advocacy activities so long as they do so on their own time, take care to avoid using UC resources, and make clear they are speaking as a private citizen and not in an official UC capacity.

Thank you for taking action -- and for all you do -- to support UC.

With best wishes, I am,

Sincerely yours, Mark G. Yudof President

If you have questions or comments, please send your reply to communications@ucop.edu.