UCSD
CAMPUS NOTICE
University of California, San Diego
 


OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT VICE CHANCELLOR
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

July 5, 2000


ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF AT UCSD

SUBJECT:  2000/01 State Budget

For your information, the following is the official news release from the Office of the President regarding the 2000/01 State Budget.

If you have any questions concerning this notice, please contact Dawn Buttrell at 534-3482.


                                                Margaret F. Pryatel
                                                Assistant Vice Chancellor


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 30, 2000
Brad Hayward (510) 987-9195
brad.hayward@ucop.edu

STATE BUDGET INVESTS IN UC TEACHING, RESEARCH, PUBLIC SERVICE

Gov. Gray Davis signed a 2000-01 state budget today (June 30) that funds student enrollment growth at the University of California, expansion of UC's programs for K-12 teachers, increased compensation for university employees, improvements in UC hospital infrastructure, and the creation of three new science institutes pursuing research important to the California economy. The budget also provides funds to keep UC mandatory systemwide student fees even and to reduce summer fees to the level of the rest of the academic year, starting in summer 2001.

"This budget allows us to maintain access to a high-quality, affordable education for all UC-eligible students while also making strategic investments in research, health care and outreach to California's elementary and secondary schools," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson. "I speak for the entire University of California community in thanking the governor and the Legislature for their extraordinary support."

With the benefit of exceptionally strong state revenues, the new budget increases UC's state-funded operating budget by $486 million, or 18 percent, to $3.2 billion for the 2000-01 fiscal year. The state-funded capital budget for UC is $346 million, consisting of $213 million in Proposition 1A bond funds and $133 million in state general funds. The budget also authorizes the university to use $600 million in lease-revenue bond funds for earthquake-safety renovations at UC hospitals.

Highlights of the budget for UC include:
-- Enrollment growth: The budget funds enrollment growth of 6,000 students, or 4 percent. This increase includes the next steps in UC's multi-year effort to double the number of students in its teacher credential programs and to expand engineering and computer science enrollments by 50 percent to help meet California's workforce needs in these fields.

-- Student fees: The budget provides funds to avoid a mandatory systemwide fee increase for the sixth consecutive year, keeping fees at $3,429 for resident undergraduates and $3,609 for resident graduate academic students, excluding campus-based miscellaneous fees. Between 1998-99 and 1999-2000, mandatory systemwide fees actually decreased 10 percent for resident undergraduates and 5 percent for resident graduate academic students.

The budget also will make classes during the summer more affordable for UC students. The state historically has not funded the summer session at UC, so students have been required to pay higher fees to cover instructional costs. The new budget provides funding to make summer fees equivalent with the rest of the academic year, starting in 2001.

Expansion of summer instruction is one of UC's strategies for accommodating an expected 40 percent enrollment increase by 2010. The university will continue seeking additional state funds for the faculty, staff and other costs associated with an expanded summer term.

-- Employee compensation: The budget includes funding for employee salary increases, with additional funding especially for employees in lower-paid positions, as described below. These are not across-the-board increases; actual pay increases will vary depending upon an employee's compensation program and applicable collective bargaining requirements.

Funding is provided for an average 2 percent employee salary increase, plus normal merit increases; an additional 1 percent market-based adjustment for faculty members, to keep UC salaries competitive with those offered by its comparison institutions; and market-based adjustments for cooperative extension specialists and certain information technology employees. The governor also has approved an augmentation of $19 million for salaries of staff employees and other employees not eligible for the faculty market-based adjustment, with a priority on improving compensation for lower-paid UC employees. The exact distribution of these funds has not yet been determined.

-- Undergraduate education: The budget includes $6 million to improve undergraduate instruction, the first installment of an investment that UC hopes to eventually expand to $50 million per year. Campuses will be able to use the funding to reduce class sizes, offer additional lower-division seminars, provide more undergraduate research opportunities, and offer more academic advising, among other things.

-- Outreach and K-14 programs: The budget includes $71 million to create or expand UC-led programs providing professional development to teachers in California's public schools. Major elements of this package include expansion of the California Subject Matter Projects, which provide subject-specific professional development activities; expansion of the Governor's Reading Professional Development Institutes for K-3 teachers; and creation of similar professional development institutes for high school math and English teachers. Beyond teacher development programs, the budget also includes a $4 million augmentation to a UC program providing online Advanced Placement courses to students in schools with few or no AP classes; a $1 million expansion for the California State Summer School for Math and Science, which provides enrichment to academically talented high school students; a $1 million augmentation for the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program; $1 million for an initiative to improve community college transfer to UC; and $1 million for graduate and professional school outreach.

-- Health care facilities: The budget provides $50 million for non-seismic infrastructure needs at UC's five teaching hospitals, $25 million in one-time funds for hospital equipment needs, and authorization to use $600 million in funding from lease-revenue bonds for earthquake-safety renovations needed at UC medical centers.

-- California Institutes for Science and Innovation: UC's capital budget includes $75 million for the creation of these three institutes, proposed by Gov. Davis, which will focus on scientific and engineering research in fields key to the future of the California economy. Each institute will bring together faculty, students and industrial partners to work in cross- disciplinary teams aimed at developing the next generation of knowledge in the field. Preliminary proposals for the centers are being reviewed, and selections will be made in the fall.

-- Capital program: The capital budget, which includes $213 million in bond funds approved by voters through Prop. 1A, will fund a variety of projects throughout the UC system to expand and upgrade academic buildings for enrollment growth, renew outdated infrastructure, and make earthquake-safety improvements. Also, $4 million in general funds is provided for planning alterations and new facilities at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine to address accreditation requirements.

-- Building maintenance and other core needs: The budget includes a 1 percent increase, or $26 million, in ongoing funds for building maintenance, instructional technology, instructional equipment and library materials at UC. It also provides an additional $20 million in one-time funds specifically for deferred maintenance, instructional equipment and libraries.

-- UC Merced: The budget provides $44 million through two state agencies to foster the development of the new UC Merced campus in environmentally sensitive ways, including development of a habitat conservation plan and acquisition of additional acreage to ensure protection of wetlands and wildlife. The budget also provides $19 million for initial infrastructure and for planning and working drawings of the first two buildings at UC Merced - the Science and Engineering Building and the Library/Information Technology Center. The budget includes approximately $10 million in ongoing operating funds for the campus.

-- Santa Clara Valley regional center: The budget provides $1.1 million to begin planning a UC Santa Cruz regional center in the Silicon Valley, part of the university's plans for accommodating student enrollment growth in the next decade.

-- Internet2: UC will use $50 million in the new budget to expand access to Internet2, the high-speed next-generation electronic highway. Of this amount, $32 million will be used to expand Internet2 access at K-12 schools; $18 million will be used for that purpose at UC campuses.

-- Graduate Medical Education: The budget's implementing legislation extends for two years a program that uses state funds to leverage federal dollars to help fund the costs of providing graduate medical education at UC teaching hospitals.

-- Research initiatives: The budget includes more than $60 million for a variety of other research initiatives. Highlights include $30 million for the MIND Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) at UC Davis; $6 million to expand the university's research efforts on labor issues affecting California's workforce; $5 million for collaboration with Mexican scholars on U.S.-Mexico issues; and $5 million for expanded research in the fields of engineering and computer science.