The University of California Board of Regents will hold a special joint meeting via teleconference on Wednesday, Jan. 14, to consider a plan that would curtail freshman enrollment at UC campuses for the 2009-10 academic year due to insufficient state funding.

The details of the proposal will be available online later this week. The meeting agenda, where the item will be posted, is available at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jan09.html.

The meeting will begin with public comment at 2 p.m. Live audio broadcasts of the meeting's open session will be available via the Internet. Reporters and members of the public may also attend the meeting at any of the teleconference locations. For meeting locations and Internet access information: www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jan09.html

Background:

At their November 2008 meeting, the Regents approved a 2009-10 budget proposal for the university. In doing so, they also adopted a resolution stating that UC freshman enrollments next fall will be curtailed if the state does not provide sufficient funding.

Regents said they were reluctant to constrain freshman access to the university but that continuing budget cuts to the university left no choice. UC currently enrolls 11,000 more students than it receives state funding for, and the state's per-student spending for education at UC, adjusted for inflation and enrollment growth, has fallen nearly 40 percent since 1990 -- from $15,860 in 1990 to $9,560 today in current, inflation-adjusted dollars.

The Regents' budget proposed funding for a 2.5 percent enrollment increase, or 5,408 full-time-equivalent students. This funding would allow the university to keep up with undergraduate enrollment growth as well as continue increasing graduate and health sciences enrollments that historically have not kept pace with the state's needs.

More information on the UC budget is at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budget. Background materials for the Regents' budget discussion in November are posted at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov08/f6.pdf.

For more news and information about the University of California: www.universityofcalifornia.edu