Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's testimony before UC Board of Regents

As the sixth Chancellor to speak this morning, I support the comments made by my fellow Chancellors who have already described  the devastating effects of these cuts to their campuses. Berkeley is similarly impacted by this steep reduction in state funding.  

We support the furlough program. The furlough/salary reduction plan will save some 450 staff positions this year at Berkeley, positions that would otherwise have to be eliminated immediately. This loss on top of the existing cuts that we have assigned would have rendered many units virtually dysfunctional.

We are making changes in a deliberative way.

Faculty
I recently was at a meeting of university presidents of a number of our peer universities. We are the only university among our competitors whose faculty are taking a furlough. We support the need to do this; however, our faculty salaries lag some $25,000 behind our peers. With the furlough, this gap will increase to $40,000. We can manage for one year, but not beyond.

We are slowing down drastically our faculty hiring (fewer than 10 searches this year and next in lieu of 100). This is not sustainable.

Predicted consequences

• Course reductions of about 8 percent and likely more to come. There will be more impacted courses. Fewer course offerings and impacted courses will increase the time to degree for our students. (Average time to degree is currently a little over four years, and we expect that will increase by about six months.)  
• Fewer faculty-taught courses at every level as faculty retirements and separations will not be filled. Student-faculty ratios will increase, negatively affecting the quality of the educational experience.  
• Lecturer and GSI appointments are being reduced, the latter by as much as 20 percent in some units, affecting our graduate students and further impacting undergraduate education.
• Reduced services to students such as advising services and library services. Doe Library and all branch libraries are now closed on Saturday and further restrictions on hours are expected. The library is unlikely to have funds to support 24-hour use during final exams.
• Significant reductions in work-study opportunities. For example, the library will not be offering work to one-quarter of the students who seek employment in the libraries. This will hurt those students relying on work-study to help fund their education and will further limit accessibility.

We are addressing issues on multiple tracks in the coming days and months as we grapple with addressing these very deep budget cuts. These are extraordinary challenges.