Thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Santa Barbara campus.
We have gone through budget reductions since 2003. In the consecutive seven years since, including the coming year, our accumulated total reduction in State funding is $102 million. This is approximately 30% the current-year state budget of our campus.
The reduction last year was $16 million. In the coming year, we are facing a reduction of $45 million -- three times the amount of last year.
So, what have we done? And what are we going to do?
First, we have made work force reductions:
- During the past year, we have reduced our staff by 235 FTEs, including layoffs, eliminating unfilled positions, and reducing time. Such work force reduction has spread through all levels, from service workers to vice chancellors.
- For example, we have five vice chancellors on our campus. In order to save money, we have suspended the searches for two vice chancellors. Their organizations have been restructured and are now overseen by existing associate vice chancellors.
- We have also reduced the number of associate and assistant vice chancellor positions.
- To meet the budget cut of the coming year, which is three times as much as last year, we anticipate a work force reduction far greater than last year's number of 235 FTEs.
I must sincerely thank my remaining colleagues on campus, for working so much harder and helping each other out.
Last year we slowed down, almost to a halt, our faculty searches that were needed to replace retirements and separations. This year, we do not see a way to replace the attrition of faculty who are retired or separated.
Faculty members are the lifeblood of a university. Recruitment and retention are the pumping heart of this lifeblood. We are deeply concerned about losing our top-quality faculty members.
For example, two of our most respected National Academy members have just been recruited away by an Ivy League school in Boston, and left a few weeks ago. A third National Academy member is leaving next month.
Reductions in work force are reductions in services. Over the past six years, we have reduced the budget for student services and administrative services by 30 percent, and our instructional program by 15 percent.
We are facing significantly more budget reductions next year. While we want to find creative ways to maintain the academic quality of our campus, we are concerned about the recent trend of increased class sizes, reduced class availability, and increased faculty workload.
This past year, we cut University Extension by half and suspended its dean's position. We eliminated three support programs, and consolidated a number of administrative offices.
We anticipate two to three times more eliminations and consolidations this coming year.
Let me give some other examples of savings. We sold an off-campus building, and moved units back to campus in order to save several million dollars.
We will implement about 100 projects as part of the UC Statewide Energy Partnership, with an annual savings of $1.3 million, as well as a 16 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
During this time of budget crisis, campus communications are more important than ever before. We are doing a great deal of listening and consultation, in order to think through every step and come up with some workable and humane strategies.
I would like to thank Chairman Gould and President Yudof for their creation of the new task force -- "The University of California Commission on the Future."
I'd like to close by sharing with you some comments we received during our most recent town hall meeting on the budget, held just last week.
Many of our faculty and staff are up in arms about pay reductions. Some of them are even asking for a delay in the salary reduction decision.
Even more, our faculty, staff, and students are deeply concerned about the survival of the University of California as a world-renowned institution. They asked me to convey their request that you do everything in your power to prevent this from happening -- and help us move from de-funding the university, to defending it.
Thank you.