President Robert C. Dynes
Video Letter Transcript, January 2007
Hi, this is Bob Dynes. Welcome back from the holiday break, and welcome to 2007! I was
very happy to kiss goodbye to 2006 and ring in 2007. It’s time to look forward, to focus on
the future of the University of California, and to focus on what we can do for the future of
California. That’s what I’m doing, and I hope that’s what you’ll be doing as well.
In the last few months, we’ve had a lot of activity going on. We’ve been filling some of our
vacant leadership positions, both at the campuses and at the Office of the President, and
the people we have been bringing on are first-rate.
We’ve worked with the Governor’s Office to develop a research and innovation initiative for
California that draws on the unique abilities of the University of California. This initiative
would provide operating funds for the California Institutes for Science and Innovation, and it
would support some major research efforts going on around UC in the fields of green
energy, alternative fuels, and the like.
We also received the governor’s state budget proposal for next year. It funds the Compact;
it funds student enrollment growth; and it would allow us to have a 5 percent pool for
faculty and staff compensation increases next year, compared with 4 percent this year.
We appreciate the governor’s support for the compact at a time when the state still has a
difficult financial situation and is facing a structural budget deficit of about $4 billion.
On the other hand, the budget does not provide funding for academic preparation or labor
research programs; it does not provide funding for retirement contributions; and it assumes
a student fee increase of about 7 percent next year.
We’ll be working with the Regents on all of these issues; we’ll be working very hard in
Sacramento to get restoration of the academic preparation and labor research funding; and
if there is a fee increase, we’ll work to ensure that financial aid goes up as well. Access and
affordability for students remain critical priorities for the University.
Finally, as I look ahead to the coming year, I’m going to be working to maximize the
strengths of the University of California as an entire system. We have ten excellent
campuses – plus our national laboratories, ANR and many other programs across the state –
and when we put all of their strengths together, we have what is truly the finest university
anywhere in the world.
When we plan and act as “one university,” we really do maximize our contribution to
California, to the nation, and to the world. I want to thank you for your contributions to the
service the University of California provides, and I look forward to working with you this
year to expand even further what we do for this great state.
Thanks, and we’ll be talking again.
