Proposed UC, Cal State budget cuts decried

The governor's proposed cutbacks for the University of California, California State University and the state's community college system also would mean reductions in financial aid, fewer classes and a decrease in student services, such as counseling, they said.

"California as a state is at a crossroads," Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed said during a telephone news conference. "What is California going to look like in the next 20 years? . . . Funding of higher education needs to become more of a priority if California is going to invest in our future."

A study released Wednesday by the Campaign for College Opportunity concludes that cutbacks earlier in the decade were so severe that the universities still have not rebounded. If Schwarzenegger's new cuts take effect, the universities might not recover for 10 years, he said.

With the new round of cuts, for example, UC and Cal State would have to reduce enrollment by 27,000 over the next 2 1/2 years, enough students to populate a campus, the study found.

The study echoes a report released last week by the UC Academic Senate, which concluded that the governor's plan would reduce the quality of teaching and research at UC and push the 10-campus system closer to privatization by relying heavily on student fees.

To maintain the current level of quality at UC while making up for the cuts, annual student fees would have to jump to $10,500, from $7,511, the UC study found. Within a few years, fees at UC could rise as high as $18,000, it concluded.

"The Schwarzenegger revision accelerates the redefinition of the University of California away from a public university and toward a 'public-private partnership,' " the UC study said. "The university becomes dependent on high student fees for delivering its core educational mission. . . . The university becomes quasi-private or poor -- or perhaps both at once."

UC has been suffering for years from what the Academic Senate study called a "hollowing out" because of lack of money. "From a distance, all appears normal; once one goes inside, the damage is clear," it said. Leaky roofs go unrepaired; valuable faculty leave for better-paying universities; labs are short of equipment and readers to grade assignments; and teaching assistants are in short supply, the UC study said. On at least one campus, faculty office telephones were shut off to save money, and professors there now must use their cellphones.