What if UC system lost state funding?
Lisa M. Krieger / MCT
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: Arts & Leisure
SAN JOSE, Calif. (MCT) - The University of California-Berkeley's law and business schools were once largely supported by the state. Now they're just "state-assisted." In the future, they may be merely state-located.
Faced with a huge state deficit, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer recently suggested the unthinkable: abandoning the entire UC system, a move that would eventually save California an estimated $7 billion a year.
While Lockyer says the concept is simply intended to "generate discussion," it haunts a system already suffering from a steady erosion of funding.
Increasingly, UC campuses reach deep into the private sector for support. And they are not alone: Across the nation, major public universities are shifting away from taxpayer financing. University of Michigan President James J. Duderstadt calls his campus a "privately supported public university."
While UC-Berkeley's Haas Business School and Boalt Law School are public in name, almost three-quarters of their funds already come from tuition and private contributions. UC's undergraduate campuses still rely on the state for much of their budgets _ but the subsidy has plummeted 35 percent since 1990.
Lockyer's "Looking Beyond The Horizon" report, issued last month, is his first to envision a more drastic transformation. "Lockyer does not endorse the idea. He is a UC-Berkeley graduate who recognizes the importance of a publicly funded UC to our economy," said Tom Dresslar of Lockyer's office. "But we've got to roll up our sleeves and get serious about fixing our budget. There are going to be tough choices."
The report has sent shock waves through the UC system; not even President Robert Dynes saw it coming.
"Until I stop breathing, I will fight that," he said. "The central heart and soul of the university is its support from the state of California. That has to remain."
UC - an unparalleled research university system that has driven one of the world's great knowledge economies - would be dramatically changed by privatization, says a December 2006 study by faculty members of the UC Committee on Planning and Budget.
Faced with a huge state deficit, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer recently suggested the unthinkable: abandoning the entire UC system, a move that would eventually save California an estimated $7 billion a year.
While Lockyer says the concept is simply intended to "generate discussion," it haunts a system already suffering from a steady erosion of funding.
Increasingly, UC campuses reach deep into the private sector for support. And they are not alone: Across the nation, major public universities are shifting away from taxpayer financing. University of Michigan President James J. Duderstadt calls his campus a "privately supported public university."
While UC-Berkeley's Haas Business School and Boalt Law School are public in name, almost three-quarters of their funds already come from tuition and private contributions. UC's undergraduate campuses still rely on the state for much of their budgets _ but the subsidy has plummeted 35 percent since 1990.
Lockyer's "Looking Beyond The Horizon" report, issued last month, is his first to envision a more drastic transformation. "Lockyer does not endorse the idea. He is a UC-Berkeley graduate who recognizes the importance of a publicly funded UC to our economy," said Tom Dresslar of Lockyer's office. "But we've got to roll up our sleeves and get serious about fixing our budget. There are going to be tough choices."
The report has sent shock waves through the UC system; not even President Robert Dynes saw it coming.
"Until I stop breathing, I will fight that," he said. "The central heart and soul of the university is its support from the state of California. That has to remain."
UC - an unparalleled research university system that has driven one of the world's great knowledge economies - would be dramatically changed by privatization, says a December 2006 study by faculty members of the UC Committee on Planning and Budget.
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