Sunday, July 28, 1996

New California budget allocates $2.06 billion to UCsBy Adriene Hill

Summer Bruin Contributor

We can all uncross our fingers and stop holding our breath. The new California state budget has been approved, and undergraduate mandatory tuition will not increase at any of the University of California (UC) campuses for the upcoming school year.

Earlier this month, Gov. Pete Wilson signed California's new $63 billion budget allocating money to allow the UC's undergraduate fees to remain at their current level.

The 1996-97 state budget will give $2.06 billion in general funds to the UC system; an increase of $130 million over last year's budget, marking the largest increase in state funding to higher education in the 1990s.

"For higher-education, this is an all good-news year," said Jean Ross, budget analyst at California Budget Proposal.

In many ways, she seems to be correct. Seventy-eight million dollars in the UC budget plan was approved to provide a 2 percent cost-of-living salary increase for all campus employees and an additional 3 percent salary increase for faculty, effective Oct. 1, 1996. Currently, UC professors are paid 10.4 percent less than their counterparts at comparable institutions. These allocations will reduce the discrepancy to slightly more then 5.5 percent.

Additionally, $9 million has been earmarked to increase the level of funded enrollment at UC schools. This money will be used to add a projected 1500 students (a one percent increase) to the entire system, in an effort to support the admission of all qualified applicants.

Three million dollars have also been added to the UC's Cal Grant program. The "new funds will be used to expand the Cal Grant program," said Cathy Staples, administrative assistant at the Financial Aid Office.

However this will not affect currently enrolled UC students. "If fees aren't going up, (current levels of) Cal Grants aren't going up," Staples added.

But, that's all right with third-year mechanical engineering student Edwin Basquez.

"I heard that they were going to reduce (financial aid). This (budget) gives us, the students, a big load off of our backs," Basquez said.

UCLA will also receive $22 million for the Capital Improvement Program which will entail seismic correction work at Haines Hall, Kinsey Hall, the School of Dentistry, Knudsen Hall, Slichter Hall and Schoenberg Hall.

Many of these increases are in accordance with the compact created last year between Gov. Wilson and the University of California and the California State University. The goals of the four-year plan include increased enrollments, competitive faculty salaries in order to attract and keep outstanding professors, and reduced student graduation time. The compact aims to provide yearly increases in General Fund support.

Despite all of the promising numbers, some students are skeptical. "Money isn't the answer to increase the quality of professors," said Russell Walton, a fourth-year communications student. "They should increase pay for the TAs instead."

Students in the graduate schools also have reason to be unhappy. The tuition per student of the Law School and Anderson School will increase by $2,000 in the Fall of 1996 and students of the schools of Medicine, Dentistry, and Veterinary Medicine will pay an additional $1,000. This is only one in a series of sharp increases which have raised the tuition more than 250 percent in the last four years.

"As a direct result of these fee increases, the accessibility of graduate education is decreased for everyone," Chris Tymchuk, president of the Graduate Students Association, said. "This means that some students may not be able to afford a graduate education, while other students will be forced to go further into debt to finance theirs."

Undergraduate students in the system may be negatively effected by the changes as well.

Currently, it takes an average of 4.3 years for a UC student to graduate. If the number of students in the system grows as planned and the number of faculty remains the same, it is foreseeable that it will be even more difficult for undergraduates to get into the classes they need to graduate in a timely fashion.

"UCLA has been over-enrolled over the last couple of years by approximately 400 (full time) students," said Glyn Davies, assistant vice chancellor of the Academic Planning and Budget Office.

But, Davies was quick to note that temporary faculty positions are being added to help "accommodate the overenrollment situation."