Stop the Ranting and Take Responsibility
Mike Ward | Oct 11, 2009 | Comments 8
The people who talk around campus concerning the budget cuts tend to fall into one of two categories: those who feel the University of California should not endure any budget cuts or those who feel the cuts should be made as long as they are confined to specific places, such as the salaries of the University’s overpaid senior management.
However, I seldom hear anyone taking a middle ground and accepting the budget cuts as an unpopular, but necessary, way to maintain the standards of the University of California. I am not a supporter of increased tuition or the firing of staff, but my peers’ uneducated ranting has compelled me to express what I feel is the most important topic being overlooked in this discussion: we, the students and faculty of the University of California, must take responsibility for the financial crisis threatening our school. We cannot shift accountability and blame to others.
As a student who works and takes out loans in order to get through school, the increase in tuition was both unexpected and upsetting. Initially, I found myself among those who did nothing but complain. However, further contemplation has allowed me to grasp the reality of the situation.
Although it is overwhelming how much our tuition has risen, I understand that we get what we pay for. While in the past, the low tuition paid by UC students was enough to keep up the classes and programs that made our university one of the best in the nation, this is no longer true. Given the decreasing state funding levels, keeping up that standard will require more work and sacrifices from students, faculty and executives alike.
We do not want the quality of our education to fall, but we fail to grasp that our tuition offsets the tremendous cost of operating a research university. Many members of our faculty are very prestigious and well respected in their fields. However, they do not work simply for their love of the subject; they are also driven by financial compensation. After all, they must provide for their own families.
Similarly, we do not recognize the staff and faculty who have taken pay cuts and yet continue working. I have also heard, on more than one occasion, that it is “billionaire” executives who are the cause of the problems, yet many of them have taken voluntary cuts in pay in order to ease the stress on students.
The salaries of the 340 members of the senior management team constitute less than one percent of the total money spent on employee compensation. They are subject to the same unpaid furloughs experienced by all state employees. Cutting their salaries further would fail to even scratch the surface of the UC’s $500 million budget hole.
In fact, it is unlikely that any one solution can solve the economic woes faced by the university.
The changes we are experiencing are unpleasant, but they have to be made. It is unfortunate that the University of California must resort to layoffs of its staff in order to stay solvent; however, these layoffs enable the hundreds of other campus employees to keep their jobs.
Drastic decisions in times of crisis tend to lead to temporary fixes that mask the problem rather than address it in a constructive manner. We must not make this mistake. It will take time for the University of California to recover from the drastic and immediate cuts to its working budget from the state. Yet, it is important as we move forward, that we be willing to shoulder some of the burden caused by the decreased budget in order to allow the university, and the state, to recover enough to incorporate the long term changes necessary to solve this crisis.
Mike Ward is a fourth-year biology major. He can be reached at mfward@uci.edu.
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excellent article! i’ll be back for sure.
Hey Mark, I’m doing a report on the budget cuts and i was wondering if I can meet you sometime during next week so that I can get some help finding info about the budget crisis and it’s effect on campus. Do u have a facebook i can contact u with?
Here’s the thing. UC has $8.5 BILLION in discretionary funds. Administrators have constantly lied and given contradictory replies about where that money is, but the important thing is that they won’t permit public scrutiny over the budget. Additionally, executive salaries and compensation is 3x higher than the actual amount of the cuts. Cut their salaries by 1/3 and the budget crisis is over. And you know, executive salaries actually rose by $9 million this year.
Drake and Yudof have also lied to students and departments in saying that the graduate block hasn’t been cut, yet grad students are being stripped of their contractually-given funding due to lack of funds. Drake and Yudof are constrained by the limits placed upon them by Sacramento, but they have proven to be pathological liars when it comes to budget allocations.
It was also recently revealed that tuition dollars are deposited in a bank in NY and held as collateral for bonds used exclusively for the construction of new buildings. So, bonds have risen from $4 Billion to $6.5 billion over the past year or so, while tuition will be rising as much as 50% between fall 2008 to fall 2010.
It’s hard to tell exactly what Yudof and co. are up to, since they have been so secretive. But as Milton Friedman preached, periods of crisis or even perceived crisis provide the opportunity to make profound changes to social services that people wouldn’t normally allow. It seems that Yudof is taking this advice to heart, artificially deepening the crisis as we perceive it here in order to restructure the mission of the university.
First off, thank you John and Adrienna for your responses.
In response to John:
As I stated in my Opinion piece, the administrators were subject to the same furloughs put on hourly employees (that may have changed recently that I am unaware of). President Yudof is highly paid, and perhaps he should take additional cuts. But, even if he (and all of the other highly paid members of the Senior Management Team) were forced to work for free, we would still need additional measures to fill the budget gap. There are other solutions to the UC’s problems, but simply pinning them on President Yudof (or any single place) is what I take issue with.
I am unaware of any secret plot to privatize the University of California or to force out low-income students. As a part of our campus constitution, one third of all tuition increases go directly to financial aid. In my opinion, the students in the middle (who receive no financial aid, but who do not make enough to pay for their tuition without huge loans) are the ones suffering from tuition hikes.
Furthermore, the University of California has an A+ (or higher) credit score because of the way that credit is calculated. In the past, the UC has paid off its debt on time (probably) 100% of the time, has been borrowing for a very long time (boosting the credit score), and has a moderate debt to asset ratio. These factors can misleadingly give rise to high credit ratings (like the banks who still have A or BB+ credit ratings but needed billions of bailout money in order to survive).
And call me naive, but when comparing the global economy and state budget problems with what Yudof is saying about the UC’s budget problems, I believe them. It seems reasonable that we have a large deficit, and unlikely that it is a hoax in an attempt to cut employees and privatize the campus.
I am interested in any information that counters what I have read.
And finally, in response to Adrienne:
Facebook is always 100% serious. I must not be creditworthy based on one of the many humorous groups I have joined (I realize that some do not share my definition of humorous). Similarly, people who participate in “Mafia Wars” are serious about their desire to sell drugs and commit murder. Their opinions are not as valid as yours.
You should friend me, I was tagged in a photo depicting a man holding a baby on a sandwich roll. That will surely justify your claim.
You are welcome to voice your disagreements with my opinion (In fact I encourage it). However, attacking my credibility based on a social networking website seems (to me at least) as a desperate attempt to justify your own viewpoints without any backing whatsoever.
Also, anyone that writes an article and is also in a facebook group called “Women: Making Babies, Sandwiches and Trouble Since the 6th Day of Creation” should automatically be discredited.
And by Max, I mean Mike of course.
Max,
How’s that for uneducated ranting?
So you’re suggesting that we just shut up and take it? And when they raise tuition by another 15% next month, same thing? Maybe UCI should start handing out lube to students during Welcome Week.
The problem with your argument, is that students aren’t just “ranting.” Student and faculty are organizing to resist the cuts, just as administrators are resisting their own cuts. We’re also proposing some equity in the furloughs, so that Yudof, who partially got us into this mess, bears more of the burden than hourly workers and students. Finally, until Yudof actually releases the budget, which should be available to the public but is being kept secret, it’s impossible to say that tuition hikes and furloughs are actually necessary. Judging by their effort to hide budget information, it seems like there’s something they don’t want us to see.
Finally, we’re not bearing the burden so that they can fix the UC. This is part of a larger strategy to further privatize the campuses and force out lower-income students. The Council of UC Faculty Associations just published a report (http://www.cucfa.org/news/2009_oct11.php) that the tuition hikes are actually being used to pay back bonds. This is why the UC system, which itself is in the midst of crisis and is funded in part by the state of California, which is also on the verge of bankruptcy, is able to secure high-rated bonds, A+ ratings I believe. Let me repeat: despite allegedly having no money, and being forced to lay off workers, furlough faculty, and raise tuition, they have an impeccable credit rating.