Chancellor Blumenthal on Wednesday addressed the potential impact of state budget cuts to UC campuses in remarks to the Board of Regents at its regularly scheduled meeting in San Francisco. He was among three campus Chancellors (UCLA Chancellor Block and UCSD Chancellor Fox were the others) invited to do so.
Chancellor Blumenthal succinctly conveyed his concerns -- which I share -- that the budget situation we face will put at risk the quality of our institution as well as access for the citizens of California.
His verbatim remarks are available on our campus website. If you have not yet read them, I hope you'll do so. As our campus community continues to deal with significant fiscal uncertainties, a shared understanding of our challenges and how we are dealing with them is more critical than ever.
In remarks to the Academic Senate last week, I outlined steps we are taking to anticipate and strategically address the potential impacts of mid-year cuts. My remarks are posted on our website. I invite and encourage you to review them, and also welcome your comments.
I believe there are three essential points to be made at this juncture:
. The economic environment is unlikely to return to "normal" any time soon. Budget reductions could be significant and may endure for several years.
. It is unreasonable, therefore, to expect in future years to receive state funding at levels we have come to expect.
. Given this, we must ensure new funding sources that will enable us to pursue our core academic, research and service initiatives. That makes a comprehensive campaign for UCSC an essential priority.
These times require that we be extraordinarily efficient with resources; creative and entrepreneurial at all levels of academic and administrative operations; and focused on those educational, research and service pursuits that can have the greatest impact on students, our community and society.
I'll continue to be in touch as we learn more about anticipated mid-year cuts.
