Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site sdchema.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!ucbcad!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn From: donn@sdchema.UUCP Newsgroups: net.college,uc.general Subject: Welcome to Hard Times (III) Message-ID: <812@sdchema.UUCP> Date: Thu, 18-Aug-83 21:40:19 EDT Article-I.D.: sdchema.812 Posted: Thu Aug 18 21:40:19 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Aug-83 13:24:33 EDT Organization: UC San Diego Chemistry Dept. NIH Research Resource Lines: 87 This is in place of comments of my own that I'm still working on... My only remark on the article is that I want to direct your attention to the fact that that computer users are getting the short end of the stick; this is particularly short-sighted, especially since UCSD has already committed itself to computer education. The current Computer Center resources are so overused that individual departments have sought outside funding for computers (the CC Unix VAX 11/780 runs at capacity with 64 users and a load average between 30 and 60, 24 hours a day, at the ends of quarters). I have misplaced the paper that this article occurred in; it was in the LA Times San Diego Edition, Pt. II p. 1, but I don't have the date. Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UCSD Officials Told to Make Cuts: University Loses $4 Million in Funds Axed by Deukmejian By Lanie Jones, Times Staff Writer UC San Diego division heads were told Monday they will each have to trim 1.8% from their coming year's budget to cope with state funding cuts. The $1.7 million in across-the-board cuts for university divisions is part of the $4 million in cuts facing UC San Diego because of the $48.6 mil- lion Gov. George Deukmejian slashed from proposed University of California system funds before signing the state budget July 21. Each of the university's eight major divisions -- from the UCSD Medical Center to the Academic Senate -- will be affected by a 1.8% reduction, said Vice Chancellor Wayne Kennedy in letters sent Monday. Measures could include cutting supply budgets, deferring hiring and pos- sibly even laying off staff members later in the year, John Woods, associate vice chancellor, said in a morning briefing session for reporters. However, he said there will be no layoffs immediately and none among the faculty. The move was in sharp contrast to the way the president at San Diego's other state-funded university has decided to make cuts over the past five years. At San Diego State University, President Thomas B. Day has repeatedly rejected across-the-board cuts, saying they ultimately sap all the resources of a university. Instead, Day has favored "narrow, deep" cuts in areas he has not viewed as central to the university. For instance in 1979, he proposed doing away with recreation and industrial studies departments; last year he threatened major cuts in the student health service. Day's proposals for cuts, however, have often been met by cries of outrage from affected faculty and students. Money has usually been found to avert their full impact and Day's proposed "deep" cuts have never been fully implemented. At UCSD, however, Woods said, the across-the-board cuts were the con- sensus of a committee of top university executives and heads of those divi- sions affected. The cuts were not likely to be opposed, he said. The divi- sions involved are academic affairs, the UCSD Medical School, Scripps Institu- tion of Oceanography, business and finance, resource management, the chancellor's office, undergraduate affairs and the UCSD Medical Center. But, if faculty and staff are expected to accept across-the-board cuts, they and campus budget officials still regard them as serious. Five years after the passage of the landmark property-tax cutting initiative, Proposition 13, UCSD is fighting an uphill battle to remain a top research university. In addition to the $1.7 million in across-the-board cuts, the university must cut $330,000 from its instructional materials budget this year, putting off purchase of new, badly needed computers. It plans to forgo $158,000 in deferred maintenance in the 1983-84 year. Also, because Deukmejian did not fund a $1.9 million budget item to cover utility increases, the university may be forced into another round of 2% across-the-board cuts later in the year if it cannot find another source for the money, Woods said. The governor cut out merit increases for faculty and staff, but the UC system is cutting other areas to put those expenses back in. Even with the reductions, the university's overall budget is up slightly over last year -- by 1.9% to $118.2 million. But it is not keeping pace with inflation, Woods said. "If you look at the budget for the last three years, state funds have increased 15% and inflation has increased by 16%. So that's pretty close to a wash," he said. "But the kicker is that over the same period our student enrollment is up by 19%. So with the same real dollars, we are trying to educate one fifth more students." (This year about 12,500 stu- dents are expected to attend, up from 10,300 three years ago.) Woods predicted continued long waits for use of university computers and fewer sections of come classes this fall. Some campus roofs leak and cannot be fixed now, he said. Also, Woods said, although students may not notice it, many UCSD comput- ers are outmoded. To remain a "high-tech" university, UCSD should be replac- ing many of its computers every two years, but instead is updating them at earliest every five. In addition, he said, the engineering school had only 55% of the space it should be allotted, according to state standards for its enrollment and faculty. The result was crowded classes and two or more professors sharing research space designed for one professor.