

University of California's diminishing budget options - what would you do? - anigbrowl
http://www.ucop.edu/newsroom/newswire/img/14/14278897124d8151a02d972.pdf

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anigbrowl
tl;dr the total budget of the UC system is $19 billion and they're $1.5
billion short. State funding has been in decline for a decade and tuition
costs to students have risen 280% in that time.

<http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/budgetmyths.pdf> gives a quick
overview and answers some of the really obvious questions (eg you cannot use
funds for buildings to reduce tuition costs). It's not much on details or
tough questions, though.

Budget request [http://budget.ucop.edu/rbudget/201112/2011-12-budget-
summary...](http://budget.ucop.edu/rbudget/201112/2011-12-budget-summary.pdf)
and detail: [http://budget.ucop.edu/rbudget/201112/2011-12-budget-
detail....](http://budget.ucop.edu/rbudget/201112/2011-12-budget-detail.pdf)
Apparently legislators and/or the public don't consider this part very
interesting which is why it's buried 4 levels down. More here:
<http://budget.ucop.edu/>

Finally, we now spend ~6% of state funds on higher education (US/CSU combined)
vs ~10% on our prison system, and yet we still manage to have 200%
overcrowding in the latter. Amazing.
[http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/documents/state...](http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/budget/documents/state_general_funds_chart_c.pdf)

Can't tell you why I posted this here, really - I'm not in UC or paying off
student loans, but I do think that good universities had a lot to do with
California's economic development. I've been annoyed about the regents'
(mis)handling of the budget for the last several years, but it is a fact that
they've cut quite a lot already and are now starting to lose faculty to other
states that can offer more pay. I'm not a finance guy so I wonder what other
approach other people would take.

