Berdahl’s budget message to campus
Chancellor, promising broadly based participation in decision-making, says cuts will be made within the context of ‘core institutional values’

05 February 2003

Promising an “expeditious and transparent” process of identifying significant cuts to the campus budget for 2003-04, Chancellor Robert Berdahl, in a message to the campus community, last week announced the establishment of two committees and an array of working groups to advise on and develop specific budget-reduction strategies. The top priority for all in the process, he said, will be “to sustain and enhance Cal’s academic and professional programs.”

The Executive Budget Steering Committee, to be chaired by Berdahl, will “develop initiatives and implementation plans” for cuts in various areas, relying in that effort on advice from a range of campus sources. Specifically, a set of seven working groups from both functional and “cross-cutting” areas will develop options for both cost savings and revenue enhancements, while a top-level Budget Advisory Committee will advise on specific strategies developed by the Executive Budget Steering Committee. The advisory committee will include members from the faculty Senate, staff, and student body, in an effort to encourage campuswide participation.

The Budget Steering Committee will also seek advice from the Chancellor’s Cabinet and the Council of Deans.

The seven working groups will focus on the following areas:

• Functional Areas (chaired by Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul R. Gray)
• Central Administration, Administrative Services, Academic Support, and IST (chaired by Vice Chancellor James Hyatt)
• Research (chaired by Vice Chancellor Beth Burnside)
• Student Services, Outreach, and Public Services (chaired by Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla)
• Communications Management (chaired by Vice Chancellor Donald McQuade)
• Revenue Generation (chaired by Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell)
• Human Resource’s Initiatives (chaired by Assistant Vice Chancellor David Moers)

Berdahl noted that a set of operating principles will guide the budget process within the context of Berkeley’s “core institutional values” (see box at right), and that budget decisions — in keeping with the last-named of those principles — will be communicated to the university community “in a clear, concise, and timely manner.”

Additional information: