Despite dark financial clouds, 2003-04
school year "off to a great start," says Berdahl
20 August, 2003
BERKELEY - With an entering
class as strong as any in campus history, the 2003-04 school
year is off to a good start, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert
Berdahl said during his annual start of the school year press
conference on Wednesday, August 20.
"We're off to a great start, despite those dark clouds
that hover on the horizon and the uncertainty that we face
in terms of the direction the state will be taking in the
years ahead," said Berdahl.
The Chancellor said that while the state financial crisis
has hit home, the campus has made a disciplined and
thus
far
successful effort
to protect
instructional programs. Almost all
classes will continue to be offered, the ratio of teachers
to students will remain the same, and students
should be able to progress toward their degrees without
disruption.
"I don't think that students are going to feel
a profoundly adverse impact upon their experiences here," he
said. "The very essential functions won't be
substantially reduced in any important way."
For the first time in many years, UC Berkeley students
are seeing an increase in UC registration and education
fees. Earlier this month, when the California Legislature
adopted a 2003-2004 budget that presented the UC system
with deep cuts, the UC Regents approved a 30-percent student
fee increase.
Berdahl said the economic blow to students and their families
is being softened in many cases by increased financial
aid.
"We've made a strenuous effort to
recycle funds into financial aid to offset costs. Still,
we recognize that (the increase in fees) is a burden."
While the state budget's impact on UC Berkeley
means dozens of layoffs and unfilled positions, cutbacks
in outreach and student services,
reduced library hours, and less state money for research,
Berdhal said the campus successfully is protecting "the
core mission, the educational mission."
The following
are excerpts from the Chancellor's remarks:
-
On the California Master
Plan for higher education commitment that all students
in the top one-eighth of the
statewide high school graduating class be offered a
place somewhere in the UC system: "In regards to
whether or not we are going to be able to meet the expectations
and the mandates of the master plan by guaranteeing
access
to all qualified students ... I think that remains
to be seen. I think it would be tragic for the state
of California
and for the young people if the promise that's been
part of California higher education for nearly a half
century
were to be broken because it is a promise that has
built the great strength of this state ... We have developed
a
workforce that is as well-educated as any and developed
an industry that's based upon that. I hope it doesn't
happen. But at this point, I don't know that we can possibly
tell
what whoever is governor will have as their priorities
and how the legislature will react to that set of priorities."
-
On faculty retention and recruitment: "It's
clear we're in a very competitive situation. We usually,
if there
are faculty being heavily recruited, make every effort
to match those salary offers and have not seen any
really significant changes in the pattern of losses.
We win about
80-90 percent of those recruitment retention struggles."
-
"We have in place budget strategy
groups that will be thinking about what we will have
to do if we face deeper
cuts next year. We hope that doesn't happen because
we really feel this has been as tough a year as we care
to
have."
-
On preserving the stature of the
library despite cuts that will affect library hours
and staffing: "I have
given a very high priority to the library during my
tenure ... It had been allowed to deteriorate in the
early '90s.
We've recaptured our position among research libraries,
and we intend to keep that. Obviously, there will be
some reduction in the materials budget, but we've reached
a
new, substantially increased base for library materials,
so I don't see that we'll have a repeat of what happened
in the early '90s."
-
On the budget cuts affecting student
services: "We
have tried to protect particularly the financial aid
office, the admissions office and the registrar's office
so that
essential functions won't be substantially
reduced."
-
"The budget will have an impact
on the outreach efforts of the university and that will
probably have a longer
term effect on those inner city schools where we've
had close relationships. Certainly federal funds may
be made
more
available with the (Bush Administration) promise
of no child being left behind, and if they're forthcoming
with
help,
it
will
ease some
of the impact of state cuts."
-
On Proposition 54 on the October
ballot: "Our
outreach efforts are not racially directed, they're directed
at
underperforming
schools. So, Prop 54
will not have a direct effect on our outreach efforts
at all. I've been on record as opposing Proposition 54
and,
indeed, the Regents themselves have gone on record.
I don't think it's a good idea. But we will as a university
continue
to do whatever we possibly can to deal with the fact
that we have a number of underperforming schools and
students
in many inner city schools that need assistance in
preparing for higher education."
-
On the 2,900 new graduate students
he met with this morning: "They
come from 48 states ... and 68 different countries.
We have an enormous array of students from different
backgrounds,
cultures, and countries who really enrich enormously
this campus."
-
On file sharing: "It is an
illegal act, and we don't condone it, and we do not find
it acceptable. And whenever
it's called to our attention, we'll do whatever we
can to stop it. I think that there is growing recognition
among
students that this is not the right thing to do. And
I do think there is something of a beginning of a change
in attitude and culture and recognition that this can
put
students in some serious jeopardy. And so, between
the message from industry and the message the universities
are putting out, I think we're beginning to see a change
in behavior, but even still, it's still a serious problem
at universities, not just at Berkeley. And we're doing
everything we can to address it."
