The Student Union Assembly put together a budget forum informational meeting followed by a Q&A session led by Alison Galloway regarding the effects of budget cuts after this month’s revision. Photo by Nallely Ruiz

At the Student Budget Forum with executive vice chancellor Alison Galloway, it was announced that UC Santa Cruz’s budget for the 2012-13 school year will have to stand up to some serious slashing.

Galloway said the most optimistic number for the amount expected to be slashed from the budget is approximately $4.5 million if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed tax initiatives are passed this fall. If Brown’s tax initiatives fail, the state is expected to cut approximately $250 million from the UC system budget, and cuts to the UCSC campus are estimated to run from $18–20 million.

Students asked Galloway a variety of questions regarding where and how the budget cuts would be enacted.

“This year, we’re planning our budget around an $8 million cut,” Galloway said. “Money comes in two flavors. There’s permanent money we depend on every year, that we use to pay faculty, give professors tenure, and more. Then we have one-time money. One-time is money we can use back and forth. Typically we have some one time money that we use where we need to. This coming year, we’re planning on taking an $8 million cut out of one-time money.”

When asked about the faculty’s part in deciding what would be cut in collaboration with the administration, Galloway said the dean would first work with department chairs to determine how the one-time money will be spent in addition to planning for permanent cuts in July 2013.

“Then I get the plan, the Academic Senate gets them, and there’s a back and forth,” Galloway said. “For the 2013 budget, it’s going to be a longer process, because the cuts will be much harder to do.”

Chad Oliver, a first-year environmental studies major, asked whether the administration had given any thought to working with students in order to push for more support from the state on the forum’s Facebook page, which was set up so students who couldn’t attend the meeting could voice their concerns to Galloway.

“In the discretionary budget, there is education, health and human services, and the prison system,” she said. “There’s a lot of political pressure to keep the prison system going at the current rate, which tends to pit health and human services against education.”

Galloway also said legislators, like the UC schools, have been met with difficult decisions regarding cuts as well.

“To give the legislators credit, they’re facing some tough choices themselves,” Galloway said. “[Legislators] have to go into one room and listen to educators and their supporters, and then go into the next room where someone is saying if you cut this, I’m only allowed three trips to the dialysis machine in a year and I’m going to die. That’s the kind of pressure they’re dealing with. The concern for us is that if you’re not funding higher education, then you’re not investing in the future of California.”

Student Union Assembly commissioner of academic affairs Jessica Greenstreet said she was concerned about the role that the UC Office of the President (UCOP) plays in taking money out of the campus budget and putting it into their own budget.

“UCOP is projecting a $60 million cut,” Galloway said, “which sounds good, but then they are taking $75 million for special projects on different campuses, so they’re really increasing their budget by $15 million. When we talk to the Office of the President, we say, ‘Well, we can’t cut that — that’s a good program.’ We’re even beyond that now, as we have cut many good programs. We have cut many things that are really good for our faculty, for our students and our staff. But they don’t feel the level of pain that we do.”

Greenstreet also asked if Galloway had any plans to work with UCOP in order to reduce the amount of funds taken from university budgets.

“One of the reasons that we are trying to bring people [from UCOP] down to the campuses is so that they can see the severity of the cuts,” Galloway said. “I would love to show them the Quarry Amphitheater, and tell them we would love to have the money to fix this place up, so it can be a venue again. But we have to fundraise to do that. It’s just not in our budget.”

With the state contribution getting smaller each year, she said, the cuts will keep coming.

“We don’t have anything left to cut,” Galloway said. “There are few things we could cut and still maintain a future for the campus.”

Barry Jakob. Photo by Sarah Manley.

UC Santa Cruz is No. 2 in voter registration at 16 percent, falling right behind UC Santa Barbara at 36 percent, said Student Union Assembly (SUA) vote coordinator Barry Jakob.

Jakob wants to change that with a new SUA initiative: SlugVOTE.

“Ideally, I’d like to see the numbers go up to 40 or 50 percent of the student body,” Jakob said. “I want us to be number one in the UC system.”

SlugVOTE is a planned SUA voter registration initiative conducted by Jakob and several other students. The goals of SlugVOTE, Jakob said, include being a constant presence on campus.

“SlugVOTE is an organization that acts all year, every year” he said. “It’s not just an implied power that only acts a month in advance of election season.”

SlugVOTE isn’t like CalPIRG or other Quarry Plaza staples, Jakob said, but there will be a Quarry Plaza presence.

“We want to outreach in a way that’s different from the way voter registration has been done here before,” Jakob said. “We want people to come to us. We’ll have a table with a five-gallon water cooler, candy, things like that.”

Jakob and SUA communications director Shaz Umer said the central hope behind SlugVOTE is that it will outlast the presence of its current coordinators. Plans are underway for the initiative to be institutionalized within the infrastructure of SUA.

“It’s also being incorporated in the position of SUA external vice chancellor [currently held by Nelson Cortez]. SlugVote will be one of the responsibilities of the office of the EVC,” Umer said.

Most students are probably familiar with the packets received on move-in day, complete with a voter registration form. Jakob thinks that method is too passive, and intends to go door to door among the dorms, knocking and asking people to register to vote.

“Campus move-in day is going to look a lot different. You’ll see a voter registration presence there,” Jakob said. “We want it become a cultural, core feature of UCSC civic engagement. We want it to last for future generations.”

Umer and Jakob also hope the initiative can be interwoven with other campus events.

“We would like to make SlugVOTE services available to all student organizations on campus, and we would like to be able to table at those events,” Jakob said.

Photo by Simren Bolaria

UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal and Executive Vice Chancellor Alison Galloway sat down with student media organizations to answer questions of concern. The meeting took place on April 24 and included City on a Hill Press, KZSC, Banana Slug News, and The Fish Rap Live! 

CHP: UCSC receives less money than many other UC schools, one disparity in funding among UC campuses. What kind of pressures are being exerted on the office of the UC president for more equal allocation?

B: When I became chancellor, I discovered student fees were not distributed back to the campus from which they were collected and UC Santa Cruz got back about 67 cents on the dollar. The disparity was and still is significant. Last year I finally persuaded [the president] to look at this issue and reevaluate the budgeting of the university. The president agreed to put in place rebenching – a revaluation of how state money is allocated among the campuses. On that committee representing UCSC were myself and Susan Gilman, the chair of Academic Senate. When the report comes out it will be reviewed by the campuses. It should be available for students to look at as well. UCSC stands to gain a significant amount of funds from this process.

CHP: This year, the UC faced substantial reductions in state funding as well as increases in costs. How much of this was absorbed by tuition increases and how much of this was absorbed by cuts to jobs, classes, and resources?

B: We face two challenges: one are the cuts from the state, which were about $750 million university-wide last year. To put that into context, $750 million is roughly equal to the total state support for UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, and UCLA, so that’s a huge, huge cut. In addition to that, we continue to face increasing costs. Increases in pension contributions from the university is a good example of that. If you average it out over the last four years, [student fee increases] were roughly half that total of cuts plus cost increases.

CHP: At the last regents meeting. Students argued that they didn’t have enough time to voice their opinions and they were calling for a more democratic process. Do you think that will be effective?

B: Currently, regents meetings last three days. Each have public comment periods for half an hour where students get a chance to express their views. There’s a balance between keeping [the meetings] open for public comment forever versus keeping public comment too short. [Regents meetings] aren’t fundamentally a democratic process. I think it’s quite appropriate that [the regents] hear constituents of the state – that they hear from students and faculty but ultimately [the regents] are charged with making decisions about the university. I think having input is really important but I would not feel comfortable if the state voted on every issue surrounding the university.

CHP: How can students get more involved with the decisions made at regents meetings?

B: At the last regents meeting, two UCSC students spoke and their comments were very different from comments made by other speakers. They were calm, persuasive — they made a rational argument and I think they were listened to because they were not screaming at the regents. Another way to be involved is to write a letter to the regents and president. The third way of getting involved is to come talk to people on campus. Allison holds office hours at Quarry Plaza and I hold office hours in my office; I meet with students all the time. Even if I don’t agree with a student, I’m happy to give them advice on a particular issue and on how to be influential in the process. I think there are a lot of ways that students can get involved and have their voice be heard so they can have a good chance at having an effect on university policy.