February 28, 2003
TO THE CAMPUS COMMUNITY
Dear Colleagues:
As you know, the State of California is facing a budget deficit estimated by the Department of Finance at nearly $35 billion. The implications for the University of California have been outlined in President Atkinsons January 2003 budget update letter, which can be found at the following web site: http://www.ucsb.edu/campus-topics/budget.
The UCSB campus has now been given a series of budget-reduction targets. While these targets may change as the budget is negotiated in the Legislature this year, it is important to begin a process whereby we develop a strategy that is designed to protect the academic quality as well as the student access that we have strived so hard to achieve. This process also will set the fiscal groundwork for planning our future. Out of this process, then, we must develop a set of principles and actions that will achieve the budget reductions in the near term, and establish a framework for fiscal stability in the long term.
To begin this process, I have consulted broadly with campus constituents, including the Academic Senate, faculty and administrative colleagues, Staff Assembly, Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee, Graduate Students Association, and Associated Students. As a result, I am establishing a Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy to be co-chaired by the Acting Executive Vice Chancellor, Gene Lucas, and the Chair of the Academic Senate Council on Planning and Budget, Joel Michaelsen. The committee membership is attached. The committee has been structured so that it includes administrators, leaders of the Academic Senate, faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students. I am asking this committee to develop a set of principles and priorities that will guide our budget reduction process.
In this deliberation, the committee will interact and consult with a number of groups and committees that already exist, including the Chancellor’s Council of Vice Chancellors and the Executive Vice Chancellor’s Planning Council, as well as the Academic Senate and its Council of Planning and Budget and Executive Committees of each College. In addition, all of the Vice Chancellors have subgroups that they will use to work through the budgeting process, in consultation with their departments and/or units. In this way, we as a campus can identify and reach consensus on a set of principles and actions that will guide our response to the budget situation.
To generate an open and informative process, the committee will develop ways to share information relevant to this budget process and provide opportunity for feedback. Your participation in this process is both important and valued, and your commitment to UCSB is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor
Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy
Gene Lucas, Co-Chair, Acting Executive Vice Chancellor
Joel Michaelsen, Co-Chair, Chair, Council on Planning and Budget of the Academic Senate Edward Collins, President, Graduate Students Association
Anna Everett, Director, Center for Black Studies; Associate Professor, Film Studies
Yolanda Garcia, Executive Director, Student Academic Support Services, Educational Opportunity Program
Chrystine Lawson, President, Associated Students
Todd Lee, Acting Assistant Chancellor for Budget and Planning
George Pernsteiner, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services
Denise Segura, Chair, Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate; Professor, Sociology; Co-Director, ENLACE
Cynthia Stohl, Professor, Communication
Bob Sugar, Professor, Physics
Joy Williams, Assistant Dean of Administration, College of Engineering
Walter Yuen, Chair, Academic Senate
Jules Zimmer, Dean, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
Everett Zimmerman, Professor, English
Ex-officio: Henry Yang