Resource Gap:
Notes From the Chancellor' Retreat

At the Chancellor’s Leadership retreat in early September of this year the convocation examined the key issues facing UCLA during the years ahead. The Chancellor began the retreat with an outline of what he viewed as the central problem facing UCLA in the years ahead. I will try to summarize his arguments, knowing full well that I will not do justice to the nuanced and eloquent presentation the Chancellor provided.

We take it as given that UCLA is among the premier public universities in the world. On the major rankings of public colleges and universities, UCLA is consistently recognized as among the top five. The concern is with maintaining UCLA among the best research universities in the world, both public and private. UCLA has the resources to compete with the best public universities. However, historically the University of California has competed with the best research universities in world—both public and private.

UCLA aspires to be one of the world’s premier research universities. To accomplish this requires having the resources to compete for the best faculty and students. The best faculty requires resources and colleagues that permit competing with the best. The flexible resources for research universities come from three major sources: 1) tuition and fees, 2) endowment, and 3) state support. It is instructive to compare UCLA with USC and Harvard on a per student basis.

USC receives about $25,000 per student in tuition, and approximately $2,000 per student derives from their endowment. They don’t receive significant state funds. Thus, their total per student support is $27,000.

UCLA receives about $4,000 per student in tuition, about $2,000 per student from endowment funds (roughly equal to USC) and about $12,000 per student in state support. The total is about $18,000. This is 50 percent less than USC.

Harvard receives about $27,000 per student in tuition, about $40,000 derives from endowment, and no significant state support. Their total is $67,000 or several times what UCLA receives.

In this setting can UCLA compete? A decade ago UCLA and Berkeley were receiving funding on a per student basis that was comparable to USC and in a position to compete on a selective basis with elite private universities.

The current resource gap could lead to a concomitant quality gap between these campuses. UCLA could not compete with its current resource base.

The solution will require,  in part, an increased effort to attract endowment. The current state budget situation makes one less than sanguine about the prospects for increasing state support.

The other reasonable prospect is to partner with students to find an approach to increasing tuition and fees that will preserve the quality of UCLA, assure full and open access to the campus irrespective of a student’s economic background, and to maximize use of state and federal support for students.

There are many issues which face the university. The task is to identify the central issues and work toward their solution.

Participants in the retreat identified a number of issues (such as graduate student support, academic resources, space and others) that needed to be addressed. As a result, the Chancellor has formed an administration Task Force that will report back to him on these issues which have been defined as primarily concerned with resource allocation. The Task Forced is chaired by Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Neuman and will oversee the work of six action groups.

1. Graduate Student Support
2. Faculty Quality of Life
3. Deploying Existing Academic Resources
4. Space
5. Process for Allocation and Reallocation
6. Generating New Resources

The action groups report to the Task Force which includes the chairs of the six action groups, the Executive Vice Chancellor, the chair and vice chair of the Academic Senate and several others. The Academic Senate has been invited to submit recommendations for members of the various action groups and has done so. 

The  Task Force and its action groups have a demanding and challenging schedule. We look forward to the achievements of this Task Force. The Task Force comes at a very important time in the history of UCLA. 

Notes from Duncan Lindsey, Chair, UCLA Academic Senate

also see: link to article in UCLA Today

Now beginning his sixth year at the helm of UCLA, Chancellor Albert Carnesale talked with Karen Mack of UCLA Today about the state of the campus, his vision for UCLA’s future and the special challenges posed by a lean budget environment.

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