What are the risks in UC turning to the federal government for funding?

Is UC Davis really a national university?

Read on….

 “As California tightens purse strings, UC turns to Uncle Sam”

by Laurel Rosenhall

Tuesday, Oct. 06, 2009, Sacramento Bee

This article outlines what the federal government has given to UC to help bail the system out of the current budget crisis and what UC wants in the future. In the current budget year, $700 million in federal stimulus funds went to UC to fill the gap in state funding as well as millions of federal dollars that fund scientific research every year at UC.

But UC leaders want to turn the temporary stimulus money into permanent funding. University leaders have sought out members of Congress and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to pitch the idea of the federal government playing a bigger role in funding higher education than they have done in the past, when individual states were up to the task. 

 "There never has been an integrated national strategy in this country for higher education. There needs to be one now," said Mark Yudof, UC President. "The mission is simply too important to leave to state governments that seem disinclined or unable to pursue it."

This new strategy does not mean that UC has given up on the state of California even though it has cut funding to the 10-campus system by 20 percent over the past year and a half. And it doesn't lessen UC's immediate need to raise student fees by 32 percent over the next year. In response to the budget crisis, the university is furloughing professors, raising fees and cutting classes, which has led to campus protests and walkouts last month.

Some Chancellors have taken action. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post a few days ago, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau suggested that President Barack Obama create a national network of the country's top public research universities. If Washington provided sufficient additional funding for operations and student support, then some part of these federal resources would ensure broad access and continued excellence at these public universities for both in-state and out-of-state students.

The status of many of the great public universities as “land-grant” universities, those founded on land the federal government gave the states. makes them essentially national universities, said UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi. "The impact of these institutions grew beyond the border of the states,” she noted. “So now it's the time maybe for the federal government to step in and say, 'This is a national treasure.' "

This push comes at a time when other countries, like South Korea, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, are looking to the US for leadership in creating public university systems.

"Around the world - they understand that to keep their nations competitive, they have to be knowledge factories," Yudof said. "The states and the federal government should be partners in doing this."

So far, federal education officials are noncommittal on the UC proposals, saying they plan to stick to Obama's agenda for higher education.

"The president's higher education agenda is focused on increasing access, quality and affordability for all Americans," said Justin Hamilton, deputy press secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. "We're developing policies that will help us meet that goal."

Read the full article at http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2233520.html