UCLA Faculty Assn. Chair Dwight Read Suggests a Budget Forum to the Chancellor

Below is the text of a letter sent today by UCLA Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read to Chancellor Block suggesting a budget forum.

Gene D. Block
Chancellor, UCLA
2147 Murphy Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1405

Jan. 18, 2011

Dear Chancellor Block,

As Chair of the Faculty Association at UCLA, an independent, voluntary organization of Academic Senate members on this campus, I am writing to you again about the welfare of the University in the current budget crisis.
Governor Brown¹s budget proposal cuts $500 million from UC's budget if the voters extend tax increases for another 5 years. If this source of revenue fails, there will be much sharper cuts in the UC budget.

How is UCLA going to address this impending crisis? What measures will the campus take to absorb its share of the cut?

We would like to propose a forum be set up at which you, members of your administration, and Academic Senate leaders address these issues. Undoubtedly, there will be some discussion of these matters at the Legislative Assembly. However, such meetings often fall at inconvenient
hours for teaching faculty and are devoted to many routine items other than the budget. We would like to see a forum focused entirely on the budget issue and held in a time slot that most faculty could attend.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Dwight Read
Chair, Faculty Association at UCLA