by Joe Kiskis, CUCFA Vice President for External Relations
On April 7th CUCFA officers, including Eric Hays, Joe Kiskis and Ian Kennedy of the DFA, spent a day personally delivering a faculty perspective on the higher education budget to the state capitol. We met with Lieutenant Governor Garamendi, Assemblymember Anthony Portantino (chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee), and higher education specialists on the staffs of Assembly Speaker Nunez, Assemblymember Julia Brownley (chair of the Assembly Education Finance Subcommittee), and Senator Denise Ducheny (chair of the Senate Budget Committee).
It was very encouraging that all of the people with whom we spoke had a good general understanding of what is at stake for higher education in the current budget discussions. The long-term, comprehensive perspective and analysis that CUCFA contributes was appreciated and well-received.
Our meeting with Lieutenant Governor (and UC Regent) Garamendi was especially gratifying. He has already been speaking out in a very positive way on the big issues associated with funding higher education. The meeting led to a plan for further actions to frame the budget discussions so that they are more likely to result in reforms that will benefit UC, higher education, and more generally all the areas of public investment that are important to Californians.
CUCFA will be following up on these meetings and will send additional reports as things progress in the coming months.