Incoming UC President Mark Yudof was quoted extensively in an article printed recently in the San Jose Mercury News. The excerpts below indicate that CUCFA has its work cut out for it educating him to some UC budget realities.
“Yudof said he is committed to the public-university philosophy of educating the masses, but with public funding dwindling, it’s time to take a much more serious look at private money. ‘I call it a hybrid university,’ he said. ‘The University of California is a public university and should remain one. But it is true that the streams of revenue have become much more diversified.'”
The idea that private donations can compensate for cuts in state funding is something CUCFA has had to confront with members of the state legislature.
The facts are UC already aggressively chases funding from philanthropy, having tripled funding from that source since 1990 in real dollars. All UC endowments as of 6/30/07 were around $6.7 Billion (putting UC in the top ten, data from the Chronicle of Higher Ed., vol. 54, issue 10).
However, unless UC spends down the principal, only about 1/20 of that is available to spend in a given year. Furthermore, most private giving is directed and can not be used for core costs. According to Chris Newfield, chair of the UC Planning and Budget Committee, at UC 95% of private giving is restricted in this way. Thus, for every dollar of state support lost, an enormous amount of endowment support would have to be raised.
The full Mercury News article is available at:
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_9400962