UC Budget Cuts (2020-2021)

According to the Campus budget update released by UC Santa Cruz, current state budget (which Governor Newsom signed on June 29, 2020; source) is cutting UC systemwide funding by $300.8 million (8.1%) from current levels, effective July 1. The cuts may be reversed if the state receives federal stimulus funds by October 15 (another source said October 1), in which case the UC system would receive up to $471.6 million to offset cuts, netting an increase of $170.8 million (4.6%).

I consulted several news sources (some cited above) and the exact cuts are unclear to me (there seems to be some increases in funding and some likely cuts, with net cuts of $300 million?). Below are additional sources if you want more information:

• Summary PDF of Enacted Budget released by California Department of Finance (check this page for the detailed budget later)
• Artificial Crisis at UCI: Austerity or Humanity? How Disposability Politics Guides the University’s Treatment of Students and Workers is an opinion piece published on the UCI student newspaper accusing the UCs of mismanaging funds and “fabricat[ing] the image of being poor” – this is not new or surprising, since a 2017 state audit essentially accused the UCs of the exact same thing (find more information and link to the state audit report here).

As I mentioned in my analysis here (students who are not enrolling in colleges now will likely come back and reapply in the future, making the upcoming admission cycles really competitive due to overcrowding; this is in addition to the possibility that UCs may eventually reduce enrollment to cope with the budget shortfalls), I strongly recommend students with four-year college options to move forward with enrollment. For students who are applying next year or later, brace for fierce competition as more students vie for fewer resources.

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