UC Commission on the Future--Solvency Taking Precedence Over Education

This week, the Regents of the University of California held meetings in San Francisco.  The UC Commission on the Future heard the first round of recommendations from its five working groups, including two of particular relevance to UAEM: the funding working group and research strategies group.  These recommendations, after further analysis and development by the working groups, will be presented to the Commission again in the summer for review and public comment before the Commission presents a final round of recommendations to the Regents this fall.

Chris Newfield, a professor at UC Santa Barbara, noted his concern over the fact that "funding strategies are identified without discussion of education goals."  Indeed, it is not readily apparent from the report just how concerned the working groups are with the educational quality of the UC system, the well-being of its students, or its ability to adequately prepare UC students.

Although some recommendations do seem to be positive--such as increasing transparency in the management of funds recovered through indirect costs--some of the other recommendations are potentially worrisome.  For example, despite claiming that it relies heavily on state funds (equating state funding with private school endowments), the recommendations have the potential to focus too heavily on industry sponsorships and "new funding streams" particularly given the existing problems at the UC, such as a recent report that some UC Regents have direct financial ties to a number of university investments.  

The recommendations can be read in full here.

Krista Cox