SubscribeWith state budget negotiations in full swing, members of the UC Board of Regents are joining students in Sacramento today (May 15) to call on lawmakers to reinvest in public higher education. Regents will remain in the capital on Wednesday, holding their first board meeting there since 1993.
Budget archive
Regents call on state to reinvest
May 15, 2012:
Berkeley researchers find big benefits for students, taxpayers and state from funding of higher education
April 24, 2012: The State of California needs to consider the whopping return on investments for higher education as it tries to balance its budget, UC Berkeley researchers say in new study, “California’s Economic Payoff: Investing in College Access and Completion.”
Students step up to budget challenge
March 21, 2012: Clickers in hand, a civic-minded student audience weighs some tough choices on cuts and spending.
Yudof answers top 10 questions about UC
March 9, 2012: As a follow up to last week’s web chat with Mark Yudof, the UC president’s answers to 10 of the top questions on subjects of particular interest to faculty and staff have been posted online.
New budget videos posted: You asked, and Sproul Plaza has the answers 
March 8, 2012: Vice Chancellor John Wilton responds to questions about campus finances that were posed as part of a campus conversation about UC Berkeley’s budget, now playing on the new Sproul Plaza app on Berkeley’s Facebook page. Watch all five videos.
Students rally in Sacramento against public-education cuts
March 6, 2012: Berkeley students, faculty and staff joined thousands of protesters from across California in Sacramento Monday for a mass demonstration against the defunding of public education.
Berkeley 2011 — the year in pictures 
December 22, 2011: Beyond the protests, the story — as always — is one of engagement, passion and perseverance in the face of challenges, whether institutional or personal.
New UC Berkeley financial-aid plan targets squeeze on middle-class students
December 14, 2011: Thousands of UC Berkeley undergraduates from middle-income families will get a helping hand from a new, far-reaching financial-aid plan hailed by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau as “the first program of this sort at any public university in the United States.”
Lawmaker talks budget with students, meets with chancellor
November 30, 2011: State Sen. Kevin De León made a public appearance on Sproul Plaza Monday, followed by a private meeting with Birgeneau in California Hall.
In Sacramento, students take a stand for the future of UC
November 16, 2011: A busload of UC Berkeley students joined a UC rally in Sacramento on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Their message to legislators: “no” to continued funding cuts to public education, “yes” to structural changes needed to increase available state funds.
Rally remarks: ‘Don’t let public higher ed in California be destroyed,’ Breslauer urges
What’s the future of public universities? Forum seeks way forward
October 27, 2011: The role of public higher education in fostering social opportunity and social mobility was the focus of an Oct. 25 campus forum on the future of public universities. It was the first of four public conversations organized by campus deans, at what they called “a definitional moment” for the institution.
Our University: UC’s economic impact, long-term funding strategies and more
September 21, 2011: The monthly newsletter for the UC community also explores the cost of health care, and a grant program that helps move critical research out of the lab and into the market.
Comments sought on proposed voluntary phased retirement program for staff
September 2, 2011: The University of California is proposing a Phased Retirement Program that would help career employees 55 or older transition into retirement by reducing work hours (and pay) for up to three years before retiring, in exchange for a lump-sum payment at retirement.
Birgeneau’s bottom line: ‘Public education matters’
August 25, 2011: In his annual back-to-school media briefing, the chancellor was cautiously upbeat, insisting that despite Berkeley’s budget woes, the campus has managed to maintain its standing among the nation’s great universities.
UC’s Sautter Awards pay credit to streamlining of operations
August 24, 2011:
A mobile web framework that powers the UCLA and UC Berkeley mobile websites, and Berkeley’s Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs Project, which saves the campus more than half a million dollars annually, shared the top Golden Awards in this year’s UC-wide Larry L. Sautter Award competition.
From cracks in the campus budget, a new research community blooms
August 22, 2011: Born of financial crisis, Berkeley’s Institute for the Study of Societal Issues has cultivated a more collaborative, community-based approach to social-science research. In the process, a rickety old campus building has been transformed into a place where scholars can do more with less.
Merit raises planned for faculty and staff
August 17, 2011: Acting on a November vote by the Board of Regents, UC President Mark Yudof outlined a new plan to set up a pool for systemwide merit raises as part of the 2011-2012 budget.
State budget shortfall forces second fee increase for fall 2011
July 14, 2011: The UC Board of Regents Thursday approved a plan to close a $1 billion budget shortfall through a combination of higher student tuition, cost-cutting measures and operational efficiencies. Regents, on a 14-4 vote, reluctantly approved a 9.6 percent tuition increase, effective this fall for all UC students. Also: Retirement plan updates from regents, UCOP
Proposed tuition hike would offset 25% of budget shortfall
July 13, 2011: With cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures in place to fill the bulk of a $1 billion budget gap, the University of California Board of Regents will vote July 14 on a budget and proposal to increase tuition by $1,068 per student for this academic year.
Tuition, fee increases eyed for UC budget shortfall
July 5, 2011: With cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures in place to fill the bulk of a billion-dollar budget gap resulting from steep cuts in state funding, the University of California staff is preparing to recommend to the Board of Regents that roughly one-quarter of the shortfall be offset with tuition and fee increases.
UCOP expresses disappointment with state budget
June 28, 2011: In a brief statement issued Tuesday morning, the University of California Office of the President calls the latest state budget plan “deeply disappointing,” and says UC leaders “continue to oppose further cuts, and support any efforts that will restore long-term stability to state funding of higher education.”
Voluntary reduction-in-time program launched for staff
June 28, 2011: The university has implemented the Employee-Initiated Reduction in Time Program to enable eligible career staff (except Senior Management Group members) to voluntarily reduce their working time and corresponding pay.
Chancellor responds to Gov. Brown’s budget veto
June 16, 2011: In a letter to the campus community, Chancellor Birgeneau praises Gov. Brown’s June 16 veto of a budget proposal that would have increased the cut to UC by $150 million, to $650 million for the coming fiscal year.
Yudof, Gould respond to legislators’ budget plan
June 16, 2011: The new budget proposal approved by the state legislature “should be unacceptable to all Californians,” UC President Mark Yudof and Board of Regents Chair Russell Gould say in a joint statement issued June 15. Its additional $150 million in cuts for UC would likely lead to a “double-digit tuition increase on top of the 8 percent hike already approved for next year,” they say.
Campaign for Berkeley reaches $2 billion, illuminating value of philanthropy
June 8, 2011: The Campaign for Berkeley, the campus’s $3 billion fundraising effort, has hit the $2 billion milestone. Philanthropy will play a central role in guaranteeing UC Berkeley’s future, says Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who acknowledged the new financial reality in which the state now provides just 16 percent of the campus budget, and even less with state cuts looming. “We must thank our extraordinary donors, who deeply believe in UC Berkeley’s public mission, for we are counting on them as never before,” Birgeneau says in the latest issue of The Promise of Berkeley.
Our University: Regents’ budget options, new Merced chancellor, pension news
June 1, 2011: The latest edition of the monthly UC newsletter also looks at the new student health insurance program and a systemwide research website.
UC Retirement Plan contributions increasing July 1
May 24, 2011: Faculty, staff and the university will contribute more to the UC Retirement Plan beginning July 1. Rates for most faculty and staff will rise to 3.5 percent of pay, up from roughly 2 percent for most employees. UC will pay 7 percent of pay, up from 4 percent.
Administration, UC regents discuss strategies for weathering financial storm
May 18, 2011: With the state budget still uncertain, the University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday discussed short- and long-term options for how UC will cope if state financial support for public higher education continues to wane.
UC president responds to revised state budget
May 16, 2011: Responding to the all-cuts option included in Gov. Jerry Brown’s May revision of the state budget, UC President Mark Yudof says such a budget “would represent a dire challenge to the university and a retreat by the state from its historic support of higher public education in California.”
Budget update: Facing UC Berkeley’s economic challenges
May 12, 2011: Vice Chancellor John Wilton provides a video update on how the campus is working through the economic challenges it faces, bridging over cutbacks to preserve access and excellence.
