Californian Universities to Take a Further Financial Hit. (June 30, 2011)

On June 28 the US state of California's legislature in passing the coming financial year's budget determined that the University of California (UC) system and California State Universities which were already bracing for a total of US$500 million apiece in cuts, will each receive an additional cut of US$150 million.

Between 2000/01 and 2010/11 the UC system has endured a decline in state funding from US$15,020 per student  to US$8,220 which has not only resulted in marked increases in tuition fees, but is also causing at least some administrators to worry that the cuts will be felt in the university's ability to recruit and retain top researchers. An article in the June 29 Los Angeles Times reports on three senior UC, San Diego "cutting-edge cancer research scientists" who will be decamping to Texas' Rice University.

According to the LA Times: "The recruiting package from the private Houston university included 40% pay raises, new labs and a healthy flow of research money from a Texas state bond fund. Another factor, unrelated to Rice, helped close the deal: The professors sense that declining state funding for the University of California makes it a good time to pack their bags. 'What's happening now is that the UC and most of the public schools are getting in a much weaker position to play this game,' said physicist Jose Onuchic, who has taught at UC San Diego for 22 years but will head to Texas next month, along with fellow physicist Herbert Levine and biochemist Peter Wolynes."