UC Santa Cruz Budget Impact Survey,
This project was sponsored by the Creative Responses to Crisis in Education: An SCFA Small Grants Program.
The Santa Cruz Faculty Association is sending out this Budget Cut Impact Survey to UCSC faculty so that we may assess the particular impacts of recent University of California budget cuts for faculty on our campus. The SCFA notes that since acute UC budget cuts began in Fall 2008, there has been no study of their impact on faculty, i.e. on our teaching, service, research, and morale. Nor have studies been done on how these impacts affect us similarly or differently across divisions, fields, and ranks. Our goal through the survey is to generate this data, and to use it to better represent faculty in our advocacy around the cuts. It will be particularly useful in upcoming budget debates on our campus, in our system, and in our state. In addition, results from the survey will be reported back to the faculty, to help us understand how our individual experience of budget cuts relates to those of our colleagues. Please fill this out! It should only take 10-15 minutes. It will provide very important information.
As added incentive, if you fill it out, you will be entered in a raffle for one of five $50 Bay Tree Bookstore gift certificates.
INSTRUCTIONS:
The questions on the survey refer to impacts since the 2008 budget cuts. Please answer to the best of your ability. If you joined after 2008, you may or may not have direct experience with the campus before then, but you still may be aware of how budget cuts have impacted you. Make sure you click on the link provided on the confirmation page to enter in the raffle prize drawing. Responses to this survey are kept separate from raffle prize entries.
You may access the survey by clicking on the link at the top of the page or right HERE.
BACKGROUND:
As you may know, the University of California has lost substantial amounts of its core state funding over the last 20 years due to ongoing budget cuts. Since 1990, the State of California has cut the proportion of funding it provides the UC by 60%. Beginning in 2008-2009, especially steep cuts of 20% were imposed in the midst of a state budget crisis. Over these four years, UCSC has lost more than $50 million. Prop. 30’s approval last November saved the UC system from an additional $250 million in cuts, though it did not raise additional revenue, and so did nothing to erase budget shortfalls. This includes UCSC’s shortfall of $8 million, which rolled over into the 2013-14 budget. Strategies of compensating for these cuts have focused largely on privatization and a 30% increase in student fees. Such strategies, however, have had impacts of their own. In the past year there has been some reason to expect things might change–our campus has received new monies via rebenching and aspirational graduate growth. However, it is unclear whether or how these initiatives will mitigate the damage that budget cuts have caused. As new responses to the cuts are proposed, the SCFA seeks to represent the faculty voice on these vital issues.
Please email ucscbudgetsurvey@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments. Thank you.