A Crown Jewel of Education Struggles With Cuts

The New York Times
November 20, 2009
By TAMAR LEWIN

BERKELEY, Calif. — As the University of California struggles to absorb its sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression, every professor, administrator and clerical worker has been put on furlough amounting to an average pay cut of 8 percent.

In chemistry laboratories that have produced Nobel Prize-winning research, wastebaskets are stuffed to the brim on the new reduced cleaning schedule. Many students are frozen out of required classes as course sections are trimmed.  And on Thursday, to top it all off, the Board of Regents voted to increase undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — by 32 percent next fall, to more than $10,000.... Among students and faculty alike, there is a pervasive sense that the increases and the deep budget cuts are pushing the university into decline.  Click here to read more.