UC Santa Cruz budget cuts: what the deficit means for students and faculty

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) — UC Santa Cruz is facing budget cuts. This comes shortly after the school announced upcoming staff reductions.

The university has been using one-time reserves in order to cover previous deficits, but the funds are running out.

This is prompting action to address the budget gap.

This fiscal year that ended on June 30 showed a significant budget deficit at UC Santa Cruz.

The core funds budget had $546 million, but expenses of $654 million prompted a $107 million loss.

UC Santa Cruz officials are claiming the shortfall was larger than anticipated.

"It would not be possible to achieve the necessary expense cuts without reducing some staffing. We hope to minimize layoffs and are prioritizing positions and programs that support the success of our students and our research," said Assistant Vice Chancellor Scott Hernandez-Jason.

Students don’t start classes until September 26 but some were already on campus for summer classes.

I spoke with students about how these budget cuts might impact their academic year.

"If they're cutting stuff centered around student housing or maybe a lot of the resources we have, like food security, I feel like that could be a problem," Marco Nunez, a fourth year student, said. "It's already expensive to live in Santa Cruz and that might just stress out students."

Some students are already seeing prices rising on campus.

"I've heard about the dining halls. This past year they raised the prices up to like $12 instead of $8 to swipe in," said third year student Angela Ambriz. "I've also noticed a major impact for housing off campus. I currently live in a studio with no rooms with two other roommates and we share a triple bunk bed, which is really cool, but I've seen a lot of people affected housing-wise, which is scary."

The Chancellor says that the campus is slowing down hiring.

Even with this, the university will still need to make some targeted hires in core areas to help generate additional revenue.

"I guess I don't know necessarily how I'm going to be affected, but I sort of want to know why the budget is being cut. Where is this money going and how are we spending so much that we don't have enough to continue what we've already been doing?" Nunez said.

The school says they don't have final counts on staff reductions but that they are trying to minimize the numbers through taking a phased approach.