UC San Diego Chancellor to Regents July 15 2009

Marye Anne Fox Comments to UC Regents
(July 2009)
Impact of the Budget Crisis on UC San Diego
Focus on Loss of Key Faculty and Staff

UC San Diego, like our sister campuses, is struggling with the impact of the steady reductions in our budget. We have laid off 200, and have eliminated or frozen about 800 staff positions. We have halted the hiring of all faculty, freezing 100 positions. This freeze on the hiring of ladder-rank faculty will worsen our undergraduate student-to-faculty ration from approximately 20:1 a few years ago to nearly 40:1.

We do not plan to recruit faculty in the 2009-2010 academic year, despite the exodus of faculty to retirement. Our emphasis will be on faculty retention.

We, too, are cutting in every possible area while trying to maintain the excellence of a UC education. But rather than focus on areas for reduction, my message today is about the “brain drain” of talent from UC. Our best and brightest are leaving the Golden State. Some examples of alarming losses of our star faculty and staff:

Professor V. Ramanathan, preeminent climate researcher and Victor Alderson Professor of Applied Ocean Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is in the final stages of negotiating an appointment as the Science Director of the new Climate Institute in Potsdam, Germany. Indeed, it has been announced in the German press, we think as a preemptive move. We’re negotiating with “Ram” in the hope that we might split his time at UC San Diego, but the nearly 10% salary reduction comes at a key point in the discussions with Professor Ramanathan.

Rich Liekweg, CEO of the UCSD Medical Center, is leaving for Barnes-Jewish Hospital in Missouri. Under Rich’s leadership, the UCSD Medical Center moved into the black.

Edward Yu, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is moving his lab to the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Yu was named to a $2.5M endowed chair, income from which will support his salary and research group.

John Carethers, professor of medicine and role model for African-American students, is leaving for the University of Michigan. A long-standing member of our faculty and active in diversity activities, Dr. Carethers’s departure is a loss to our cancer research program.

Charles Zuker, professor of Biology, is leaving for Columbia University, where he will be provided research support from a $20M endowment.

The most important determinant of the quality of the University of California is the quality of its people. In order to retain the best and brightest, the Chancellors will need the authority and flexibility to restructure their campuses and to provide competitive compensation. Institutions outside California and in other countries are targeting UC campuses to lure away top faculty and staff. While there may be little the Regents can do to reduce the magnitude of the budget cuts, the Regents can ensure that the Chancellors have the flexibility that’s vital to manage their campuses in these trying times.