Acting UCI Chancellor Foresees Tight Times

With the state’s financial problems expected to get worse before they get better, University of California students can expect to see their fees increase again next year, acting UC Irvine Chancellor L. Dennis Smith said Thursday.

Smith, in his first public speech as acting chancellor since Jack W. Peltason left this month to become president of the nine-campus system, gave his gloomy financial predictions at an annual “State of the UCI Campus” address.

UCI students pay about $3,000 a year in fees this year, a 24% increase from the year before.

Student fees will be the only source to which the university can turn as it struggles to find money to operate, unless the state comes up with more money, Smith said. But that isn’t likely, he said.

“This is not a short-term problem. We cannot expect in the near term to return to the resources we had,” he said. “The cuts in the UCI budget are to be regarded as permanent. We have a new base.”

But Smith said the university should view the budget problems as an opportunity to evaluate its mission and set goals. UCI, with its high-quality faculty, students and recent academic achievements, is in the best shape of its history, he said.

But he suggested the university should consider eliminating some courses or teaching them less often.

“I don’t think the emphasis is quantity,” he said. “But what I think we need is a renewed emphasis on quality.”

Smith also cited UCI’s milestones last year, including a grant that helped bring 1,400 under-represented minority students onto campus. Increasing the campus’ diversity continues to be a major goal of UCI, he said. Of the 100 new faculty members hired last year, 34% were ethnic minorities and 36% were women, he said.