UCLA Funding Cuts to Affect Undergrads the Most, Study Says : Education: Drastic reductions in the number of courses and an increase in class size are being considered. About 130 faculty members have opted for early retirement.

More than 500 undergraduate classes could be eliminated and about 40 faculty positions will remain unfilled at UCLA next fall because of severe budget cuts over the last three years, according to a report by the College of Letters and Science.

Interim Provost Herbert Morris recommends cutting 560 courses and eliminating programs such as the Center for Comparative Folklore and Mythology. A final decision is expected in May.

“It’s sad that education in California has become a smaller slice of the total state pie--falling behind welfare, health care and prison funding,” said Michael Granfield, vice chancellor in the office of academic planning and budget. “The cumulative effect is going to compel the university to make some priority decisions.”

The proposed cuts are the result of an $8.2-million decrease in state funding over three years in the College of Letters and Science. The university as a whole has sustained $42 million in state funding cuts since 1990. UCLA officials said they have delayed making permanent program cuts in the hope that the level of state funding would rise.

In the College of Letters and Science, which grants 90% of UCLA baccalaureate degrees, about 130 faculty members have opted for early retirement. After filling some positions and recalling professors to teach on a class-by-class basis, more than 40 positions are still unfilled in the college.

“We are not getting rid of people we are happy to see go,” Morris said. “We’re losing our most distinguished scholars.”

University officials said that the cuts may require future class sizes to grow, but some professors said quality is already suffering.

“With class size going up and less support for professors, faculty energy is going down,” said classics and comparative literature professor Katherine King. “A lot of us feel we can’t do the same kinds of things we used to do.”

Morris said, however, that budget pressures have prompted UCLA to re-evaluate the curriculum and consider more innovation. “The changes will result in a better undergraduate education,” he said.

Some of the changes being considered include using senior undergraduates to teach small discussion courses designed for non-majors, creating a student exchange program with other campuses, using more interactive video in instruction, and splitting up the College of Letters and Science into separate schools.

One innovation has already been put into effect by political science professor Steven Spiegel, who began videotaping his lectures this quarter and makes the tapes available to 70 students who are unable to enroll in the class due to budget limits.

“In a time of budget cuts, professors have to be innovative to increase a student’s opportunity without harming the quality of education,” Spiegel said.

Spiegel said the class also helps students who miss a lecture or did not understand something they heard.

Some students, however, were concerned that the methods brought about by the budget cuts would cause them to lose contact with professors.

First-year political science student Erica Mannard said the videotapes are convenient and allow more people to get into the class, but she said she was afraid her education would become more involved with machinery than with professors.

“The whole idea worries me. Now people are talking about renting them out and watching the tape on their home VCRs,” Mannard said. “The purpose of coming to a great research university is to learn from real people and intellectual minds.”

Some students said that with the cost of a UCLA education almost doubling in the last three years, they did not want to see the quality of their degree drop.