COMMENTARIES ON CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES : One of the few institutions left in the United States that can boast global supremacy is in danger of being demolished.

America’s economic, political and social institutions used to be the envy of the world. This, of course, is no longer the case. Our allies and competitors in Japan and Western Europe no longer covet our health care system, our legal or penal system, our large corporations or our elementary schools.

One of the few institutions in this country that retains clear global supremacy is our system of higher education. From Stanford to Michigan to Harvard, an American undergraduate and graduate education is eagerly sought by gifted students; domestic and foreign students apply in droves, and America’s universities compete for the world’s best and brightest students.

In Orange County, UC Irvine has always been a good neighbor. The county and the campus grew up together and have gone through good times and bad. This county and its taxpaying citizens have contributed in fundamental ways to the excellence of higher education by developing UCI into a fine university. But that doesn’t mean UCI--or other American universities--is not flawed. Our research universities must improve the quality of their undergraduate teaching, offering broader and more carefully crafted courses better adapted to the needs of the next century for a broadly educated citizenry.

It is also true that American universities must reform their compensation programs for administrators. Presidents, chancellors, provosts and deans must remember they are faculty members and leaders of the academic community of scholars and students; they are not CEOs. Unfortunately, while wrestling with a budget crisis of serious proportions, our state’s lawmakers have entered into a cycle of Draconian cuts to the university’s budget, running the risk of wreaking havoc on a system of excellence that took decades to develop.

The Legislature is currently planning to deliver UCI such a crippling budgetary blow that within a short time it could demolish what it took many years to build. Bracing for the fourth straight year of state funding cuts, UCI is scrambling to make up for the shortfall with a 5% pay cut for faculty and staff and a student fee increase of $995.

In the mid-1960s when UCI was built, the state’s population was about 18 million, compared to 28 million now. Earlier projections held that UCI enrollment would hit 26,050 by the year 2005, compared to this year’s 17,000. But with continued budget cuts, those forecasts will have to be adjusted, and that will mean turning away hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of eligible students.

We cannot abandon our colleges and universities at a time when we need to produce more and better teachers to instruct growing numbers of K-12 students and provide advanced education for their graduates.

To sustain a strong economy and compete globally, Orange County must educate its youth and provide future generations with the analytical skills necessary to advance into the future.

So why are we dismantling one of California’s greatest treasures during a time of greatest need? Perhaps this is a comfortable direction to take at a time in which America’s global stature has slipped so dramatically.

After all, when one is floating in a sea of mediocrity, currents of excellence can be disconcerting.