Plan to Dismantle 4 UCLA Schools Protested : Education: Students, faculty resist a proposal to cut several graduate programs. Chancellor says across-the-board reductions would be more harmful.

UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young on Thursday met stiff opposition from some faculty members and students over his plan to shut down or “disestablish” a number of professional graduate schools next year because of state budget cuts.

Meeting face to face with more than 250 faculty members at Rolfe Hall on the Westwood campus, Young tried to sell his 1994 plan as the best way to begin making selective cuts of campus programs, rather than impose across-the-board reductions he claims could point the university to mediocrity.

But faculty members openly resisted his plan, saying it would be wrong to “get sucked into the business of downsizing.”

“It takes years to build a tradition of excellence and only hours to destroy it,” said John Friedmann, head of the urban planning program in the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Under Young’s plan, the schools of Public Health and Architecture and Urban Planning would be dismantled and their courses incorporated into other disciplines. The School of Social Welfare and the School of Library and Information Sciences would also be downgraded.

Many of the courses would be reconstituted in a new School of Public Policy. In addition, Young wants to shut down the undergraduate degree program for nursing and the master’s and doctoral programs in library studies. In 1992, these programs enrolled 115 and 215 students, respectively.

Outside of Rolfe Hall, a noisy group of about 150 students rallied to decry Young’s plan. One protester held a picture of a smiling Young that showed dollar signs over his eyes and the words “no vision” over his head.

Young’s plan represents the second--and for some, the most painful--stage of budget cuts forced on UCLA because state funding has shrunk about 20% since 1990. Until now, the 35,000-student campus has spread the financial pain by imposing $45 million in across-the-board budget cuts.

But in 1992, student and faculty representatives urged Young and his administrators to abandon the across-the-board strategy, fearing it would cannibalize some programs and reduce others to mediocrity. Instead, they urged him to set academic priorities, shielding some programs while making deep budget cuts in others.

The result was Young’s controversial restructuring initiative, announced in June, to save $8 million by shutting down the library science school and the undergraduate nursing program.

The plan would reduce the number of professional schools at UCLA from 13 to 10, and it would require the elimination of 110 administrative and 30 temporary faculty positions.

Architecture would be merged into a school with fine arts, such as dance and painting. Urban planning, social welfare and portions of the public health curriculum would be reconstituted in the new School of Public Policy.

Young and UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor Andrea L. Rich said in an interview Thursday that the four schools were targeted because of their “size in relation to cost.” Each had a relatively small number of faculty but still required the administrative trappings of deans, assistant deans, public information officers and others.

By consolidating the programs, Young said he hoped to cut the costs but preserve the curriculum for the students.

But Debbie Fryman, a second-year urban planning student, said Thursday she is trying to rally faculty and students in the four targeted schools to fight the Young initiative. She said Young was picking on the programs that reach out to the area’s poor.

The Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, she said, has helped write business plans for the recently formed South-Central Los Angeles People’s Federal Credit Union, as well as designing the new Watts Boys and Girls Club buildings.

On Thursday, Young released a more complete budget document showing which programs would be largely spared in next year’s budget. Topping the list was the College of Arts and Letters, which enrolls 20,000 undergraduates. A 5% cut, Young said, shows that UCLA has a strong commitment to undergraduate education.

Also sustaining a 5% cut will be the schools of Medicine, Law, and Engineering and Applied Science. He also proposed sparing the university’s libraries, ethnic studies and international studies.

Larger cuts, from 8% to 10%, would be imposed on schools of Arts; Management; Theater, Film and TV; Education, and Dentistry. Young said Thursday these schools received big increases in recent years, and they would be likely to sustain bigger cuts because they can charge higher fees to students who want to leave the work force and earn advanced degrees.

Overall, Young said the university will absorb $33 million in cuts next year; its current budget, including private gifts, is $1.6 billion.