UCI Awaiting Official Word on Direction : Education: Anticipation runs high as Chancellor Wilkening prepares to unveil her vision for enhancing university’s future in an era of belt-tightening.

Since the end of the academic year, professors, librarians, lecturers and other members of the UCI community have been anticipating word from Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening about the fate and direction of their university during an era of financial belt-tightening.

Next week, they’ll get an answer.

Wilkening, the third person to head the sprawling Irvine campus since it was opened in 1965, will break her silence Friday when she unveils her blueprint for UCI’s future--a future that includes doing more with less, with a goal of enhancing the university’s academic stature.

UCI must cut about $10 million from the upcoming academic year’s budget, according to UCI spokeswoman Karen Newell Young.

Over the summer, administrators began looking for budget cuts in each of the university’s departments to reach that mark.

Among the cuts, officials propose slashing nearly $5 million from a budget of about $155 million for academic affairs, research and graduate studies; about $1.4 million in spending cuts were found in the administrative and business services’ budget of about $25 million; and about $1.3 million in cutbacks was found in the student affairs’ budget of about $16 million, according to campus budget planners.

“We are trying to keep cuts far from research and instruction,” said Roy Dormaier, assistant executive vice chancellor for research management and analysis. The proposed cuts take a larger bite out of administrative budgets than out of those that pay for professors or library hours, he noted.

The university’s total operating budget--including state, student and outside money--will be about $600 million this year, Dormaier said. Officials usually can only cut from areas funded by state money and student fees, he said.

UCI isn’t alone in its budget-cutting woes. Between the nine campuses in the University of California system and its administrative offices, about $433 million was cut between 1990 and 1993--including $80 million at UCLA, $67 million at UC Berkeley and more than $25 million at UCI, according to UC statistics.

*

The coming budget cutbacks are expected to lead to fewer university positions.

“There have been a lot of cuts around here, and people are fearing they’re going to lose their jobs,” UCI Associated Graduate Students president Bob Miller said.

“These days are taking their toll, in terms of campuswide morale and attitude about work,” said Elizabeth Newcomb, volunteer coordinator with Student Health Services, which may face some changes in the future. “Yes, it’s beautiful here, and the ‘80s were an enthusiastic time. But now times are tough and a lot of people are concerned.”

After a summer of anticipation, some university employees think it’s about time that Wilkening makes known her vision and direction for the future.

“It does seem to me the time has come for the chancellor to speak up,” English and comparative literature professor John Rowe said. “There’s sort of a general sense in the community that the chancellor has not taken a public position on many issues.”

But still, many don’t expect her to announce immediate and drastic changes for the university Friday. She’s expected by some to restrict herself to trimming programs that were singled out for cutbacks by UCI faculty and staff members studying UCI’s structure. And she has hinted that she will refocus the university’s efforts on raising UCI’s national profile as a research institution.

*

Wilkening’s report will be the climax to a series of steps that officials began taking to slim down UCI.

More than a year ago, two task forces of administrators, professors and other UCI employees gathered to take a closer look at the university. Their mission? Identify the policies and programs that should be changed to make UCI a better institution in the next decade.

The task forces alarmed many students, staff members and faculty members when they released the reports on their findings in February. Some of their recommendations included closing the education, physical education and comparative culture departments.

UCI graduate students, managers, instructors and others debated the reports for months on electronic mail. Many in and around the UCI community wrote administrators to defend programs, especially the education department.

By June, the Academic Planning Council--a third group of UCI representatives--digested more than 700 written responses and came up with their recommendations for Wilkening. The panel’s vision: making UCI one of the top 30 research institutions in the nation.

They recommended saving the education program, which drew sighs of relief from UCI educators. But they have heard nothing official from the chancellor.

“This was not a small issue for us,” said Carol Booth Olson, coordinator of the UCI Writing Project. “Our jobs and reputations were on the line. We’re all keenly interested in what she (Wilkening) has to say.”

While students, faculty and staff members discussed the reports, some of the university’s most celebrated teachers accepted wide-scale early retirement offers.

The deans of fine arts, undergraduate studies and physical sciences, as well as the founding chairman of the chemistry department, retired July 1 as part of a systemwide program that offered employees incentives for early retirement.

*

It was the third round of buyouts for faculty and staff members, and it meant a saving of about $7.8 million in salaries--even though some of the professors are returning to teach part-time, UCI officials said.

More than 75 faculty members left as part of the buyout, including two of nine professors in the comparative culture department, six of about 45 professors in the English and comparative literature department, and three of about 15 faculty members in the Spanish and Portuguese department. Some professors fear the positions won’t be filled or that part-time instructors will teach many classes.

“Sometimes, people react more acutely if a program is closed,” comparative culture professor Raul Fernandez said. “But there’s an army (of faculty) leaving the campuses. . . . The faculty that are left have more work to do. They have more graduate students and larger classes.”

Now Wilkening will get her turn to talk about improving the university’s fortunes and succeeding despite cuts in student services, faculty and management. She is expected to talk about attracting more research grants to UCI.

“One of the critical things is enhancing research stature,” UCI spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said. “It would help financially support other priority areas,” such as undergraduate education.

Young said money entering the university because of grants could help enhance UCI’s image, attracting better professors and graduate students and attracting money from donors as well.

“It’s the only way we can fund initiatives without more money than the state’s willing to spend,” Young said.

*

Some faculty members are concerned about the direction the University of California will take in the future.

“The university is being reorganized to mirror what a large corporation is like,” said comparative culture professor Gilbert Gonzalez, whose department was recommended for closure by the task forces. “Rather than students being the people the institution serves, they’re consumers. Education has become the product.”

Interested students are awaiting and debating the direction of the campus, and opinions differ about where UCI should be headed in the next decade.

Miller, a second-year student in the Graduate School of Management, said he looks forward to change, but thinks it will be difficult to alter the university.

“I think the chancellor intends to do things to improve the university; I have no doubts her motives are good,” Miller said. “But we have a huge dinosaur here, and if it doesn’t want to change, how do you make it change?”

College Cuts

UCI’s vice chancellors, working with administrators of the university’s various departments, have come up with $10 million in budget cuts for the upcoming academic year. The cuts worked out this way, with rounded amounts in millions:

Campus area Budget Cut % cut University advancement, chancellor, $5.1 $0.3 6% executive vice chancellor Student Affairs and campus life 15.6 1.3 8 Administrative and businesses services 24.6 1.4 6 Academic affairs* 154.6 4.9 3 UCI Medical Center 9.0 1.6 18 Savings from unspent reserves for -- 0.5 -- employee benefits

* Includes College of Medicine and Research and Graduate Studies

Note: Total UCI Medical Center budget for 1994-95 is estimated at $150 million, but taxpayer-funded portion is $9 million. Rest comes from other sources.

Source: UCI Office of Financial Planning; Researched by ALICIA DI RADO / Los Angeles Times