Thursday, November 20, 1997
Budget decisions boggle university
MONEY: Allocating funds means choosing between construction,
instructors
By Michael LaFemina
Daily Bruin Contributor
It is a tale of two UCLA’s.
UCLA is a $2 billion dollar organization with a dual identity:
It functions as both a center for higher education, and as an
operating city serving the needs of about 50,000 students, staff
and faculty.
Thus, UCLA is also a $2 billion organization with a dual
dilemma. It must meet all the economic demands placed on a large
research university, such as the recruitment and retention of
professors, while simultaneously combating the ‘intrinsic expenses
of an expanding infrastructure’ – namely, construction.
"You can’t fund one to the exclusion of the other," said Don
Cosgrove, assistant director of project planning for Capital
Programs, the organization responsible for all construction on
campus.
"A building is of no use if there isn’t a professor to teach in
it, but a professor can’t teach in a field or in a building that
might fall down in the next earthquake," he continued.
But with such competing interests, which activity receives more
money: professors or construction?
Each year, campus-wide, approximately $11 million is spent on
the recruitment of new professors, while $7 million is spent on the
retention of existing professors who have been offered positions at
competing universities. This figure represents the amount spent
throughout all of UCLA, including the medical school and all
professional schools.
In the College of Letters & Sciences alone, the most recent
five-year average is $1.9 million spent on recruitment and $1.5
million for retention. The professors included in this figure are
ladder-rank faculty: associate, assistant, and full professors.
The $1.9 million spent on recruitment each year includes the
hiring of about 20 new professors.
"There is probably more demand than money at this point," said
Ned Pinger, vice provost of budget, management, and systems for the
College of Letters & Sciences.
"Funding has been a big problem of ours since budget cuts in the
early ’90s," Pinger added, "but the funding that has been available
for building and renovation has also experienced cuts."
Presently, there are six major construction projects underway on
campus.
From early 1994, when the Royce Hall seismic renovation began,
to September 1999, approximately $251.5 million will be spent on
these six construction projects.
During this same time period, a projected $100.5 million will be
spent by the university on the recruitment and retention of
professors.
However, this discrepancy does not necessarily indicate that
construction has a priority in receiving allocated funds, according
to administrators.
"Certain funds that are used for hiring professors cannot be
used for building buildings, and vice versa," Cosgrove said.
Funds designated solely for construction include those from
certain state allocations which the governor has specified for
capital building projects, money from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and gifts from donors who indicated they
wanted their donation spent on construction.
In fact, for these six ongoing projects, the chancellor only has
discretionary authority over about 11 percent of the total funds,
approximately $28.6 million of the $251.5 million. These
unallocated resources come mainly from research grant overhead, the
excess money from research grants given to professors at the
university. The chancellor has control over these funds.
"(For these funds), the chancellor is the ultimate
decision-maker," said Glyn Davies, assistant vice chancellor of
academic planning and budget. "But he isn’t there sitting in a dark
room throwing darts at a board … It is a very considered
process."
The Royce Hall seismic repair and renovation, which will be
completed in December 1997, costs $68.3 million, with nearly 97
percent of the total funds coming from FEMA.
The Bradley International Student Center will be completed in
February 1998 and cost $14 million, with much of the money coming
from housing funds and private gifts.
The Law Library addition, to be completed in December 1997, will
cost approximately $24.5 million, with funds being provided by the
state and gifts to the university.
The Science and Technology Research Building will be completed
in March 1998 and cost $26.5 million, all of which will come from
research grant overhead.
The De Neve Plaza Housing, to be completed in September 1999,
will cost approximately $70 million. Housing reserves will provide
all of the funds for this project.
The Gonda (Goldschmeid) Neuroscience and Genetics Center will be
completed in October 1998, costing a total of $48.2 million, all of
which will come from gifts to the university designated for
construction.
Student opinion is mixed on the question of whether UCLA should
allocate more of its available funds to the hiring of new
professors.
"Money spent on construction projects may enhance our education,
but not nearly as much as money spent on hiring new professors,"
said Eric Chu, a first-year electrical engineering student.
But students also see the need for construction and
infrastructure improvement on campus.
"Construction is necessary to both keep our school in shape and
provide jobs," said Amber Sands, a first-year biochemistry
student.