This post was updated Dec. 6 at 8:08 p.m.
Sometimes it can take a miracle – or an upperclassman holding your seat – just to enroll in a class you need to graduate.
Fred Ramsdell, an alumnus of the UCLA microbiology and immunology doctoral program, garnered international recognition this year, winning the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. But, as UCLA rides the coattails of his achievements, the university seems to ignore its current students, who will win the awards UCLA will boast about in the future.
As budget cuts and federal funding insecurity continue, this fight will only intensify.
UCLA, like many universities, is at the mercy of a hostile and anti-intellectual federal government. Yet as UCLA endures attacks on education, it seems students are the administration’s bottom priority.
UCLA needs to safeguard its true benefactors – the students who pay for its operations and achieve the accomplishments the university champions. Students are the glue that holds the university together, but their education has been sidestepped amid assaults on academia.
Budget cuts began when the Trump Administration froze $584 million in research grants to UCLA. Although the funding was restored, the federal government has since shut down over disagreements on the national budget. This includes the National Institutes of Health budget, where Trump’s proposed 40% spending cut was rejected by the Senate.
A stalemate ensued, with the Trump administration slowing many NIH operations.
“There seems to be a bit of an attack on higher education,” said Jeff Long, the chair of the molecular, cell and developmental biology department. “I think there is a lot of stress and anxiety among research faculty and their trainees.”
Federal funding contributes to a variety of operations at UCLA, not just the researchers and their equipment, said Jorge Avila, assistant director of the Undergraduate Research Center – Sciences. The money also pays for indirect costs like electricity, he said.
A lack of federal funding shifts the burden onto other streams of funding.
Long said UCLA primarily uses federal funding for research and university funding for teaching. But, he added, with insecure federal funding, UCLA’s funding cannot balance the deficits, creating consequences for students.
Kirsten Turlo, a biomedical research lecturer, said there are now fewer graduate student teaching assistants, which will make it harder for students to enroll in the classes they need to graduate.
Long added that TAs’ working hours increased, though they are still well below union maximums.
United Auto Workers Local 4811, the union comprised of workers including graduate student researchers and TAs, stipulates that TAs can work for a maximum of 20 hours per week.
Teaching assistant Ryan Johnson added that master’s students are in a particularly difficult situation.
Some doctoral students receive priority placement because their programs require them to TA. However, there is greater competition among students pursuing master’s degrees because they only TA for tuition subsidies, he said.
The decrease in research positions means masters students have fewer income opportunities, driving up the competitiveness of TA positions. But because there are fewer positions as well, the students who do get hired are forced to do even more work.
“There’s only one of me, and there’s 100-plus of them,” said Johnson, a second-year doctoral student. “Unfortunately, I definitely feel like sometimes quality of instruction or my attention is compromised.”
If funding insecurity continues, there will be even fewer TAs and fewer discussion sections, creating smaller lectures. Reduced budget capacities exacerbate challenges in class enrollment and overcrowded course offerings.
Classes should not be in short supply. Students want to take them and are paying for the privilege. Increasing numbers of freshman and transfer admits are compounding these challenges.
Undergraduate students already experience enrollment issues, and teaching assistants are now shouldered with bigger sections and longer hours. UCLA needs to prioritize students.
“These budget impacts are affecting campuses across the system, and there is a broader university-wide effort to reduce operational costs in response to the current budget realities. We remain committed to supporting our students and will continue working with campus leaders to advocate for legislation, policies, and programs that benefit the Bruin community,” said a UCLA spokesperson in an emailed statement.
While these reduced budgets already have tangible consequences, administrators’ salaries are left unscathed. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, deans and other faculty administrators will be under consideration for a salary increase of up to 3.2%.
Considering that administrators like the dean of life sciences earn just shy of $400,000 in regular pay, it begs the question of how necessary executive raises are.
“With seemingly more students every year, we’re trying to give them a good experience,” said Long. “And, you know, they are paying tuition, they need to get their money’s worth.”
If UCLA wants to label itself an organization “firmly rooted” in its teaching mission, it needs to prove it. Nobel Prize winners, like Ramsdell, are cultivated in a place that puts students first.
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