下記、大学からきたメールです：
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California Alumni Association
=============================
An open letter to UC alumni and friends
At the corner of 13th and Franklin Streets in downtown Oakland, a worn
bronze plaque hangs on the wall of a two-story parking garage. Easy to
miss, state Historical Marker No. 45 identifies the spot where, 140
years ago, a California miracle began. Here the University of
California spent its infancy, occupying a two-story Victorian that had
housed one of the state's first colleges. In 1873 the
university--after graduating an original class of
12--migrated to Berkeley and began its rise as a land-grant
college dedicated to teaching agriculture, mining and the mechanical
arts.
The enterprise, of course, has endured, and then some. Under the
stewardship of some great leaders, and with the support of alumni like
you and, for that matter, all of California, the University has grown
from its humble origins to the point where it now stretches all across
the state, from Merced to Santa Barbara, Riverside to San Francisco,
Irvine to Santa Cruz, San Diego to Davis, Los Angeles to
Berkeley--10 campuses, five medical centers, three national
laboratories, 225,000 students, 55 Nobel Prizes and 1.6 million
alumni.
It is to that great army of alumni, along with other friends and
beneficiaries of the University of California, that we write today,
and we do so with a sense of great urgency--to ask you to become
engaged as never before in building legislative and financial support
for this great institution.
This is a time of peril for the University we all love.
The UC model--providing universal access to a top-notch, low-cost
education and research of the highest caliber--continues to be
studied around the globe among those who would emulate its success.
And yet, this model has been increasingly abandoned at home by the
state government responsible for its core funding.
In the past 20 years, the amount of money allotted to the University
through the state budget has fallen dramatically: General Fund support
for a UC student stood at $15,860 in 1990. If current budget
projections hold, it will drop this year to $7,680.
Moreover, it now appears likely the UC system, in this current fiscal
crisis, will be ordered by Sacramento to absorb yet another $800-plus
million in additional cuts. Its 2009-10 core budget will be
reduced by an estimated 20 percent. This will bring the amount of
state investment in the University down to $2.4 billion--exactly
where it was in real dollars a decade ago.
In the same time frame, by the way, funding for state prisons has more
than doubled, from $5 to $11 billion. It's been reported that, based
on current spending trends, California's prison budget soon will
overtake that of the state's universities and community colleges.
And so, our work is cut out for us. As one Chairman of the Board of
Regents steps down and another takes over, we are asking you, as
stewards of UC, to step up and help arrest this slide of support, as
quickly as possible. It's often said that it takes 40 years to build
up a great university, but only a few to tear one down.
Elected officials in Sacramento who control our core budget must be
asked to re-examine their priorities when it comes to future higher
education funding. They also need to understand that a fiscal crisis
is precisely the wrong time to be putting the pinch on education.
Consider what Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote in a recent
column:
"... The country that uses this crisis to make its population
smarter and more innovative--and endows its people with more
tools and basic research to invent new goods and services--is the
one that will not just survive but thrive down the road. We might be
able to stimulate our way back to stability, but we can only invent
our way back to prosperity. We need everyone at every level to get
smarter."
The core money UC receives from taxpayers, via Sacramento, goes to the
nuts and bolts of higher education, everything from paying professors
to lighting laboratories. But it also establishes the institutional
foundation needed to attract the research grants and endowments that
enhance the mission and burnish the University's international status.
Over time it's been money well-spent. Of the more than 4,000 higher
education institutions in the nation, only 60 research universities,
public and private, have been judged worthy of membership in the
prestigious Association of American Universities. The UC has six
members. No other state system has more than one.
In turn, the University has given back to California, not only by
educating generations of high-achieving Californians, but also through
its triumphs of research. From better ways to grow tomatoes to the
birth of biotech, from viticulture to cancer treatments, UC campuses
have been incubators of countless scientific and product breakthroughs
that add quality to California life and invigorate its economy. For 15
years in a row, UC has developed more patents than any other
university in the country.
This is what's put at risk as state support shrinks. In the end, there
are two choices: excellence or mediocrity. While a mediocre UC might
cost less in the short term, over time it will enforce on society its
own ledger of taxes. Top professors and researchers will begin to
drift away, taking with them the best students. Pools of grant money
will recede. The engines of invention will sputter.
To those who complain the university has been bloated, wasteful, we
say this is a new day. In the last few years, we have seen the
institution reform itself. Under a new administration, it is setting
new standards for transparency and leadership. We've worked hard to
maintain strong bond ratings, cut spending in the Office of the
President by $60 million, and taken additional cost-cutting measures
at the campus level. But there is only so much that can be cut. We are
no longer chopping at fat and muscle. With the new cuts, as proposed,
we soon will be slicing into bone.
And so, there is much at stake and the threat is real. Now is the time
for alumni and other supporters and beneficiaries of the University to
spread the word that UC excellence must be preserved and nurtured.
Please, do whatever you can. Take time to write a letter or an email
to your political representatives. Or lend whatever support possible
to the UC system or to your preferred campus.
The message--not in just this current crisis, but into the future
as well--must be clear: A just-good-enough University of
California would not be good enough at all. Mediocrity is not an
option. It's time to start fighting back for the UC.
Richard C. Blum, Immediate Past Chair, UC Board of Regents
Russell S. Gould, Chair, UC Board of Regents
Sherry Lansing, Vice Chair, UC Board of Regents
Mark G. Yudof, President, University of California
Here are some links that might be useful:
Cal Advocacy at UC Berkeley:
http://
California State Legislature:
http://
California Alumni Association
1 Alumni House, Berkeley CA 94720-7520
Phone: (888) CAL.ALUM
Fax: (510) 642.6252
View in web browser:
http://
Forward to a friend:
http://
=============================
California Alumni Association
=============================
An open letter to UC alumni and friends
At the corner of 13th and Franklin Streets in downtown Oakland, a worn
bronze plaque hangs on the wall of a two-story parking garage. Easy to
miss, state Historical Marker No. 45 identifies the spot where, 140
years ago, a California miracle began. Here the University of
California spent its infancy, occupying a two-story Victorian that had
housed one of the state's first colleges. In 1873 the
university--after graduating an original class of
12--migrated to Berkeley and began its rise as a land-grant
college dedicated to teaching agriculture, mining and the mechanical
arts.
The enterprise, of course, has endured, and then some. Under the
stewardship of some great leaders, and with the support of alumni like
you and, for that matter, all of California, the University has grown
from its humble origins to the point where it now stretches all across
the state, from Merced to Santa Barbara, Riverside to San Francisco,
Irvine to Santa Cruz, San Diego to Davis, Los Angeles to
Berkeley--10 campuses, five medical centers, three national
laboratories, 225,000 students, 55 Nobel Prizes and 1.6 million
alumni.
It is to that great army of alumni, along with other friends and
beneficiaries of the University of California, that we write today,
and we do so with a sense of great urgency--to ask you to become
engaged as never before in building legislative and financial support
for this great institution.
This is a time of peril for the University we all love.
The UC model--providing universal access to a top-notch, low-cost
education and research of the highest caliber--continues to be
studied around the globe among those who would emulate its success.
And yet, this model has been increasingly abandoned at home by the
state government responsible for its core funding.
In the past 20 years, the amount of money allotted to the University
through the state budget has fallen dramatically: General Fund support
for a UC student stood at $15,860 in 1990. If current budget
projections hold, it will drop this year to $7,680.
Moreover, it now appears likely the UC system, in this current fiscal
crisis, will be ordered by Sacramento to absorb yet another $800-plus
million in additional cuts. Its 2009-10 core budget will be
reduced by an estimated 20 percent. This will bring the amount of
state investment in the University down to $2.4 billion--exactly
where it was in real dollars a decade ago.
In the same time frame, by the way, funding for state prisons has more
than doubled, from $5 to $11 billion. It's been reported that, based
on current spending trends, California's prison budget soon will
overtake that of the state's universities and community colleges.
And so, our work is cut out for us. As one Chairman of the Board of
Regents steps down and another takes over, we are asking you, as
stewards of UC, to step up and help arrest this slide of support, as
quickly as possible. It's often said that it takes 40 years to build
up a great university, but only a few to tear one down.
Elected officials in Sacramento who control our core budget must be
asked to re-examine their priorities when it comes to future higher
education funding. They also need to understand that a fiscal crisis
is precisely the wrong time to be putting the pinch on education.
Consider what Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote in a recent
column:
"... The country that uses this crisis to make its population
smarter and more innovative--and endows its people with more
tools and basic research to invent new goods and services--is the
one that will not just survive but thrive down the road. We might be
able to stimulate our way back to stability, but we can only invent
our way back to prosperity. We need everyone at every level to get
smarter."
The core money UC receives from taxpayers, via Sacramento, goes to the
nuts and bolts of higher education, everything from paying professors
to lighting laboratories. But it also establishes the institutional
foundation needed to attract the research grants and endowments that
enhance the mission and burnish the University's international status.
Over time it's been money well-spent. Of the more than 4,000 higher
education institutions in the nation, only 60 research universities,
public and private, have been judged worthy of membership in the
prestigious Association of American Universities. The UC has six
members. No other state system has more than one.
In turn, the University has given back to California, not only by
educating generations of high-achieving Californians, but also through
its triumphs of research. From better ways to grow tomatoes to the
birth of biotech, from viticulture to cancer treatments, UC campuses
have been incubators of countless scientific and product breakthroughs
that add quality to California life and invigorate its economy. For 15
years in a row, UC has developed more patents than any other
university in the country.
This is what's put at risk as state support shrinks. In the end, there
are two choices: excellence or mediocrity. While a mediocre UC might
cost less in the short term, over time it will enforce on society its
own ledger of taxes. Top professors and researchers will begin to
drift away, taking with them the best students. Pools of grant money
will recede. The engines of invention will sputter.
To those who complain the university has been bloated, wasteful, we
say this is a new day. In the last few years, we have seen the
institution reform itself. Under a new administration, it is setting
new standards for transparency and leadership. We've worked hard to
maintain strong bond ratings, cut spending in the Office of the
President by $60 million, and taken additional cost-cutting measures
at the campus level. But there is only so much that can be cut. We are
no longer chopping at fat and muscle. With the new cuts, as proposed,
we soon will be slicing into bone.
And so, there is much at stake and the threat is real. Now is the time
for alumni and other supporters and beneficiaries of the University to
spread the word that UC excellence must be preserved and nurtured.
Please, do whatever you can. Take time to write a letter or an email
to your political representatives. Or lend whatever support possible
to the UC system or to your preferred campus.
The message--not in just this current crisis, but into the future
as well--must be clear: A just-good-enough University of
California would not be good enough at all. Mediocrity is not an
option. It's time to start fighting back for the UC.
Richard C. Blum, Immediate Past Chair, UC Board of Regents
Russell S. Gould, Chair, UC Board of Regents
Sherry Lansing, Vice Chair, UC Board of Regents
Mark G. Yudof, President, University of California
Here are some links that might be useful:
Cal Advocacy at UC Berkeley:
http://
California State Legislature:
http://
California Alumni Association
1 Alumni House, Berkeley CA 94720-7520
Phone: (888) CAL.ALUM
Fax: (510) 642.6252
View in web browser:
http://
Forward to a friend:
http://
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