UC Berkeley becoming a federal university, chancellor says

[n2doc]

Louis Freedburg, California Watch

Thursday, February 24, 2011


As it gets more funding from the federal government and less from Sacramento, UC Berkeley is effectively morphing from a state university into a federal university, according to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.

Birgeneau said this week that the transformation will "require us to think through what our role is both in the state and nationally."

He first made the compelling case for applying the federal label to California's most famous public university at a conference organized by the Travers Program in Ethics and Accountability on the Berkeley campus earlier this month.

When he became chancellor more than six years ago, he explained, the largest chunk of funding - about $450 million - came from the state. Federal research funding totaled about $300 million. Student fees brought in about $150 million, with philanthropy providing slightly less. The campus' endowment generated about $100 million to $120 million.

By this year, the funding breakdown for Berkeley had changed completely. Federal research funds bring in $500 million. Student fees yield $315 million and will increase to $340 million next year. Private philanthropy yields about the same amount.

And then there is state support, which is down to $300 million this year and about $225 million during the coming academic year, after the cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown have been made.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/23/BA8I1HT6N3.DTL

Logically, what this means is that areas that bring in federal dollars- biomedical research and the sciences - will get boosted, while those that don't -the arts and humanities- will get neglected. And subjects that bring in the most student interest will get boosted, at the expense of a "well rounded education"

[leveymg]

1. We'll see the death of many state colleges and universities, or they'll be taken over by private

entities. At the same time, tuition is rising so fast, only the children of the rich and kids on Pentagon or Pharma scholarships will be able to attend 4-year institutions.

What a wonderful time for America.

[d_r]

2. trouble is

NIH is funding at 7th percentile - federal research dollars - and that 50% over head - are drying up.

[n2doc]

3. Yep. It's a game of musical chairs

And more and more people are going to be left out in the cold. Faculty at research universities already spend most of their time writing proposals that have little chance of success.