Academic Affairs Winter Quarter Updates

January 5, 2026

As we begin Winter Quarter, I am writing to welcome you back to campus, extend my best wishes for the new year, and provide important updates about challenges and opportunities that we face in 2026. Most of these topics are related to our budgetary challenges. I offer this background and context to inform you and ask for your constructive engagement and commitment as we plan for the future. 

Federal Updates

Last summer, after UCLA had federal research funding suspended, we prepared for a similar scenario on our campus. Although legal actions and advocacy efforts have protected most current grants for the moment, future federal funding for research is expected to be significantly reduced, and eliminated in some areas. UC is pursuing advocacy efforts and working with the AAU to establish the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model recommended by the Joint Associations Group (JAG) on Indirect Costs, but reductions in overhead charges are expected. (See UC Federal Updates and AAU Updates.) The Office of Research is working with deans to take advantage of new opportunities by aligning our research strengths with new White House funding priorities. 

To guide departments navigating federal policies about practices that promote inclusive excellence, we have distributed to deans and chairs guidance from the UC Office of the President, “Consolidated Compliance Enhancement Guidance for DEI-Related Programs and Services Purpose,” and asked departments to review practices and websites to ensure that they comply with law and UC policies. (See also Frequently Asked Questions About Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at The University of California. Other resources are available on the UC Federal Updates website, including Frequently Asked Questions for University Employees About Possible Federal Immigration Enforcement Actions on University Property.) 

ASE/GSR Contract Negotiations

UC Provost Katherine Newman has provided monthly updates to faculty about ongoing contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) for Academic Student Employee (ASE – TAs, Fellows, Readers, and Tutors) and Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) bargaining units. In December, she reported that eight tentative agreements had been reached on various topics and that economic proposals would be addressed in the new year. The UAW’s initial wage proposal includes a unified salary scale for ASEs/GSRs by 2028, with average annual range adjustments of ~10% for GSRs and 6% for ASEs (excluding experience-level increases). The University and UAW agreed to a one-month contract extension through January 31, 2026, with five bargaining sessions scheduled for January.

Provost Newman stated that UC “is doing everything possible to reach an agreement” but she emphasized the need for academic and instructional continuity planning. Please review carefully our 9/15/2025 memo, Faculty Supervisor Roles and Responsibilities.  In the event of a strike, we have a responsibility to our undergraduate students to maintain continuity of instruction, as well as fiduciary and legal responsibilities to spend state funds appropriately and to provide federal funding agencies with accurate effort reporting for all grant-funded projects. 

Financial Stability

Academic Affairs is implementing a $39.5 million reduction to our permanent budget—71% of the total campus budget reduction of $55.6 million announced by former Chancellor Yang last spring. To protect the deans’ instructional budgets, we used temporary salary savings, one-time funds, and an agreement with the Finance Office to sequester 47 faculty FTE vacated by retirements and separations in the 2024-25 academic year, but the deans still have large reductions to implement. Reducing the permanent budget will be more difficult than identifying one-time funds, and we expect a new budget reduction in the 2026-27 academic year. Furthermore, the expected reductions in federal research funding and the Indirect Cost Recovery funds that partially underwrite campus research infrastructure will impact everyone on campus by reducing the overall campus budget and increasing our campus operating deficit. 

New contracts for graduate student employees are likely to result in increased salary and benefits costs, exacerbating our deficit in instructional funds and impacting research projects. Departments should continue to expect fewer GSR positions and significantly fewer TA positions. Departments have been asked to establish graduate program admissions plans in consultation with their dean based on a realistic assessment of their ability to support both new and current students in the context of significantly reduced budgets. Departments must submit admissions plans to Graduate Division for review. Following UCOP guidance, letters of admission containing financial commitments must be vetted by Graduate Division. We urge departments to be conservative in their graduate admissions this year.

We have pursued an ambitious faculty recruitment program for a decade, making over 500 new appointments to maintain research excellence and keep up with rapid undergraduate enrollment growth. In my December 12, 2025, memo to deans and department chairs, I reported that we made 60 faculty appointments in 2025, with as many as 15 new appointments from still in-progress recruitments possible in 2026. Facing budget reductions, and having agreed not to fill the 47 newly open faculty FTE, Academic Senate leaders, deans, and I determined that we would not be able to resume a regular recruitment cycle in 2026-27. Another year of reduced faculty recruitment will be difficult. We will seek to balance the risks to academic excellence with the risks of our structural deficit, but a robust faculty recruitment program depends on a stable and sustainable budget. In the meantime, we will renew our focus on academic planning to set priorities, invest carefully, and make strategic decisions. 

The challenge of reducing the permanent budget is compounded by the need to eliminate deficit spending. We cannot restore financial stability if we resort to deficit spending after budgets are reduced. I acknowledge that the campus has not always followed through on or faced the consequences of announced budget reductions, tolerating temporary deficits when adequate resources were lacking. Changing our practices will require time and difficult decisions based on a strategic assessment of priorities and a review of resource allocations both within Academic Affairs and across the campus. We are working with the Administration-Senate Committee on Financial Stability to address campus priorities and protect teaching and research as much as possible. 

Revenue Generation Working Group

As part of the Strategic Planning for Financial Stability Initiative, Senate Chair Rita Raley and I appointed a Revenue Generation Working Group to explore opportunities to generate or enhance revenue to support our academic mission. Co-chaired by College of Engineering Dean Umesh Mishra and Academic Senate Vice Chair David Valentine, the working group will identify institutional barriers to revenue generation in current campus practices or policies and recommend investments that could lead to new resources. This is a time for us to be entrepreneurial and imaginative. Last month, the Working Group convened a large number of campus stakeholders to compile a wide range of options and concepts for campus revenue generation. A full working group list can be found here. 

Artificial Intelligence

We know that Artificial Intelligence will continue to transform both the classroom and the workplace, as well as many research practices and methodologies. Faculty and departments are designing new curricula, pedagogical approaches, degree programs, certificates, initiatives, and research projects, with particular attention to social, ethical, and cultural impacts. Last fall, Academic Senate Chair Raley and I appointed a Senate-Administration Advisory Committee on Uses of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Contexts. The committee, co-chaired by Film and Media Studies Professor Lisa Parks and Computer Science Professor and CCS Dean Tim Sherwood, has been asked to develop campus guidelines, policies, and principles for the responsible and ethical use of AI in academic contexts, especially teaching and research, including academic administrative activities. For a list of the committee members, see here. 

For some current resources, guidance, and information about current projects, see Artificial Intelligence on the CIO website, Artificial Intelligence in Classes and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Learning on the Office of Teaching and Learning website, and Generative AI & Academic Use on the Library website. 

Planning for the Future

This is a moment for us to think creatively and strategically about the future. Two searches are underway for new deans. The Advisory Search Committee for the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education Dean is chaired by Psychological and Brain Sciences Professor Richard Mayer, with Education Professor Jin Sook Lee serving as Vice Chair. The Advisory Search Committee for the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management Dean is chaired by Bren Professor Mark Buntaine. Both schools have been engaged in designing innovative degree programs and collaborations with other units on campus, and we seek new deans with ambitious visions. 

The UC Joint Academic Senate-Administration Task Force on UC Adaptation to Disruptions (UCAD Plus) has been charged with recommending strategies to maintain UC’s academic and research excellence in the face of disruptive federal actions, uncertain federal and state partnerships, and evolving shifts in higher education. I will continue to work closely with our Academic Senate and deans to develop our own campus strategies to sustain areas of academic focus that are vulnerable and ensure that our programs, degrees, and academic configurations will best serve the interests of students and faculty and maintain our common values in the future. Our strong traditions of shared governance and our culture of intellectual and academic innovation are crucial to this enterprise.  

With diminishing resources for TAs, it is important to utilize the full workload associated with each TA appointment, and to think carefully about how best to deploy TA resources to support instruction. The L&S Division of Undergraduate Education is advising L&S deans and departments on enrollment patterns and curricular needs to help guide them on where TA support is most needed. The fact that we will have fewer TAs for the foreseeable future will require revisions and adaptations in pedagogy. Financial stability depends on maintaining enrollments and student credit units. The Office of Teaching and Learning continues to offer guidance to faculty about pedagogical models and strategies for providing quality instruction with fewer teaching assistants. Chairs have a responsibility to ensure that faculty fulfill their expected teaching responsibilities in the courses in which they are most needed. 

Large fluctuations in undergraduate enrollment patterns over the last ten years impacted both large and small departments; in some areas, we need to better align curriculum and degree programs with student interests and intellectual developments in faculty research. Both students and faculty would benefit from a more informed dialogue about the academic and practical value of our degree programs and potential career pathways. There is work to be done reviewing student success metrics in department courses and majors, and in thinking about curricula and degree programs collaboratively. MLPS departments have been reviewing curricula and degree requirements individually and together, informed by student success data, with the goal of forming “a vision of a modern, equitable, and efficient undergraduate experience.” Other departments have been focusing on our interdisciplinary strengths and collaborative culture. The development of innovative curricula, degree programs, and undergraduate and graduate emphases is itself a tradition at UC Santa Barbara, and our programs have been influential in shaping disciplines and interdisciplinary fields of study. New curricula or programmatic configurations might help us respond to current challenges and help to rebalance workload and enrollments across campus. 

We will face painful choices but defending the values of our higher education and our public research university, and protecting the quality of research and education, does not mean defending the status quo. Some of our challenges may be cyclical and temporary. Many of them require a realistic vision of a new academic landscape. We look forward to working with Chancellor Assanis as the campus develops a strategic plan to guide future development. 

Our Advantages

We begin 2026 and the Winter Quarter with many advantages: outstanding students, many of whom have the passion of first-generation college students; faculty who are emerging or established leaders in their fields and engaged in shared governance; highly skilled staff who advance our mission with dedication and professionalism. Our academic community is fortified by the unparalleled strengths of the University of California system as an international, public research university dedicated to free inquiry, freedom of thought and speech, innovation, discovery, and the creation and transmission of knowledge. Part of a global network of research and education that knows no borders, the University of California is central to the prosperity of the state of California. Representing accessibility and equity, it is an engine of economic mobility for the people of California, preparing our students to be engaged in civil society and be part of the innovative and culturally diverse workforce that business and industries need to thrive in our 21st-century global economy. We have the capacity to work through current challenges and both sustain and renew our academic mission. Thank you for your commitment to UC Santa Barbara.