April 3, 2025
To: Deans, Chairs, and Academic Departments
From: David Marshall, Executive Vice Chancellor
Re: Academic Affairs Spring Quarter Updates
As we begin the Spring Quarter, I am writing to acknowledge the challenges that the campus and the University are facing at this moment, and to provide some updates and information to follow up on recent communications from Chancellor Yang, the UC Office of the President, and the UC Regents. Budget reductions from the state will have a significant impact on the campus budget, which already had a recurring financial shortfall due to expenditures exceeding revenues. The University has dealt with reductions in state support before, but these financial problems take place in the context of the threat of a large, potential reduction in federal funding, as well as broader challenges to some of our practices and programs, and to our educational mission as a public university.
We are doing our best to provide information and guidance, following the legal and policy guidance coordinated by the UC Office of the President. Any changes in our practices and policies will be communicated by the appropriate offices in consultation with the Academic Senate, deans, chairs, and others. We believe that we are compliant with all federal and state laws; UC continues to review and, in some cases revise, policies and practices. Our Office of Research will continue to provide Principal Investigators with information and guidance. It has asked anyone receiving requests for certifications or acknowledgment of grant compliance to route these requests to local Contracts and Grant staff or directly to the Sponsored Projects Team. Please see the end of this message for important links to federal updates, UC resources, and FAQs offering guidance on policies and practices.
Over the last five years, we have dealt with a global pandemic, remote teaching and remote work, a prolonged return to in-person operations, labor unrest, staff turnover, remote and hybrid work adjustments, budget constraints, and divisive national and global controversies. Our sense of community has been strained, but our staff, faculty, and students have responded with perseverance, resilience, and dedication. As we face our latest challenges, I would like to offer some updates and some reflections on our principles.
System-wide and Campus Financial Challenges
As you know from messages from President Drake and Chancellor Yang, the Office of the President has called for a “systemwide hiring freeze to help the University manage costs and conserve funds,” and campuses have been directed to “prepare financial strategies and workforce management plans that address any potential shortfalls” and “implement cost-saving measures.” Campuses have the discretion to develop their own plans, and in this transitional period we are continuing in-progress, mission-critical academic recruitments under the careful supervision of the deans and vice chancellors. Having consulted with Council on Planning and Budget leadership about the 2025-26 faculty recruitment planning process, I am asking the deans to convey only their most urgent priorities for 2025-26 recruitments, assuming that there will be (at best) very few faculty searches launched next year. The campus is developing procedures to review exceptional requests for new staff recruitments, similar to the position-control protocols in place during the pandemic. We will share more information about this process soon.
The uncertainties associated with federal funding agencies compound the financial challenges the University faces due to the state’s deferral of the 5% annual funding increase ($240.8M) associated with the Governor’s 5-year compact for the UC system. The current state budget proposal includes a permanent 7.95% state funding reduction ($396M for the UC System). This represents a 12.95% reduction in State resources expected for 2025-26, only partly offset by the delayed allocation of the second half of last year’s compact funding increase ($125M). Our campus projects a $24 million permanent reduction in state funding, at the same time we expect our campus expenditures to increase by over $45 million, due largely to a $35 million increase in salaries and benefits. We have compensated for shortfalls in revenues with short-term measures over the past few years, but the time has come to take action to address our structural problems and realign our annual expenses with our revenues.
Strategic Planning for Financial Stability
The Chancellor has asked the campus to prepare strategic reduction plans identifying permanent reductions from core fund expenditures. Academic Affairs and the Office of Research each have been asked to target a 10% reduction, while other divisions have been asked to target a 12.95% reduction. These plans will be reviewed by a committee of senior administrators and Academic Senate leaders that will make recommendations to the Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy. In addition to reducing our expenditures and planning for permanent budget reductions, we are asked to “assess all processes for efficiency, eliminating redundancies and non-essential expenditures,” “identify opportunities to streamline, merge, or sunset duplicative or non-scalable activities or units,” and “explore opportunities for cross-divisional reorganization or consolidation.” We also are encouraged to “seek alternative funding sources to sustain critical functions that can no longer rely on core funds.”
Although the campus will try to protect research and teaching, Academic Affairs must meet its budget reduction target by returning one-time funds and identifying permanent reductions to be enacted over the next year. As we have done in the past, my office will try to protect instructional budgets by absorbing a portion of the temporary and permanent reductions centrally, but in order to develop a plan for Academic Affairs, I have asked the deans to prepare plans for 10% reductions in their areas. This does not mean that we will have automatic, across-the-board cuts at any level or in any particular unit. Finding opportunities to avoid cost increases and to leverage resources will help us to protect instruction. My office will work with the deans, who will give instructions to departments as we formulate plans and scenarios. Some units have been operating with deficits, which now need to be addressed.
We must focus on the priority areas that are critical to our teaching and research missions. Over the past few years, I have asked deans and departments to deploy a combination of instructional resources to deliver the curriculum that students need to attain their degree goals in a timely manner, and to ensure that faculty fulfil their expected teaching responsibilities and teach the courses that are most needed in the curriculum. I also asked deans and departments to plan for a reduction in Teaching Assistants, and to develop realistic curricular plans based on innovative pedagogical and curricular models. Even if we had more resources, this would not be a time to plan for the status quo.
As we begin academic planning discussions to imagine a 21st-century academic landscape that reflects student interests and interdisciplinary faculty research strengths, we will need resourcefulness and creativity. It is difficult to view this moment of triage as an opportunity for creative reinvention, yet the campus and the UC system have weathered difficult budget reductions in the past, most recently after the 2008 Great Recession, and emerged with renewed academic distinction. We have made hundreds of outstanding faculty appointments in the last decade, building on interdisciplinary and interdepartmental strengths and developing innovative research and teaching areas, and we will continue to plan for the future.
Reaffirming our Values and Principles
At the same time, we must acknowledge that American research universities are currently faced with an unprecedented threat to the research and educational infrastructure that since the Second World War has made universities engines of economic development, central to the health, welfare, culture, creative economy, and civil society of the country. The University of California, as a great public research university, also has enabled economic mobility for the people of California. It has prepared our students to be part of the innovative and culturally diverse workforce that business and industries need to thrive in our 21st-century global economy.
As a scholar of the Enlightenment, I cannot help noting that the University of California, although established in 1868, was anticipated in the California State Constitution of 1849, which mandated a system of common schools and a public university that would advance “literature, the arts and sciences.” The Constitution instructed the Legislature to encourage “the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural improvement.” The revised 1897 Constitution, which declared a state-supported and autonomous University of California to be a “public trust,” affirmed that a “general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence” was “essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people” in terms that echo the Enlightenment principles of the founders of the American Republic. In 1790, in his First Annual Message to Congress, George Washington argued that the “promotion of science and literature” was necessary to the “preservation of a free constitution.” This argument is still worth making today.
There is strength in our culture of shared governance and in our shared mission. There is power in the ideas that for centuries have sustained academic inquiry, innovation, and discovery, and the transmission of knowledge. We must work together with a sense of common cause if we are to reaffirm the academic values of the University of California and the principles of our public trust.
A Note on Federal Updates and UC Policies and Guidance
A useful compilation of updates and policy statements is posted on the Federal Updates page of the UC Office of the President. This page has important updates and links regarding developments with funding agencies and Executive Orders, including sections on Research Funding, Student Financial Aid, Immigration, Health Care, LGBTIA+ Issues, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and the Antisemitism Executive Order. There are also statements and updates from the UC Regents and UCOP. You may wish to review, in particular, the recently revised FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions About Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of California and Frequently Asked Questions for University Employees About Possible Federal Immigration Enforcement Actions on University Property. See also the recently posted Guidance Regarding Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statements in Faculty and other Academic Appointee Recruitments.
You also will find information and materials related to UC advocacy efforts on the Office of Federal Governmental Relations, and the Office of External Relations & Communications sites. Many professional societies and organizations are also involved in these efforts. I recommend consulting the updates provided by the Association of American of Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.