The Regents of the University of California are set to vote Thursday morning on an $80 million budget cut.
A drop in state revenues caused by the coronavirus pandemic led Sacramento to slash UC’s funding by nearly 13% for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. UC President Janet Napolitano has proposed an $862 million budget, an 8.5% reduction from last year's $941.7 million spending plan.
Napolitano's plan mitigates some of the overall funding loss from the state with $20 million from the discretionary UC Presidential Endowment Fund.
The UC system lost $1.5 billion in revenue between March and June of this year alone because of the pandemic. Here's how Napolitano's office puts it a summary to the Regents.
"Approximately two-thirds of this amount was attributable to the University’s academic medical centers and clinical operations, where the diversion of resources towards treating COVID-19 patients limited the ability to deliver other revenue-generating patient services. The remainder was primarily due to refunds of student housing and dining contracts, along with other auxiliary enterprises (e.g., athletics) where revenue declined as a result of curtailed campus operations."
UC staff have warned that the budget cuts could limit the amount of money campuses can use for COVID-related costs.
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