Chancellor Albert Carnesale seemed in bright spirits Friday,
though budget cuts and fighting between student groups were topics
that brought a more serious expression to his face during his
quarterly briefing with the Daily Bruin.
The chancellor arrived at the conference off the heels of his
first town hall meeting with students, a midday event he said had a
low turnout.
He said he didn’t know how to measure the meeting’s
success, but felt students who attended learned a lot.
The topic of the town hall was the same one he addressed at the
briefing ““ a UC budget deal with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
which calls for undergraduate fee increases of 10 percent for the
next three years, and higher ones for graduate students.
But the UC would see a gradual rise in funding beginning fall
2005 after absorbing $372 million in cuts this coming year.
While some believe the deal sold out students to the governor,
Carnesale said he believes the compact is the best thing for the UC
system.
He emphasized that the deal was a compromise, meaning no party
got everything it wanted. The UC, like its students, wants to see
the slimmest possible budget cuts, he said.
The Legislature was not involved in negotiations between the UC
and Schwarzenegger, a point of contention for critics of the
plan.
Carnesale said he believes it is unlikely Sacramento lawmakers
would have given the UC more money than the Schwarzenegger
deal.
He added it would have been difficult for legislators to give
more UC funding without increasing taxes, and that chances of
securing those increases would have been slim.
“If you’re asking me what would I have done if I
were president, I don’t know ““Â I wasn’t
president,” he said. “Do I believe that we would have
gotten more money without the compact? The answer is no … I do
not think so.”
Carnesale also discussed the UC’s inability to offer a
spot this coming fall to some high school graduates deemed eligible
for admission.
Of the total amount of students offered, about 18 percent
accepted a guaranteed transfer option, requiring 60 units in
community college followed by enrollment at a preferred UC campus.
The numbers were low partly because many eligible for UC admission
were accepted to other four-year colleges and universities,
Carnesale said.
“We expected it to be worse,” he said. “It was
anticipated that maybe 10-15 percent would accept the
offers.”
Staying on the issue of incoming students, Carnesale called low
rates of minority enrollment for fall 2004 “a tragedy and a
travesty.”
Carnesale said he would support looking at race in admissions,
but Proposition 209 prevents university officials from doing so.
While he said he wished he “had a magic bullet,” he
added that cuts to outreach have made the current situation even
more grim.
Another issue that lowered Carnesale’s tone of voice was
the highly publicized conflict between MEChA and Bruin Republicans
this year.
Calling himself a “free speech nut,” the chancellor
said he doesn’t believe the administration should mediate
arguments between campus groups. But he said students should reach
out to understand those with backgrounds different than their
own.
“When I ask students … the most frequent answer of
“˜What disappointed you most?’ is that for all the
diversity of this campus, it is strongly self-segregated,” he
said.
He said he supports the recent promise of a new campus diversity
requirement, but that deciding on and implementing the details of
such a requirement will be difficult.
Carnesale also discussed UCLA’s willed body program, which
was shut down after an investigation disclosed that its employees
were selling body parts for profit.
Former Gov. George Deukmejian is working on a report to create
guidelines for all UC willed body programs. Not until after that
report comes out, and UCLA is sure donated cadavers are in good
hands, will the program reopen, Carnesale said.
“It’s only at that point that we’ll go to the
judge. … We won’t start up again until we’re positive
it can be done right,” he said.
For now, medical students who study cadavers will use bodies
donated to other UC programs, most notably UC Irvine’s.
Among recent efforts to interact with students, the chancellor
set aside three hours to speak with 18 students in the spring. In
the past, he has typically held only one 60-minute office hour for
six students.
Some say the amount of time Carnesale takes to meet with
students is too limited. But the chancellor said that though brief,
the meetings give him a feel for campus concerns.
“Most of the students who say it’s not useful have
never been,” he said.
On a lighter note, the chancellor listed his conception of
UCLA’s best and worst and from this school year.
Among his best was women’s gymnastics ““ in addition
to winning the NCAA championship, the team has a higher grade point
average than the average UCLA student.
On the flip side, he said UCLA’s worst was the continuing
trend of a lack of diversity.
“This cannot be attributed as, “˜oh, this is a
one-time thing,’ this too shall pass,” he said.
“The willed body program strikes me as a much more
terribly embarrassing, terrible thing (that) happened, but we can
make sure this will pass. … I don’t know how to make (the
diversity situation) pass.”