Oh, Say Can U.C?

To illustrate what he meant, Professor Earl Cheit leaned down, swabbed his index finger across the floor under his chair and then held up the evidence. His finger was black. The floor was filthy because it had not been swept; it had not been swept because maintenance funds were inadequate; the maintenance funds were inadequate because the huge and prestigious University of California (nine campuses, $1 billion annual budget) has for the past four years been involved in what Berkeley Economist Cheit calls a "cost-income squeeze" that is prototypical of problems facing other large U.S. educational institutions.

In Sacramento last week, the California legislature struggled to assemble a final compromise on the 1972-73 state budget, 10.9% of which is devoted to higher education. Governor Ronald Reagan, who came into office in 1967 making no secret of his scorn for the liberals of the educational establishment, has recommended that the state put up a total of $382 million, some $58 million short of U.C.'s request, while the legislature's senate and assembly put the figure at $390 million and $395 million respectively. For the first time in three years, Reagan's budget offered a 9% pay raise for the faculty as well as an increase of $18.7 million in education funds. But U.C. officials argue that the new Reagan budget does not even keep up with the inflation, and it leaves California's model system of higher education fraying at the edges.

During the "golden decade" (1957-67), U.C. doubled its enrollment, to 95,292, added three new campuses and three medical schools, and attracted not only a stellar faculty but millions of dollars in research grants. "Those were the years the cookie jar was open," says U.C. Riverside Vice Chancellor Carlo Golino. "All you had to do was dig in and pull out a new laboratory." Toward the end of that decade, however, student turmoil spread from Berkeley to other California campuses--caused in part by youthful dissatisfaction over the rapid growth of the mega-university --and then came the recession, bringing harder times to many of the nation's colleges. Says U.C.L.A. Chancellor Charles Young: "The fact that some of the problems of our universities hit harder and earlier here, and were more politicized because of Reagan's visibility, has made things worse."

In the battle of the budget, the university has had to fight as hard as other agencies for its share. In fact, the battle has become something of an annual ritual, and university officials are not above crying wolf. If previous cuts are repeated, said University President Charles Hitch last fall, "distinction will become a memory." Hitch hopes, however, that better planning and careful allocation of money can keep distinction alive. But there are some signs of real deterioration. Berkeley is closing down its promising new demography department partly because of budget shortages. Computer use has been sharply curtailed, marking what U.C.L.A. Assistant Professor Ephraim McLean calls a "deplorable failure on the part of the state to rise to the challenge of supporting computer services." Library hours have been cut at several campuses an average of eleven hours a week, and students report delays of up to seven weeks in obtaining books. Equipment is aging, as in the Santa Barbara lab where 146 microscopes had to be taken out of service this year. Says San Diego Vice Chancellor Paul Saltman: "We are absolutely counting test tubes nowadays."

U.C.'s severest problem, however, is hiring and keeping topnotch teachers. Says U.C. Vice President Chester O. McCorkle: "We used to be able to pick off the best in the country, but that is not true now. That's where the quality erodes." Even if this year's salary increase is approved, U.C. pay will still lag about 5.5% behind such major competitors as Harvard, Cornell and Michigan, which are slated for modest increases themselves. As of the 1971-72 school year, U.C. had slipped to 68th in average salary ranking, according to the American Association of University Professors, whereas it once ranked in the top ten. So far, only a few full professors have left for more profitable posts, partly because other institutions also feel the financial crunch. Says University Regent Ed Carter: "All universities have come on hard times; indeed, many will go out of business over the next 20 years. But I think strong ones like the University of California will survive. My area of greatest concern is the extent to which we may not be attracting the Nobel laureates of the next decade." Adds Vice Chancellor David Gardner: "As your senior men die or retire, who replaces them? If the present trend continues, we may wake up in ten or 15 years and ask: Where is U.C.?"

At New York University, the financial pressures have come not from political critics but from a simple loss of students--down from 46,412 to 40,126 since 1968. To prevent "spectacular financial collapse," a special study group reported last week, the university must close its Graduate School of Social Work, cut its faculty of 800 teachers by a number "in the hundreds," pare away several costly academic departments, stop new construction and sell off marginal real estate. The current budget is $220 million, and N.Y.U.'s deficit this year is expected to be more than $10 million; next year it should rise to $15 million. Will N.Y.U. comply with the recommended cuts? "I don't see that we have any alternative," said President James M. Hester. "This is the end of wishful thinking."

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