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State, UC Agree on ‘Promise of Fiscal Security’​

A new agreement between University of California President Janet Napolitano and Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown provides UC with the promise of fiscal security over the next four years, enabling UC as a whole to do what it does best: teach students, conduct research and advance health locally and worldwide.

If the California Legislature approves the budget in late June, six key areas of its provisions would impact the people of UCSF, including increasing tuition assistance, funding mental health services, addressing pension obligations and providing much-needed funding for deferred maintenance.

“State funding continues to be important to UCSF because it is a critical source of support for the instructional programs in our schools,” said Teresa Costantinidis, UCSF associate vice chancellor for budget and resource management. “That’s the main use of our state funding.”

While state funds only provide about 4 percent of UCSF’s nearly $5 billion budget, those funds remain critical to the campus for education, maintenance and other core operations. The agreed-upon  percent base budget increase would correspond to an additional $4.5 million this year for UCSF and close to $20 million over the next four years. Depending upon the needs from other campuses for deferred maintenance, the increase could also help fund some key electrical, heating and plumbing projects on campus, especially at Parnassus Heights.

"UCSF has significant deferred maintenance needs, so this would be exceedingly helpful to us in addressing these concerns,” Costantinidis said.

Most of the agreement primarily applies to the undergraduate campuses, such as increasing the number of new students who enter as transfers. The following six components would affect UCSF:

  • State commitment to annual budget increases would represent $4.5 million for UCSF for 2015-16 and close to $20 million over the next four years.
  • Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition increases, as proposed by the UC Regents, will generate about $1.5 million of new revenue for UCSF schools, including $500,000 of financial aid for students, which will greatly help in enabling students to afford to choose careers that serve underserved populations.
  • Student services fees will increase slightly (5 percent), generating $135,000 of total new funding at UCSF, half of which will go to fund mental health services.
  • A new commitment by the state to help address the UC pension obligation will provide $436 million of one-time funds over three years. Details on the impact of this to UCSF will come later.
  • A total of $50 million to UC overall for deferred maintenance and energy efficiencies could help UCSF address several badly needed renovation projects, especially at the Parnassus campus site, while helping the campus meet its greenhouse gas emission targets.

The state budget is expected to be official in late June; individual campuses can expect to hear about their specific allocations sometime in July.

For more internal-facing stories from the UCSF community, please visit Pulse of UCSF.

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