Cuts at U. of California at Riverside Reflect Harsh Realities for All of the System's Campuses

San Francisco — In a memorandum that offers a look into the harsh decisions that leaders throughout the University of California system are making as they cope with further cuts in state support, the chancellor of the University of California at Riverside has announced that his campus will cut faculty and staff positions by 15 percent over the next couple of years and enroll fewer students in the fall of 2010.

In the memo, posted Friday on Riverside’s Web site, the chancellor, Timothy P. White, also said that hiring freezes would remain in place and that employees probably would be asked to take 16 unpaid furlough days — a measure that is expected to be adopted systemwide.

The university system is preparing for a cut in state support of about 20 percent in the 2009-10 fiscal year. Riverside faces a reduction of up to $40-million, or at least double what it expected before the state’s budget picture worsened over the last month, Mr. White wrote.

Riverside will seek to make the faculty and staff reductions through attrition and layoffs, Mr. White said. The furlough days — which are under consideration by the system’s Board of Regents, along with other cuts — would save the campus approximately $10-million a year, he said. Given California’s dismal budget situation, the approval of those cuts “appears to be inevitable,” he said.

In recent weeks, California’s public colleges and universities have announced a series of measures in preparation for state budget cuts. The state’s community-college system announced it would need to cut enrollment by 250,000 students in the coming academic year, and California State University’s chancellor said he may order an enrollment cut of around 40,000 students starting in the fall of 2010. —Josh Keller