May 19, 2010

Promise of $500-Million in Savings at U. of California Will Be Tricky to Achieve

The University of California is proposing to cut $500-million in costs by, among other things, expanding regional data centers like one at the system's San Diego campus.

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The University of California is proposing to cut $500-million in costs by, among other things, expanding regional data centers like one at the system's San Diego campus.

By Josh Keller

San Francisco

Joel Michaelsen has no trouble identifying money-wasting practices at the University of California at Santa Barbara. For instance, he says, some of the university's core student- and business-information systems are run on decades-old computers.

"We're getting to the point where there's nobody left alive who knows how to deal with them," says Mr. Michaelsen, a geography professor who is chair of the university's faculty senate. "We've got stuff that's on IBM mainframes from the