Cal chief inspires spirit of optimism
As UC Berkeley students stream back to class next week, they return to a campus beset by money woes, staff layoffs and a housing crisis.
But this year they have reason for optimism. A new chancellor with deep roots in the institution has made progress on many fronts and has built support from the faculty and students in addressing problems facing the University of California’s flagship campus.
A year ago, when Carol Christ became chancellor, she inherited a $110 million budget deficit, a math problem of 6,900 students more than the campus could house and low morale among employees. She promised to slash the shortfall by half in a year, add housing and find creative ways to raise and save money in the future.
The crown jewel is not yet out of hock. But as the fall semester opens, UC Berkeley’s deficit is estimated to have dropped by at least 63 percent to $40 million, partly by reduc-
ing expenses in undergraduate education by 10 percent, administration by 3 percent and non-academics by 11 percent. A new dorm named for the late UC Berkeley mathematician David Blackwell, the first black person inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, opened to 775 freshmen on Tuesday. It’s one of two new buildings — the other has classrooms — that will monetize campus real estate by letting tenants lease office or retail space.
The matter of free speech on campus led to a costly riot and a pair of lawsuits from disgruntled conservatives the year before Christ took over. She addressed the problem by declaring a Year of Free Speech and holding forums to speak openly about ideological differences. Even fury over the campus’ history of tolerating sexual harassment has settled down, as UC policies have tightened up.
“We are entering the second year of (Christ’s) tenure with a great deal of optimism,” said Barbara Spackman, a professor of Italian studies and comparative literature who chairs the faculty senate. “The campus has made significant progress toward eliminating the budget deficit. She has taken concrete steps to address the student housing shortage, including plans to build on People’s Park .”
Spackman also credited Christ with rebuilding trust between faculty and administrators, a reference to not only the 74-year-old chancellor’s personal warmth, but also her practice of soliciting the views of others — she opens her door to students every month — and her pedigree as an academic with deep roots on campus. Christ (rhymes with wrist) arrived as an English professor in 1970 and left in 2002 to lead Smith College. She returned in 2015 and was tapped for the top job in 2017 when Chancellor Nicholas Dirks ended a rocky tenure after four years.
Claudia Martinez Schwarz, a research administrator, knows what Spackman means about trust. The longtime employee complained to Sen. Kamala Harris — and copied Christ — about two tickets she got for displaying her campus parking permit in the wrong spot on her windshield.
“Dear Claudia,” the chancellor promptly responded. “I’ve also gotten the tickets for not displaying my permit appropriately so know how maddening it is.”
Christ told Schwarz she’d forwarded her email to the vice chancellor in charge of parking. She signed the note “Carol.”
Christ’s email was “a simple thing, but it speaks loudly. It shows respect, and her actions on this matter definitely earned my trust in her,” Schwarz said. “She uses the resources at her disposal and listens to all viewpoints.” Still, she said, the chancellor “has her work cut out for her.”
Christ emphasizes raising revenue as the best way to kill the deficit. Even so, UC Berkeley is in austerity mode. In 2016, the campus employed about 8,500 staff members, from custodians to administrators. Since then, through attrition and layoffs, that’s down to about 7,600.
“The recession never left the university,” said Varsha Sarveshwar, a third-year political science major who is active in student government. “The fiscal stress for our students never went away.”
About 65 percent of undergraduates, or about 19,000 students, rely on financial aid year-round. This semester, the staff has distributed the crucial funding — state Cal Grants, federal Pell Grants, and campus aid — to all but about 400 students, exceeding last year’s levels, said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof.
But if you’re one of the 400, it’s not good enough.
“I think the short-staffed financial aid office is something that almost every UC Berkeley student can vouch for,” said Sadia Khan, who said that by the first day of the semester Wednesday, her money had yet to arrive.
The campus is supposed to hand out the money 10 days before the semester starts so students can pay their bills on time.
Last spring, Khan said, her financial aid didn’t arrive until March, more than two months late, forcing her to apply for food stamps and causing her academics to suffer.
“I was so stressed about money and my financial-aid situation, and just trying to figure out how to find the money to pay rent,” she said.
And then there’s housing. Campus officials have negotiated master leases with local landlords, Christ told the campus in April. But it hasn’t helped everyone.
Enrollment has soared by 4,700 new students since 2013, a 13 percent increase, Christ told the UC regents in January. With nearly 42,000 students and pressure from Sacramento to admit more California residents, enrollment can exceed the university’s ability to meet their needs.
Christ is the “first chancellor in a long time to have an actual housing plan,” said senior Nuha Khalfay, also in student government.
News of UC Berkeley’s budget deficit surfaced in 2016 — a $150 million hole that immediately cost 500 staff jobs through attrition and layoffs. Officials blamed skyrocketing debt payments from maintaining the 150-year-old school. But a chunk of those payments, 20 percent, arose when the campus chose to spend $470 million on its Memorial Stadium complex that opened on campus in 2012.
“Athletics continues to be an albatross around our neck,” said Michael Burawoy, co-chair of the Berkeley Faculty Association, a more activist collection of professors than the mainstream faculty senate.
This year, the athletics department
“We are entering the second year of (Chancellor Carol Christ’s) tenure with a great deal of optimism.” Barbara Spackman, UC Berkeley faculty senate chairwoman
failed to meet its targeted budget, missing it by $5.5 million, or 3 percent, because of “depressed football and basketball ticket sales and contributions,” Mogulof said.
Even so, Christ says she believes that athletics will wipe out its $19.5 million deficit by 2020 — with help from the academic side. For the first time, the campus will help pay down the stadium debt, contributing 54 percent, or $9.4 million of the $18 million yearly pay-down for the seismic retrofit portion, Christ announced this year.
But Christ announced another plan for athletics that will bring UC Berkeley in line with the way every other Pac-12 school complies with Title IX, the federal gender equity law. The shift will stop the costly practice of adding women’s teams whenever there is interest — like the new sand volleyball team, for which Christ just authorized $30 million to upgrade its court and the women’s softball field.
Instead, by 2021 the campus will comply with the law by shrinking the rosters of men’s varsity teams, and increase them for women, until there is “substantially proportionate participation,” Christ said.
The chancellor says the campus will also balance its budget by 2020 — already a painful process for the world-renowned research institution.
“I’ve been troubled by the sheer numbers of students who have come to me with questions about basic instructional needs,” Christ told the regents in January. “They asked me to add more sections and reduce the size of classes.”
UC Berkeley’s exceptional science museums have been particularly hard hit.
“What makes Berkeley truly unique is being eroded,” said Charles Marshall, director of the Museum of Paleontology, which has sliced more than $70,000 from its budget since last year and laid off 40 percent of its collections staff.
Meanwhile, an additional 20 percent cut proposed for all the science museums this spring triggered a massive revolt: A petition signed by 4,000 people, a letter from 129 faculty members in 11 departments, and 200 more letters written by alumni landed in the in-boxes of Christ and other campus leaders.
The campaign was “utterly exhausting,” Marshall said. But it was successful — sort of — with a final cut, announced in July, of 6 percent.
“No other chancellor has faced so many issues with so little resources as has this chancellor,” Marshall said.
Despite everything — the cuts to academics, the layoffs, the shifting of funds to athletics — Marshall expressed optimism for UC Berkeley and faith in Carol Christ.
“I feel the campus has the chancellor’s back.”