Proposal to shutter some UCs hits nerve

The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

As it confronts an unprecedented financial crisis, the University of California is crackling with debate over some provocative proposals – such as closing one or more campuses – outlined in a letter signed by 21 UC San Diego department heads.

The professors argue that the world's finest public university should preserve its elite, world-class research campuses – namely UCSD, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Francisco – and impose proportionately deeper budget cuts on the less-renowned campuses in Merced, Riverside and Santa Cruz or, if necessary, shut them down.

They say it's time that the system acknowledge the brutal truth: Not all UC campuses are equal.

“Rather than destroying the distinctiveness and excellence at Berkeley, UCLA and UCSD by hiring temporary lecturers to do most of the teaching . . . we propose that you urge the President and Regents to acknowledge that UCSC, UCR and Merced are in substantial measure teaching institutions . . . whose funding levels and budgets should be reorganized to match that reality,” stated the letter, written by Andrew Scull, head of the UCSD sociology department.

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