Federal Governmental Relations: The UC - Federal Government Partnership

Research Universities and the Federal Government
World War II was a defining event in the role of U.S. research universities, including the University of California. The war effort required immediate knowledge and innovative technologies - capabilities that were provided by the scientific facilities and problem-solving thinking of the research universities. In one of the classic partnerships of modern history, the federal government and America's universities joined national need and national expertise in a time of crisis.

These scientific and technological contributions, in turn, paved the way for today's highly effective university-government partnership that now serves the nation's pressing peacetime needs in many areas.

A hallmark of the American university system is the marriage of research with the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers. This combination provides an extraordinary synergy in a nationwide system of diverse institutions. It ensures continuity between the newest thinking in every field and those who will carry its seeds into industry, medicine, public service, and the perpetuation of teaching and training. The integration of research and education has become a model for universities around the world.

The partnership begun in World War II between the federal government and universities thrives today with the federal government supporting 58% of the research performed at universities. University research has become a vital building block of the nation's research and development (R&D) enterprise. Universities perform 44% of the nation's basic research - about $21 billion of the nation's FY 2000 basic research total of $48 billion. This research creates the building blocks of future products and processes. Along with creating new knowledge, U.S. universities use their research activities to educate students who will become the next generation's scientists, teachers, and leaders in government and industry.

UC - A Premier Research University
Today, as a result of a 50-year partnership with the federal government, the University of California is the premier public university system in the world, fulfilling its mission of education, research and public service. The UC system, including the three national laboratories it manages, continues its impressive R&D performance with nearly $3.7 billion in federal R&D expenditures in 1999. By comparison, UC's total was greater than the Big Ten and Ivy League schools combined.

Universities receive research funding from many sources including industries and state and local governments. By far the largest supporter of university research, however, is the federal government. The California Master Plan for Higher Education established UC as the primary research agency for the State of California. As a public university, UC depends upon the state and federal government, as well as philanthropic support, to meet its responsibility to the people of California.

Several federal agencies support university research projects, but the six largest grantors are the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Energy.

UC's Federal Support
The UC system's FY 2000 budget totaled $14 billion. Approximately 30 percent of this total ($4-5 billion) came through federal sources. Federal appropriations, grants and contracts contributed $1.7 billion to UC through a variety of agencies:

• Health and Human Services, $883.6 million (In FY 2000, UC received 3,019 National Institutes of Health awards for a total of $929 million, a 5.6% increase over FY 1999);
• National Science Foundation, $247.4 million;
• Department of Education, $148.3 million;
• Department of Defense, $137.2 million;
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration, $83.4 million;
• Department of Energy, $70.8 million; and
• Other federal agencies, $138.4 million.

In addition, health services at UC's five medical centers generated $2.2 billion, much of this sustained through Medicare, and UC's contract to manage three Department of Energy Laboratories added $3 billion in revenues. Furthermore, UC student tuition and fees generated $1.1 billion in FY 2000, which includes funding from federal Pell grants and student loan/fellowship programs such as Perkins and Javits.

UC's Tripartite Mission - The Federal Scene

Education and Training
UC students receive educational aid through a variety of federal sources such as Pell grants, student loans, work-study programs, graduate fellowships and traineeships. FGR works to maintain a strong federal commitment to education. UC is also interested in federal programs that support teacher training, education technology initiatives and funding for the arts and humanities. In recent years, the federal government has also placed increased emphasis on supporting K-12 outreach initiatives and education enhancement programs - an interest which correlates well with UC's extensive outreach programs and college preparation efforts throughout California.

Graduate Education
The federal government plays an important role in graduate-level education through a variety of programs including student financial aid, fellowship and traineeship programs and tax policy. U.S. graduate programs are respected and emulated worldwide and are an international magnet for talented students. UC's unique system of combining graduate education with cutting-edge research strengthens the American education system, while producing the next generation's scientists, scholars, teachers, and leaders in government and industry. The federal investment in graduate education fills the same crucial funding gap that its support provides for basic research. It also helps to maintain the nation's competitive advantage at a time when American leadership and prosperity depend on the creation and use of knowledge.

Research
FGR strives to increase support and awareness in Congress that the federal role in funding physical sciences and engineering is a priority for industry and universities alike. FGR is closely involved with several research programs throughout the federal agencies. On behalf of the University of California, FGR urges Congress and the Administration to make strong federal investments in basic research across all disciplines.

Public Service

• K-12 and Outreach: UC has a variety of programs that provide special academic enrichment opportunities for K-12 students and have a record of success, as measured by the number of student participants who become eligible for UC admission. These include: the Early Academic Outreach Program, which provides pre-college counseling and tutoring and academic programs; the Puente Project which helps educationally underserved students in high school and community colleges succeed academically; and the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program, which prepares students in math and science.

  UC has established long-term partnerships with local high schools to strengthen the school's academic program and to help more students become eligible for college. Every UC campus operates a partnership program to engage the local educational community in pursuit of this goal. Furthermore, through its schools and departments of education and University Extension, UC offers a broad range of credential, advanced degree, and professional development programs for prospective and practicing K-12 teachers, school administrators and other education professionals.

• Land Grant Mission: UC is a land-grant university, designated to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. The original mission of these institutions, as set forth in the first Morrill Act, was to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts as well as classical studies so that members of the working classes could obtain a liberal, practical education. A key component of the land-grant system is the agricultural experiment station program created by the Hatch Act of 1887.

  Today, UC is charged at the federal and state level with operating research, teaching, and outreach programs that serve the needs of California's $25 billion agricultural economy. UC delivers research and educational programs, ranging from farm assistance to resource and nutrition education and 4-H, in each of the state's 58 counties.

  Federal research funds are key to keeping UC researchers and extension specialists on the front lines of current threats to California agriculture, such as the Pierce's Disease epidemic threatening wine grapes, and emerging threats such as Foot and Mouth Disease. UC spans the entire state with three colleges of agriculture (Berkeley, Davis and Riverside), a school of veterinary medicine, 10 research and extension centers, more than 50 Cooperative Extension county offices, and a natural reserve system covering 120,000 acres on more than 30 sites throughout California.

• Lifelong Learning: UC's University Extension is the foremost continuing education program of its kind in size, scope and quality of instruction. University Extension offers more than 20,000 self-supporting courses statewide and in several foreign countries. More than 430,000 students are enrolled in extension courses to complete a certificate program, change or further a career or otherwise improve their lives.

• Health and Clinical Affairs: FGR's main focus for health and clinical affairs is to create a guaranteed funding source for Graduate Medical Education (GME), which is sustained through Medicare. UC works to ensure that the Medicare program maintains its current commitment to high-quality health care by retaining its obligation to direct graduate medical education (DGME), indirect medical education (IME), and disproportionate share hospital (DSH) financing.

  UC operates the nation's largest health science and medical training program with over 12,000 students annually enrolled in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and related health care disciplines. University-based training and research provide the most advanced medical care available, teach the doctors, nurses and other health professionals who will deliver health care in other settings, translate medical discoveries into new treatments, and care for a large portion of the nation's uninsured.

  Of total net patient revenues in FY 1998-99, federal program revenues represented 41%, with Medicare at 25% and Medicaid at 16%. UC's health facilities serve as the second largest component of the state's health services "safety net," serving as a major provider to uninsured, underinsured, Medicare and Medicaid patients. Thirteen percent of all admissions are patients for which UC hospitals receive little or no reimbursement.

• National Laboratories: UC manages three laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) - the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, both in California, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The university has managed the laboratories since their inception - a relationship spanning five decades - as a public service to the nation. The three laboratories have a combined UC workforce of 18,000 and operate on federally financed budgets totaling about $3.2 billion.