Budget Advocacy: Making the Case
A sampling of activities in support of the University of California budget
Updated October 2009
Throughout the 2009-10 state budget process, members of the University of California community have been working to convey to the legislature, the governor and the public the budget needs and public contributions of the University of California. Below is a sampling of some of these activities; campuses have been engaged in more activities than are listed here.
E-advocacy
- UC has been providing informational updates to a network of 200,000
e-advocates - alumni and friends of UC - who sign up as part of the
UC for California Network to stay informed about UC policy priorities and then have the opportunity to email elected representatives in Sacramento about those issues. - External Relations staff is currently working on an integrated Web strategy to increase our number of advocates.
- More than 26,000 e-mails were sent to the governor and legislators supporting UC's budget priorities between June and September.
UC Day in Sacramento
- More than 300 alumni and friends visited Sacramento personally and made the pitch for strong funding of public higher education at this year's UC Day.
Legislative visits
- President Yudof has met with the governor and the legislative leadership
on the budget and testified before the legislative budget committees in Sacramento. - Several chancellors and regents likewise have traveled to Sacramento to meet with legislators on the funding challenges facing the UC system.
- The Academic Senate leaders for UC, CSU, and the community colleges met with legislators and staff to advocate for funding of public higher education.
- UC produced and delivered Cal Grant fliers to the office of each legislator in Sacramento showing the number of students in his or her district, in all of higher education, who would be impacted by the governor's proposed cut to Cal Grants.
- President Yudof, with the release of his white paper, "Exploring a New Role for Federal Government in Higher Education," has issued a call to action for federal policymakers to develop an integrated national strategy that will educate more students and drive the research and technology that will propel the United States forward in the 21st century.
Media outreach
- President Yudof has held editorial board meetings and provided press briefings on the budget situation to the higher education press corps.
- A number of newspaper op-eds, including by Regents Blum and Gould and President Yudof, have appeared on issues related to UC funding.
- President Yudof has developed a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter to extend the UC message to more constituencies.
Lobby days
A wide variety of UC supporters have made trips to Sacramento or held lobby days of their own to make the UC funding case. These include:
- UC President's Board on Science and Innovation
- Los Angeles corporate leaders
- The chair and vice chair of the Academic Senate
- Staff Advisers to the Board of Regents
- Student Regent Jesse Bernal
- UC Student Association
- High school/community college students supporting academic prep programs
UC community outreach
- Regents Blum, Gould, and Lansing, along with President Yudof, sent an
e-mail letter to 1 million UC alumni encouraging them to become more active in building legislative and financial support for UC. - Academic Senate faculty received a letter from President Yudof outlining the urgency of the State budget situation and providing information by which to contact their elected representatives about it.
- President Yudof has issued a series of videos and written communications to employees to keep them apprised of budget developments.
- Chancellors have held campus town halls and developed a variety of other mechanisms for keeping campus constituencies informed.
- Students have been kept informed about decisions around student fees and the underlying fiscal challenges necessitating them.
- The Office of the President re-engineered its budget news Web site to provide timely information to employees, friends, and advocates - and all campuses have developed similar sites rich with local, campus-specific content.
- The Office of the President has reached out to Regents, alumni, Academic Senate faculty, students, and staff to more actively engage them in the University's advocacy efforts. In particular, we are working on reversing the impression that UCOP does not engage students in our efforts:
- In addition to reaching out to UC Student Association leaders, President Yudof has conducted face to face meetings with every campus student body president, campus student news paper editors, and other student leaders throughout the system. The President has been busy enlisting students in our advocacy efforts, while separating myths from facts, and imploring them to editorialize to their fellow students in support of standing in solidarity with students, administrators, and UC friends against further cuts to UC's budget. (See media clips from the President's visit with the Southern California campus student leaders.)
- President Yudof and Regent Gould recently established a special commission - the UC Commission on the Future - to help develop a vision and explore answers to central challenges of how to preserve access and quality, and continue to serve a state with ever-increasing educational, scientific, and healthcare needs in the face of diminishing state support.
Extended community outreach
- President Yudof has worked with a variety of trade groups and associations statewide to build understanding in the business and health care communities about UC's impacts on California's economy and quality of life.
- President Yudof also has joined leaders of the CSU and community college systems at public policy forums linking economic competitiveness to the contributions of higher education, including at recent summits sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Lumina Foundation.