State committees announce request for audit of UC budget

By G. Haley Massara

California Assemblymember Mike Gipson requested a new audit of the University of California’s budget Wednesday, citing lingering issues from responses to the last audit four years ago.

The announcement comes after a joint oversight hearing between the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, chaired by Gipson, and the Assembly Higher Education Committee. The hearing was held Wednesday in response to critiques of policies created after a UC budget audit in 2011.

One such change was a “rebenching initiative” designed to reallocate state funds more equitably after the audit found a large discrepancy in per-student funding for campuses with larger percentages of ethnic minority students. For example, according to a press release, campuses with a higher-than-average-portion of Hispanic, black, Native American and other ethnic groups were receiving less funding — more than $30,000 less per student annually — than other campuses.

Concerns were raised at the hearing as to the rebenching initiative’s progress so far and current UC demographics.

“We cannot wait years to determine whether our policies are effective, and when students are facing tuition increases, it is our responsibility to ensure that their sacrifice is not wasted,” Gipson said in the press release.

The rebenching initiative — which will be fully implemented in 2018 — has been further complicated by the proliferation in recent years of nonresident and international UC students, thereby reducing the number of UC admissions slots available to California applicants. This change in university demographics, according to the press release, has yet to be examined by an independent auditor, thus prompting a new audit.

The purpose of this audit, Gipson said in the release, is to reassess per-student funding, determine optimum resident and nonresident enrollment numbers and examine the compensation of UC executives.

UC spokesperson Shelly Meron said in an email that the university looks forward to working with the state auditor.

“UC is committed to equalizing state funding, enrolling a diverse and growing California student body, and working with the Legislature and the State Auditor to address questions raised in the initial audit,” she said.

University of California Student Association board chair Kevin Sabo said that news of the audit would be a “bloodbath” for the university and that he felt, in the wake of impending tuition hikes, that public discourse needs to include what the UC system is doing with the funding it currently receives.

He said he hopes that the audit will shed light on the efficacy of money spent on recruiting in-state students, especially those from underrepresented minority groups, as well.

“It’s been four years — it’s time to reopen the books,” he said.

Members of the audit committee will vote to approve the new audit at their next hearing March 4.

[Source]: Daily Californian