I would like to point out the error in your article, “State Cuts EAP Funds,” in Thursday’s Daily Nexus. It is not the state, but the Office of the President in Oakland that cuts EAP funds. It is somewhat complicated, but let me explain as clearly as I can.

In the past, University Office of EAP received subsidies from UCOP from its Marginal Cost of Instruction funds and the opportunity funds. But from this year on, the budget formula has changed. The general fund subsidy was drastically reduced, and UOEAP will receive the education and registration fees the students pay through the “EAP fee” that will be charged, and campuses will receive the MCOI money that EAP students generate. But of course the “EAP fee” will include extra money to keep EAP alive.

It would be accurate to say the UCOP, not the state, is cutting EAP funding since they are eliminating the subsidy for EAP that has hitherto been used to support the program. They cut $400,000 last year from the $4.1 million that EAP received and will cut another $700,000, $800,000 and $900,000 of that money over the next three years until EAP is left with just the $1 million of “opportunity funds.” And it’s really the cut in that funding that requires EAP charge students extra fees. 

The article was, therefore, not accurate in saying that “State Cuts EAP Funds” but rather that UCOP has cut EAP funds and has put EAP in a situation in where it must raise the funding from the students. I would like to add that this year was the first time in the almost 50-year history of the program that UC has required students to pay extra for this UC academic program. 

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