California Governor Jerry Brown signed the Budget Act of 2018 on Wednesday, which allocates $98.1 million in permanent funding and $248.8 million in temporary one-time funding to the University of California.
The Budget Act continues the trend of increasing funding each year to the UC. Over the past six years, UC has received $1.2 billion in new funding.
Data includes total General Fund, special funds, and selected bond funds. Numbers courtesy of the California Department of Finance. Hayley Tice / Daily Nexus
The increase of funding to the UC comes following a proposed increase of in-state tuition for UC students across the UC’s 10 campuses. In April, UC President Janet Napolitano announced that the UC would not decide on an increase of in-state tuition at the UC Regents meeting in May and instead would continue to advocate for more state funding.
On March 15, the UC Board of Regents approved a 3.5 percent tuition increase for out-of-state undergraduate students; however, the regents have yet to vote on an in-state tuition increase as of June.
In January, Napolitano said the university is committed to adding an additional 2,000 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students for the fall of 2018.
Approximately $5 million of the permanent funding will go toward supporting 500 new undergraduate students for 2018-19, according to the senate bill. A portion of the one-time funds could also potentially go toward 2018-19 enrollment growth.
About $2 million of the one-time funds will be allocated toward efforts to increase diversity amongst faculty, along with $4 million toward legal services for the undocumented community on UC campuses.
Additionally, $1.5 million will go toward addressing student hunger.
About $35 million of the one-time funds will be used for deferred maintenance and $15.5 million for research, according to the senate bill.
Napolitano has yet to release a statement on the signed Budget Act, and it is unknown at this time whether the funding was enough to prevent a future in-state tuition increase for UC students.
