The campus is gathering facts and figures as the next step in the 2003-04 budget process.

On April 15, deans, vice chancellors and vice provosts are due to submit draft budget plans to Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw in response to the state budget situation. UC Davis will likely release its final budget in July.

Campus leaders are striving to achieve budget savings while minimizing the impact on jobs.

That was the message at a Staff Assembly Budget Forum held March 20 in MU II. More than 75 employees gathered to ask questions of a panel that included Dennis Shimek, associate vice chancellor for human resources; Kelly Ratliff, assistant vice chancellor for budget resource management; Thomas Kaiser, assistant dean for administration in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and Robert Loessberg-Zahl, assistant executive vice chancellor.

Staff assembly chair Zack O’Donnell hosted the brown bag event. This was the third such staff budget forum since last fall as the administration gathers feedback from units across campus.

“We need to create a level of certainty on the campus,” Ratliff said. “And now we’re trying to educate folks on campus about the budget process. This planning exercise will prove prudent.”

The campus is basing its budget planning on the governor’s proposed budget. The actual state budget may be adopted as late as fall, Ratliff noted, but that would be too long for the university to wait for final state figures.

Administrators shared with the audience a recent memo from Hinshaw to deans, vice chancellors and vice provosts. She wrote, “The university’s budget is paradoxical in that it includes funding for enrollment growth and significant budget reductions.”

While money will be available for projected student increases, cuts to UC Davis are estimated at about $35 million, including $17 million in state-targeted reductions in research, outreach and student services. Another $18 million will be cut in administration, libraries and core instructional needs, as well as an unallocated cut proposed by the governor.

One budget-saving measure announced recently by the campus is a new voluntary time reductions program — dubbed “START” for the Staff Temporary Agreement to Reduce Time. It could begin by May 1.

START would allow career status employees, with the approval of their supervisor, to voluntarily reduce their appointment or time by 10 to 50 percent for up to a 12-month period without losing full-time service credits in vacation, sick leave and retirement.

Shimek points out that employees will not be “disadvantaged” if they sign up for START. “They will continue to accrue credits in the UC Retirement Plan, vacation and sick leave at the rate they earned them before joining START. If you participate in START, it won’t be held negatively against you.”

Under the plan, Shimek said that employees will be able to return fulltime to their reduced-time positions. He also highlighted other new guidelines to help employees affected by budget reductions. These include:

•Â  Hiring restrictions with all vacancies needing approval by the relevant dean or vice chancellor;

•Â  Internal recruitment for all staff positions;

• Internal/external recruitment when there is a high likelihood that internal pools may not be sufficiently diverse. However, internal applicants will be given first consideration; and

•Â  Retraining or training for employees who have been laid off and wish to re-enter the campus work force.

Kaiser said that the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is awaiting budget plans from the Office of the President on projected 25 percent reductions to the county-based Cooperative Extension (CE) program and another 10 percent in state-funded research.

The extension program is funded through the Office of the President though it involves staff and programs on the Davis campus. If approved by the state Legislature, this would mean a $12.2 million permanent reduction for CE next year, on top of a recently approved $2.4 million mid-year cut.

“It’s too early to speculate,” Kaiser said, noting that CE reductions may ultimately include a combination of program decreases at both the campus and county levels.

Stan Nosek, interim vice chancellor for administration, said that one factor behind the recent increases in parking fees is the cost of building new parking structures.

The campus is studying recommendations to contain the costs of parking fees. These include increasing parking tickets and using the difference to fund more parking alternatives. And the campus is studying whether it should continue to give retired employees free parking.

“We’re looking in every nook and cranny,” Nosek said.