What struck Chancellor Linda Katehi the most Sept. 4 when she greeted UC Davis firefighters upon their return from a wildfire in Southern California?

They had spent several days on the fire lines, helping others. And they had driven many hours. And, if called upon, they would happily turn around and go back, she said, despite their fatigue.

“And this is a very small example of what our staff is doing and how people are feeling on this campus and the kind of commitment that you have all placed and made to this institution,” Katehi told a Staff Open Forum on Oct. 15.

Some 200 people attended the early afternoon forum and nearly 500 “unique” users clicked open the live webcast. The UC budget crisis was the impetus for the meeting; UC Davis alone, in 2008-09 and 2009-10, is dealing with combined budget shortfalls — driven by general fund cuts and added expenses — equivalent to 22 percent of the university’s general fund base budget ($38 million last year, plus additional one-time cuts, and $113.5 million this year).

The chancellor said staff input — ideas, advice, comments, critique — will help us “collectively” make the difficult decisions that must be made not only to see us through today’s problems, but to position UC Davis “for the wonderful opportunities of tomorrow.”

“All of us here, the administration, the faculty and the students, are truly appreciating your work and your commitment, and we feel very lucky to have you here, to have you (as) members of our community.”

The fiscal challenge, at least for this year, Katehi said, is made all the more difficult by the short lead time that the campus has had to come up with plans for absorbing the shortfall.

“It is only since May when we all realized that the state did not have money to provide the budget that we thought we would get,” she said. “That’s what makes it so challenging and difficult. And the way we will address this challenge will determine whether this campus will make it or not.”

She called UC Davis a “treasure that has been given to us,” the product of years of work by many thousands of people, including multiple generations of the same families.

“It is a responsibility we have all accepted when we signed up to work for this institution, to make it the best we can, and to leave it the best we can when the new generations of individuals come to work.”

And, as staff and faculty make sacrifices, through hard work and commitment, despite furloughs and pay cuts, Katehi implied that all Californians and everyone else across the country ought to be making sacrifices of their own for higher education.

“Our parents,” Katehi said, “were the ones who committed themselves in their work after the second war to create a higher education of the quality we have today, for one reason: So that the children, us, could have access to it, and then we could have a quality of life that was better than theirs.

“And they did this and they accepted taxation just for the purpose of founding institutions of higher education at a time when the economy was horrible after the second war, families did not have enough just to make ends meet, and yet that generation decided to make sacrifices, so higher education could become of the quality we have today, so we would benefit from it.

“The question that I have is, What is our generation doing right now, are we doing the same? Because there are a lot of indications out there that we are thinking differently. … I think, I believe, and I hope I’m wrong, that our generation takes higher education as an entitlement and as an expense, either an entitlement or an expense, instead of looking at higher education as an investment. And that will be to our detriment if we do not face it.”

She added that many people see institutions of higher education as places of employment rather than places with a mission. “When we sign up to work for a university, it’s not the same as when we sign up to work for a company. Universities have a mission: We are here to do something very important, and that is to educate the next generation to the highest possible quality.

“And every time we make a mistake in this particular area, higher education, we impact our children. We may not see it in our own lifetime, but we are borrowing out of their own future. And that is not good. Our parents did not do that.”

The chancellor outlined four strategies to help ensure UC Davis’ future stability:

Research — Katehi noted a doubling of outside research funds since 2000, to nearly $620 million in 2008. And she said UC Davis has the capacity and capability to go higher, to $900 million — even $1 billion. “Other universities have done that. University of Michigan has been there, UCLA is very close to that. Even UC San Diego is very close to that. Why not us? … Not only will it provide us with financial stability and more positions for people, more jobs, but also will improve our standing as an institution.”

Private giving — Katehi referred to the vital role of philanthropy in fulfilling UC Davis’ mission. She described UC Davis’ first comprehensive campaign, now under way in the “quiet” or “leadership” — or prepublic — phase, as very aggressive, already bringing in close to $460 million in lead gifts. The university expects to announce the campaign publicly next fall, and when the campaign concludes in four to five years, another one will begin.

Reorganization — Katehi noted the recent merger of the Office of the Administration and the Office of Resource Management and Planning (into Administrative and Resources Management), and “a major rethinking” of the rest of the UC Davis administration for improved efficiency. “This is not to reduce positions, let me just tell you that,” she said. “We may have to reduce positions because of the state cuts,” she said, but the restructuring to come — starting with the central administration — is aimed at putting personnel where they are needed most, in other units. “So no one is going to lose their job because of this restructuring, but it is going to make our institution more vibrant, more flexible and more efficient.”

Energy conservation — She said the campus will be more aggressive in its efforts to cut its utility costs, because any savings in this area is “a direct gain in terms of money that we have to spend on the right programs here on this campus.”

The campus’s overall challenge is big, Katehi said, “but we should not miss an opportunity right now to take this challenge as a call for change. This is the only way of dealing with this situation in a positive way. And I can tell you, if we do this well, many generations after that will remember that we took advantage of this opportunity to become a better place and that we did it during a difficult time.

“And, so, personally, I have a lot of trust in you that we will be able to work together to find an appropriate solution for this campus that will place this university, this institution, in a wonderful position when things get better financially. And, so, in this way, we will all be able to feel fulfilled with the promise that we will be able to materialize, and that is to make this university a better place.”

AFTER THE FORUM

Watch the archived webcast and see the PowerPoint presentations: hr.ucdavis.edu (click on “HR Hot Topics,” then “Staff Open Forum”)

More UC Davis budget news: budget.ucdavis.edu

UC Vice President Patrick Lenz’s presentation to the Board of Regents in September: universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/sept09/f1pp.pdf

More UC budget news: universityofcalifornia.edu/budget