The UC Board of Regents, during a conference call Oct. 21 to vote on the university's final budget for 2008-09, put off consideration of general academic raises (typically called range adjustments) and staff pay increases for a year.

The budget as approved includes faculty merit raises, but defers the second year of a four-year plan for faculty salary market adjustments.

The regents said the academic and staff pay raises (which carry an estimated price tag of $125.1 million) and faculty salary market adjustments ($20 million) are "high priorities" that were being deferred "in order to avoid making significantly higher cuts in existing programs."

The final budget plan lists operating expenditures of $5.361 billion, including $3.032 billion from the state. The state allocation reflects a $48.7 million decrease from 2007-08. Furthermore, the state provided no money for in-creased student enrollment or inflationary increases in fixed costs.

The bottom line: The campuses cut a total of nearly $149 million from their budgets (equivalent to a reduction of about 5 percent in state general fund support) and the Office of the President cut $28.1 million from its budget.

"After years of falling state investment in inflation-adjusted terms, the university's true need for additional resources is well over $1 billion," UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a news release. "While we understand the state's immediate financial constraints, strong long-term investment in higher education is critical to California."