UC budget talk is everywhere: at the chancellor's quarterly brown bag chat with the campus community; in an update from the provost; in FAQs on the UC Davis budget Web site; and on a new page in SmartSite, the campus's online course-management system.

No decisions have been made on what could amount to millions of dollars in cuts at UC Davis. But planning is well under way, and officials are eager for input.

"We want to get suggestions from everyone on campus, especially from staff because they are on the ground level," Barbara Horwitz, interim provost, said last week during the chancellor's brown bag at the Silo.

"We know that there are probably lots of (budget-cutting) ideas out there that we haven't thought of."

Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef noted that the 2008-09 state budget is a long way from approval, "but right now it is not looking good." Gov. Schwarzenegger's spending plan would leave UC about $417 million short of what the Board of Regents asked for.

While legislators and the governor head into a spring and summer of deliberations, the UC Office of the President and the 10 campuses are trying to anticipate as best they can what the final budget will hold.

"Everything is going on the table (for possible cuts), and it's not pretty," said Vanderhoef, who sits on a systemwide budget planning task force.

UC had been planning for enrollment growth of 5,000 systemwide, with UC Davis adding about 200 students. Now the Board of Regents must decide whether to boost enrollment at all — and must do so quickly, because admission letters are going out.

Vanderhoef said the projected enrollment increase is not unreasonable, given the state's increasing number of high school graduates. Traditionally, UC has accepted the top 12.5 percent of graduating seniors.

"To not do that would be a big, huge leap for UC," he said, "That's a tough one — I don't even like to think about it."

Even harder to consider, he said, is a fee increase greater than the 7 percent already proposed. Other tough questions revolve around compensation and benefits for faculty and staff, and graduate student support.

One likely budget action, he said, will strip money for inflationary costs. "You don't buy anything new, it just costs more," Vanderhoef said.

In a memo this week to the campus, Horwitz said the budget task force she assembled had met twice to work on "developing principles, planning parameters and processes for determining how to distribute budget reductions that we anticipate will be needed if the 2008-09 budget proposed by the governor is enacted."

At the chancellor's brown bag, Horwitz said: "We will try to make cuts strategically as opposed to across the board."

Many of the questions at the brown bag centered on the effort by Sodexho food service workers to become university employees, with Sodexho staff and union organizers saying the move would bring improved wages and benefits.

Janet Gong, associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs, cited the memorandum of understanding between the campus and the food service contractor last year that boosted wages and health insurance subsidies for Sodexho workers.

Also, Gong said, the campus is in the midst of a detailed analysis "of all options," and one of those options is university employment for Sodexho workers. A preliminary recommendation is expected in April, she said.

Gong said Sodexho wage classifications are identical to those that have been established for university food service workers. She acknowledged higher pay is given to UC Davis Health System food service workers, who are employed by the university, but said they are paid more because they interact with patients, and as such the hospital food service is subject to a variety of health care regulations. Also, the hospital runs its food service round the clock, every day of the year.

In examining options for campus food service, Gong said, the university must strike a balance between wages and benefits, and what students can afford to pay for room and board.

BUDGET DEBATE

News and memos, and budget Q&A: www.news.ucdavis.edu/ special_reports/budget

Ask a question, make suggestions and comments: budget@ucdavis.edu Budget planning worksite on SmartSite: smartsite.ucdavis.edu (join the worksite by clicking on “Membership”)