U. of California Cuts: a Faculty Member’s Dispatch From the Front Lines

by E Wayne Ross on July 29, 2009

The Chronicle: U. of California Cuts: a Faculty Member’s Dispatch From the Front Lines

By Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Budget cuts at the University of California have generated a lot of attention, especially after a plan of across-the-board salary cuts, combined with mandatory furlough days, was recently announced. How will such drastic financial measures threaten the strengths of that system and other large public universities? Are certain fields of study in the humanities and social sciences especially vulnerable to state cuts because those areas of inquiry—even when dealing with topics of broad importance—rarely get large infusions of national, foundation, or corporate monies of the sort that routinely support work done in areas such as engineering and medicine?