University of California System Warily Eyes GOP Budget Cutting

For much of the past year, policymakers in Congress have focused on Republican plans to slash government spending and balance the federal budget. STRATEGY: UC president Richard C. Atkinson says he plans to continue to "seek the very best people". Whatever the funding levels for fiscal 1996, the Republicans have proposed deep cuts in federal spending for scientific research into the next millennium. Such spending has amounted to roughly $73 billion annually in recent years. But the "Contract W

Written byBruce Bigelow

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Richard Atkins STRATEGY: UC president Richard C. Atkinson says he plans to continue to "seek the very best people".

The academic institution with arguably the greatest stake in the outcome is the University of California (UC) system, which is widely regarded as the flagship of public education in the United States.

How the University of California adjusts to the new reality in federal research funding is also likely to serve as a bellwether for other universities across the country, as the nine-campus system includes some of the nation's premier research universities.

C-L Tien JEOPARDY: Chang-Lin Tien calls the cutbacks "a national security issue."

Federal funding, awarded chiefly through competitive grants and contracts, accounts for roughly 58 percent of all UC research expenditures.

That means the UC system has a lot at risk in the calculus of federal cutbacks, but administrators point out that over the past few decades they have been able to parlay ...

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