LOS ANGELES -- In her first University of California Board of Regents meeting as president this week, Janet Napolitano proposed freezing the cost of undergraduate tuition for another year while the board explores a new tuition policy.
Napolitano announced her plan, along with other initiatives, at a meeting in San Francisco just six weeks after beginning her tenure as president. She previously served as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security for four years and prior to that was governor of Arizona.
Napolitano said the freeze will allow the board the time it needs to come up with the right tuition policy.
“Tuition cuts right to the heart of accessibility and affordability, two of the university’s guiding stars,” she said during the meeting Wednesday. “We need to figure out in the real world in which we live how to bring clarity to and reduce volatility in the tuition-setting process.”
The university’s tuition increases in the past few years were primarily due to significant cutbacks in state appropriations, as well as the recession. Both situations have improved, but expenses related to rising pension and other post-employment benefit liabilities, as well as debt service are expected to rise, according to a recent report from Moody’s Investors Service.
The agency rates the university’s revenue bonds at Aa1. Standard & Poor’s rates the bonds at AA and Fitch Ratings at AA-plus.
Napolitano said changes to the tuition policy would require state support, as well as the university’s own initiatives to reduce the cost of operations.
The office of the president has already embarked on an efficiency review initiative that is identifying all savings and cost avoidances it can undertake. Napolitano said the university must look into other revenue opportunities, such as grants, public private partnerships, and joint ventures.
“These revenues must all be harnessed if we are to continue to be the world class university we are, while being as low cost as we can be,” she said.
Additionally, Napolitano said the university needs to focus on growing its campuses in order to accommodate more community college transfer students.
She also said she wants to see the university start exploring innovative new approaches to maximize its research capabilities by addressing global problems such as food scarcity, energy sustainability, and disease prevention.
