UC Berkeley squeezed by Calif. budget cuts

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The University of California, Berkeley, one of the top public universities in the United States, is threatened by the state's budget crunch, officials say.

Tuition is up for both in-state and out-of-state students, The Washington Post reports. The university boasts a faculty so high-powered that Nobel laureates have special parking spots, but its pay is falling behind the salaries offered by Harvard, Yale, Stamford and other private institutions.

UC-Berkeley was founded in 1873 and became the crown jewel in the largest public higher education system in the country. Berkeley now has 25,885 undergraduate students and 10,257 in graduate programs, far more than comparable private universities.

In 1991, 47 percent of the operating budget was paid by the taxpayers, a share that dropped to 11 percent last year. The financial crunch is visible in the form of leaking roofs, more students packed into classes and more frequent computer crashes.

To increase revenue, the university has been admitting more students from out of state, who pay higher tuition. Last year, for the first time ever, the total in out-of-state tuition surpassed that from Californians.

"The issue that's being addressed at Berkeley, fundamentally, is the future of the high-quality public university in America," said Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, who is now a Berkeley public policy professor.