Dear members of the UC Riverside Budget Advisory Committee,

Students of UC Riverside (UCR) in strong support with the School of Public Policy and respectfully call for amendments to the current budget cut recommendations, as stated in the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) recommendation to the Chancellor.

Though the BAC has “not viewed [these programs] as critical as other campus activities,” both UCR Athletics and the School of Public Policy are quintessential to the academic enrichment and career growth of UCR students, as well as necessary in employing students, community members and other personnel.  Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it is inequitable to propose the elimination of two vital components to UCR, as it would lead to devastating impacts on the students, faculty, administration and staff. 

UCR’s School of Public Policy (SPP) made history when it became the only public policy school in the UC system to offer an undergraduate public policy program. The program being overseen by its own respective college provides students with better academic, career and networking opportunities as opposed to being under a larger and less specialized college. 

SPP is also home to four research centers that work in collaboration with local, regional, statewide and national policy agencies and organizations:  The Blum Initiative, Center for Social Innovation, Inland Center for Sustainable Development and Robert Presley Center of Crime and Justice Studies are appropriately located within SPP. Their research and policy strives, recommendations and accomplishments can be attributed to their oversight by SPP, and it would be administratively inefficient to relocate these centers.

SPP is home to innovative and diverse 350 students, researchers, and faculty that are actively generating and implementing policy solutions within California’s Inland Empire and the world.  SPP strives to serve the Riverside community, even providing SPP students with the opportunity to shape and advise local policies. This, in addition to local partnerships with Inland Empire stakeholders, provides SPP students with internship opportunities in an efficient and effective way. By preserving SPP, it allows students to be provided with individualized experiences that would not be achieved without SPP being a separate school. 

Demands: 

• We urge the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) to reconsider their budgetary recommendations to Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox, provide an in-depth public statement on the reasoning behind their recommendations (the process for determining which aspects of the UCR budget to eliminate, the cost/benefit analysis, etc.), provide a budgetary breakdown that specifies the line-item reductions, as well as a projection as to how the elimination of the various programs/areas would impact the personnel involved with them. 
• The UCR community requests that information regarding impacts on employment, academics (advising, course structure, faculty teaching), internship opportunities, student scholarships, research centers and building reassignment. 
• Students demand that we have at least one undergraduate and one graduate student representative sit on the BAC, with said representatives being appointed by our student governing bodies. 
• The student body demands transparency as well as accountability, as the summary recommendations on the UCR budget that were made publicly available, is derived from a BAC meeting from August 10, 2020; approximately one month ago. We demand a public email be sent out addressing the recent budgetary recommendations, as well as have monthly emails sent out from the BAC regarding budget recommendations.

Please view and support this message in support of UCR Athletics as well: http://chng.it/9ZJFDtGkwK