UC Berkeley Budget Cuts Campus Deficit by Nearly Half

UC Berkeley’s new chancellor has a plan to reduce the campus deficit by nearly half, cutting $54 million from a $110 million deficit for the 2018 fiscal year.

Chancellor Carol Christ released her budget Thursday.

More than half the reductions would come from new revenue streams, including private gifts and new or expanded academic programming.

The budget also includes roughly $20 million in cuts to academic, research and administrative divisions.

Teaching units would, for the most part, be able to use new revenue to meet their budget targets. Research units, however, would not have that cushion and would need to reduce their expenses by an average of 4 percent.

In the administrative branch, Cal Athletics and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive would be hit hardest by expense reductions. Cal Athletics would have to shave off 4 percent from its operating budget, and BAMPFA would need to cut 5 percent.

The new budget also eliminates salary increases for Cal's senior leadership.

Despite the massive deficit cut, Christ’s budget still projects a $2 billion funding gap over the next 10 years.