California Biomedical Industry - California Healthcare Institute

access and quality while addressingthe fiscal challenges of reduced statefunding.In addition to its operationalrecommendations, the commissioncalled on UC president Mark G. Yudofto develop two resolutions. The first,would reaffirm UC’s commitment to itsadmission responsibilities under themaster plan. With that plan, Californiaopened college to all residents andhelped make the state an engine ofeconomic growth and technologicalinnovation.The second resolution would reaffirmUC’s commitment to the 1994University of California FinancialAid Policy, which states that financialconsiderations must not be aninsurmountable obstacle to a student’sdecision to seek and complete a UCdegree.In line with Stobo’s healthcareaccess analogy, however, the effect ofCalifornia’s financial crisis on the UCsystem might better be viewed as asymptom than the problem. From thatperspective, Stobo and William Tucker,UC’s executive director of innovationalliances and services, say manyprograms and research centers withinUC already are seeking ways to maketheir operations more self-sustainingwhile advancing their missions.Stobo said that individuals within theUC system continue to pool resourcesto offer better care to patients andrevolutionize approaches to research,technology and healthcare delivery. Asan example, he described the ATHENABreast Health Network. Launched inSeptember 2009, the groundbreakingproject will initially involve 150,000women throughout California whowill be screened for breast cancer andfollowed for decades through the fiveUC medical centers. The project isexpected to generate a rich collectionThe UC Commision for the Future RecommendationsAmong the working groups’ proposed recommendations for the UC’s future werethese short- and mid-term actions designed to cut costs, increase revenues and/orenhance efficiencies:• Expedite system-wide administrative reforms that could save $500 millionannually (already underway).• Adopt strategies to enable some students to earn a bachelor’s degree in lessthan four years.• Develop ways to streamline the pathway for transfer students.• Continue to explore expanded use of online instruction.• Increase the enrollment and cap the number of nonresident undergraduatestudents.• Enhance the ASSIST website, which provides course articulation information totransfer students (A redesign of the system already is underway.)• Work in conjunction with other major research institutions to increase efforts torecover more of the operational, or indirect, costs that many research grants donot fully cover with the goal of capturing an additional $300 million annually.• Facilitate multi-campus research and doctoral/post-doctoral training, andimprove policies, processes, technology and facilities in this area.• Increase the proportion of graduate students from 22 percent of total enrollmentto 26 percent by 2020-2021 as a way to adequately support UC’s research andinstructional missions.• Explore the expansion of self-supporting degree programs to expand accessand generate up to $250 million a year in additional revenue.• Develop ways to expand private donations and increase the amount of gifts thatcan be used for unrestricted uses, such as to support academic and researchoperations (approximately 95 percent of the $1.3 billion raised in endowmentsin 2008-2009 is restricted for specific programs or objectives; only $25 million isunrestricted.)• Develop a multiyear advocacy campaign to foster public and political supportfor UC.• Lobby the federal government for an augmentation to Pell Grants that wouldfund core operations.56 | California Biomedical Industry 2011 Report