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In an e-mail message this week, Chancellor Linda Katehi urged students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends to join 51�ԹϺ���’s systemwide push for more state funding.

“It is vital that our 51�ԹϺ��� Davis community do what it can to support this statewide effort to protect the integrity of the 51�ԹϺ��� system,” Katehi said.

The effort begins as Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislators gear up for the next budget cycle. Come January, Gov. Schwarzenegger is due to release his 2010-11 budget proposal — and 51�ԹϺ��� is urging its allies to get started now on lobbying the governor and lawmakers to tell them how critical support is in preserving the university’s commitment to quality and student access.

The campaign seeks to build the ranks of the nearly 200,000 advocates who already have lent their support to 51�ԹϺ���. Through advertising in student publications and on Facebook, the university is encouraging people to sign up on the 51�ԹϺ��� for California Web site and join an e-mail- and letter-writing campaign. No taxpayer funds are being used in the advertising.

“While I appreciate the fiscal challenges that confront California, it must be made clear that 51�ԹϺ��� is not a luxury,” 51�ԹϺ��� President Mark G. Yudof said. “It is an investment — the best investment this state can make in its future.”

Funding restoration sought

At its meeting this week, the 51�ԹϺ��� Board of Regents was expected to vote on a 2010-11 budget proposal that asks the state for an additional $913 million to make up for deep cuts the last two years, and to cover additional mandatory costs that the state has left unfunded.

Yudof said his budget plan, with the added state money, would allow the end of employee furloughs (and pay cuts) next summer and protect faculty merit raises.

Katehi commented: “President Yudof’s budget proposal for 2010-11 is an ambitious one, but the good news is that a majority of Californians today agree with us that higher education in general, and the University of California system in particular, are institutions worth fighting for.”

Katehi noted new poll results from the independent Public Policy Institute of California: 62 percent of the state’s residents think the University of California does a good or excellent job, and 59 percent say the state’s public colleges and universities should be a high or very high priority for state funding during the budget crisis.

“Our challenge and our mandate now is to harness that sentiment and support and channel it toward Sacramento, to the attention of the policymakers who will be shaping our budget for the coming year,” Katehi said. “But we must begin by building the support at home, right here within the broader 51�ԹϺ��� Davis community.”