People, Profiles

In their own words: UC Berkeley students on the impact of campus budget cuts

By Cathy Cockrell

When all is said and done, the story of the 2009-10 academic year at the University of California is the story of unprecedented cuts in state funding. Numbers tell part of the story: $813 million in cuts for the UC system, nearly $150 million of that at the Berkeley campus. The shortfall has precipitated layoffs, furloughs, service reductions, sharp fee hikes, a search for streamlining and efficiencies, and months of advocacy efforts in Sacramento and protests on and off campus.

What has all this meant, in practice, to students trying to get an education? The NewsCenter spoke recently to 12 randomly chosen students in and around Sproul Plaza, to ask if and how the budget cuts have affected their personal experience at Berkeley this academic year. Here’s what 11 undergraduates and one graduate student had to say.

José Marquez
‘Both of my parents are teachers. I get no financial aid whatsoever; everything for my college education is getting paid by my dad. For that reason, I had to take all my classes super fast — add classes and take summer school — in order to graduate a year early and save thousands of dollars. I’ve taken an average of 18, 19 units a semester — including three hard sciences at one time (when everyone else was taking one or two). That was a lot of stress. I couldn’t really stop and enjoy school; I just had to hurry up.’

— José Marquez, junior, molecular and cell biology, hometown: Calexico, CA