The Privatization of California’s B-Schools

Unlike UCLA, which does not have an undergraduate business program, Berkeley annually graduates 350 undergraduates in addition to 240 full-time MBA students. “Our undergraduate business majors pay the same as English majors at Berkeley,” says Lyons. “Roughly 25% of the business slots go to junior college transfers as part of the California Master Plan. It’s a social mobility machine, and it’s an important anchor to our public mission.”

At UC-Davis, about 27% of the school’s revenue comes from the State of California, down from roughly 44% in the 2003-2004 academic year. Currall is of much the same mind as Olian at Anderson. He has submitted a plan to the campus leadership to completely phase out the school’s reliance on state funds over the next ten years. “We are not talking about seceding from the university but our business model has to fit with today’s circumstances,” Currall says. Over the next three years. Currall hopes to increase his open enrollment programs in executive education to five from one and aggressively increase his custom education programs from one at Genentech to several.

ANOTHER FURLOUGH OR CUT IN PAY COULD CAUSE A MASS EXODUS OF FACULTY

He has had no faculty defections and says the cutbacks have not been a factor in recruitment, despite the furlough that resulted in a one-time cut in pay in the 2009-2010 academic year. “The belief is that if we have furloughs again, we would have a mass exodus of our faculty,” says Currall. In fact, the UC-Davis dean is currently investing an extra $350,000 in faculty salaries because the school had fallen behind others in compensation to professors. “It’s better to be preemptive as opposed to nickel and diming them and waiting until they get an alternative offer from another school,” he says.

“My job is to insulate my students and faculty from this budget challenge,” says Currall. “If that means I have to spend some of my reserve money to do that I’m going to do that. My job is to raise new sources of revenue to at least break even. So far we’ve done that. I’m still holding 10 to 12 percent of my total budget in reserve. This is for the rainy day.”

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