The governor’s May budget revision, released Tuesday, remains largely unchanged from the January proposal. Patrick Lenz, the university’s vice president for budget and capital resources, said the university did not receive any additional increases in funding in the May revision.

The budget also calls for a four-year tuition freeze for all students except those in professional schools, a restructuring of debt and discontinuation of a proposed unit cap on state-subsidized courses, which could have affected 2,200 UC students in the next school year.

Student Regent Jonathan Stein and Regent Bonnie Reiss raised concerns about rising costs of professional student fees while undergraduate and other program costs have been held constant.

“Because Prop. 30 passed and because of new state revenues, we’ve been able to hold tuition constant,” Stein said. “In reality, we’ve been able to hold undergraduate and Ph.D tuition constant while professional schools continue to rise.”

The regents also discussed restructuring the university’s debt. The state of California currently takes out bonds on behalf of the university, but UC officials say shifting the responsibility of the debt to the UC system would help lower the debt.

“That debt is greater because the state of California’s credit rating is not as good as ours,” said Brooke Converse, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President. “What we’re asking is that the state of California let us take over and restructure that debt, because if we restructure it, we’ll be able to save $80 million a year.”

The university is also working with the governor to expand facilities at UC Merced, said Nathan Brostrom, the university’s executive vice president for business operations.

“The highest priority is a classroom and academic building at UC Merced,” Brostrom said. “They are now close to 6,000 students, and they do not have space for continued growth unless they get more classroom buildings.”

The regents also approved a plan to build a new aquatics center at UC Berkeley on the current site of the Tang Center parking lot.

Protesters from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299, a union representing patient-care workers at UC medical centers, also interrupted early in the meeting for about 45 minutes to protest in favor of higher pay and increased staffing.

On Thursday, the regents will meet in closed sessions to discuss collective bargaining matters and lawsuits related to the UC system.

Staff writer Virgie Hoban contributed to this report. 

Mitchell Handler covers academics and administration. Contact him at mhandler@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @mitchellhandler.

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Members of the committee spoke privately — in person and over the phone — to discuss how to best organize the search. Representatives from Isaacson, Miller — an executive search firm hired to aid in the search — were also at the meeting.

According to the Los Angeles Times, members of the special search committee will include regents Richard Blum, Russell Gould, George Kieffer, Bonnie Reiss, Frederick Ruiz, Bruce Vaner, Alumni Regent Ron Rubenstein, Student Regent Jonathan Stein and chair Sherry Lansing.

Yudof announced his resignation in January after holding the president position for five years, citing taxing health issues and a desire to change his professional lifestyle. He plans to step down in August to become a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Since Yudof’s tenure began, students have seen tuition nearly double, from $6,636 in 2008 to a current level of $12,192.

After narrowing down the pool of candidates with the advisory panels, the special committee will recommend a candidate to the regents at large for a final vote of approval to hire a new UC president. Yudof will not have a vote.

According to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel, the regents will lay out a rough timeline for the selection process and naming members to various faculty, staff, student and alumni advisory panels that will set goals for the selection. The panels will also play a role in narrowing down the candidate pool.

Stein declined to comment on the record for this story. Stein, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, will vote with the other regents on Yudof’s successor.

Contact Jacob Brown and Jeremy Gordon at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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