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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Following months of controversy, UC Berkeley announced that it will withdraw from the systemwide UC Student Health Insurance Plan in the fall.

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced the decision to withdraw Thursday, joining four other UC campuses that are abandoning at least some parts of UC SHIP. The announcement comes after the systemwide Council of Chancellors approved various changes to UC SHIP, including campus withdrawal, in a meeting Wednesday.

“Today I am stating my support for the students’ position and, following their urging, announcing that UC Berkeley will be withdrawing from UC SHIP and returning to a UC Berkeley-operated student health insurance plan,” Birgeneau said in a statement.

Beginning Aug. 15, UC Berkeley will transition back into a campus-managed, fully funded insurance plan similar to what the campus had in place for decades before joining UC SHIP in 2011.

UC SHIP follows a self-funded model in which those paying the costs, in this case the UC system, are responsible for absorbing the plan’s risks, according to Bahar Navab, UC Berkeley’s student representative to the UC SHIP Advisory Board. Fully funded plans place risk on a separate insurance provider but generally have higher premiums.

UC SHIP currently has a $400,000 lifetime cap and a $10,000 prescription drug coverage cap. As a fully funded plan, UC Berkeley-provided insurance would also have to comply with the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits these coverage caps.

In a letter sent to Birgeneau last month by UC Berkeley student representatives, Navab and ASUC President Connor Landgraf wrote that poor management from the UC Office of the President and a desire for more local control were some of the reasons students favored withdrawing from UC SHIP.

“I think that localized control and more decentralized governance is what’s best for our campus right now,” Navab said. “It’s a two-year plan, and we can always re-evaluate after two years. If UC SHIP has changed enough that we want to go back to it, we always have that option.”

UC Berkeley’s decision to withdraw comes in light of UC SHIP’s projected $46.5 million net deficit, which earlier prompted the possibility of premium increases across the board.

According to Kim LaPean, communications manager at the Tang Center, the new plan is expected to include a 13 percent premium increase for undergraduates and a 20 percent increase for graduate students, though the campus has yet to finalize rates. LaPean said benefits will not decrease under the campus plan and that officials are working to ensure that students will be able to see the same outside carriers.

“Berkeley students were really clear that they did not want to lose benefits,” LaPean said. “The changes that they’re going to see are all going to be in the favor of the student.”

Other campuses that decided to partially withdraw from UC SHIP include UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara. Some campuses, like UCLA, have opted to stick with UC SHIP.

Students with coverage through UC SHIP next year will also see changes, including lifting the lifetime maximum, annual pharmacy cap and other caps on essential care. The UC Office of the President is currently reviewing options to close the deficit, but UC spokesperson Brooke Converse said students will not have to pay for the deficit through premium increases.

“Our job right now is to respect the campuses that want to leave,” said Scott Arno, the UCLA student representative to UC SHIP Advisory Board. “No campus should be forced into this plan. We need to make it run better so that they’ll want to come back.”

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

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The UC SHIP Advisory Board, which consists of student and health care representatives from each UC campus and from the UC Office of the President, voted unanimously in favor of eliminating the $10,000 annual prescription drug coverage cap. All but one campus voted in favor of eliminating the $400,000 lifetime coverage cap and instead voted in favor of raising the lifetime limit to $500,000, according to UC spokesperson Brooke Converse.

For months, students have been urging UC SHIP officials to have the plan voluntarily comply with the Affordable Care Act’s ban on lifetime and annual prescription drug limits on essential care. As a self-funded insurance plan, UC SHIP is exempt from the health care reform law.

Few students actually surpass the coverage caps, but for those who do, like Kenya Wheeler, a former graduate student in city planning at UC Berkeley, the effects can be devastating. Wheeler began treatment for primary central nervous system T-cell lymphoma in November 2011. Since then, he has met the lifetime coverage cap and has had to pay at least $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for his treatment.

“The advisory board that oversees UC SHIP considered removing the caps last year, too, but didn’t recommend making that change for the 2012-13 academic year because of the increases to student premiums that would have resulted,” said UCOP spokesperson Shelly Meron in an email. “It was the intent of the advisory board to reconsider the removal of the plan benefit limits and to time that with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014.”

The movement to lift the caps comes as UC SHIP is facing a projected $57 million deficit by the end of the current plan year. The UC Office of the President has considered raising premiums by an average of 25 percent systemwide as a way to close the deficit.

Lifting the coverage caps would not affect the deficit, Converse said, although it would require another premium increase that is expected to be significantly smaller than the proposed 25 percent.

The advisory board’s recommendation will now be considered by the UC SHIP Executive Committee, a group of top UCOP and campus health officials, at its April 24 meeting. Following its recommendation, the Council of Chancellors will make the final decision on lifting the caps. The council is scheduled to meet May 1.

Several lawmakers have expressed support for eliminating the caps. Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, urged in a letter in February to align UC SHIP with the national standards set in place by the Affordable Care Act. State Assemblymember Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, introduced a bill in February that would force health insurance plans run by a university or college to comply with the section of the Affordable Care Act that lifts limits on lifetime and annual coverage of essential health benefits.

Mitchell Handler covers academic and administration. Contact him at mhandler@dailycal.org

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In a letter addressed to UC SHIP officials, Birgeneau cited a survey of more than 450 UC Berkeley students showing 67 percent in favor of lifting the $400,000 lifetime coverage cap and 63 percent in favor of lifting the $10,000 annual prescription drug coverage cap in exchange for slight premium increases.

“From the survey, we frequently heard from Berkeley students that they felt a moral need to lift the caps,” Birgeneau said in the letter.

For months, students have been urging UC SHIP officials to have the plan voluntarily comply with the Affordable Care Act’s ban on lifetime and annual dollar limits on essential care. As a self-funded insurance plan, UC SHIP is exempt from the health care reform law.

UC Office of the President spokesperson Brooke Converse said UC officials are in support of ridding the plan of the caps but are still examining the financial implications of the proposal.

“In general, we’re in the support of lifting the caps,” Converse said. “We’re working to see how we can do that, but it is going to take a raise in premiums in order to do so.”

Although few students actually reach the coverage limits, the effects on those who do can be devastating.

In his letter, Birgeneau acknowledged Kenya Wheeler, a former graduate student in city planning at UC Berkeley who began treatment for primary central nervous system T-cell lymphoma in November 2011. Since then, he has met the lifetime coverage cap and has had to pay at least $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for his treatment.

“I was really excited and pleased that the chancellor has taken a public stance in support of better health care for all students,” Wheeler said. “For me, it adds a sense of there being a meaning from all the challenges and hard times that I went through in fighting cancer.”

Other local and national leaders, including Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, urged in a letter last month to align UC SHIP with the national standards set in place by the Affordable Care Act.

Last month, California State Assemblymember Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, introduced AB 314 to require plans like the UC SHIP to comply with the federal requirement and end lifetime and annual coverage caps. The Committee on Health is scheduled to hear the bill on Tuesday.

The systemwide Council of Chancellors will accept recommendations regarding the coverage caps from the UC SHIP Executive Committee, a group consisting of campus and UCOP officials, before making the final decision on the coverage caps. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for May 1.

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

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If passed, Assembly Bill 199, the “Choose California” bill, would mandate that state institutions purchase foods from California farms so long as their prices are not more than 5 percent more expensive than identical items from outside the state.

Public schools would be exempt from this 5 percent threshold and would only be required to purchase from in-state producers if competing out-of-state products cost the same amount or were less expensive, according to Noelle Cremers, director of natural resources and commodities at the California Farm Bureau Federation.

The bureau, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization made up of 53 county farm bureaus whose stated purpose is to protect and promote the state’s agricultural interests, supports the legislation.

“(The bill) would help promote California-grown agricultural products,” Cremers said. “The state should play a leadership role in supporting our farmers and showing the importance of purchasing homegrown products to its citizens.”

AB 199 was introduced in late January by Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena. The bill will soon be heard in the state Assembly’s Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review as well as the Committee on Agriculture, said Wendy Gordon, Holden’s press secretary, in an email.

“Fresh, locally-sourced produce and products are always a plus for public institutions such as state hospitals, prisons, and other state-run organizations,” Gordon said in the email. “We are optimistic the lawmakers and governor will see the value in this bill — not only to farmers but also those who will be eating fresher, locally sourced foods.”

The bill’s potential impact on the state budget is still unknown, as is whether it will benefit large farms or smaller ones and whether it will affect the amount of conventional produce grown in the state in comparison to organic crops. Cremers said she does not think the bill would change the current balance between organic and conventional products.

The UC Office of the President has yet to review the bill to take a position on it, according to spokesperson Brooke Converse. In 2008, Cal Dining worked with Buy Fresh, Buy Local, an initiative of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, to pledge that the campus food service will purchase a minimum of 10 percent of its food products from local sources. Cal Dining is currently purchasing 60 percent of its produce from within a 16-county radius of campus, according to its website.

Schools in the Berkeley Unified School District would not be affected by the bill’s passage because the district does not purchase from out-of-state, according to district spokesperson Mark Coplan. Berkeley’s geographic location allowed it to more easily adopt a local foods model compared to other districts throughout the state, he said.

Coplan noted that 30 percent of the food in the schools is organic and comes from within 50 miles.

“It’s something that the Legislature needs to help school districts achieve,” Coplan said. “It’s something everyone needs to do, and it’s something that schools need help funding.”

A similar bill was passed by the state Legislature 2001 but was vetoed by governor Gray Davis, and a 2010 effort ended shortly after the bill was introduced in the state Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

Levon Minassian covers food news. Contact him at lminassian@dailycal.org.

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Pelosi, along with Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, were among 10 members of Congress who signed a letter to Yudof in an effort to better align the plan with the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. The letter follows yesterday’s protest against the UC SHIP premium increases, coverage caps and other restrictions.

“While we understand that UC SHIP is not legally required to adopt these protections as a self-insured student health plan,” the letter said. “It is troubling that the health plan of one of the world’s most prestigious university systems would not adopt this industry standard.”

The UC SHIP is projected to have a cumulative $57 million deficit by the end of the 2012 to 2013 plan year, prompting the possibility of student premium increases by an average of 25 percent systemwide, including a 19.8 percent increase for UC Berkeley students.

“We understand what Nancy Pelosi is asking for in the letter and a good deal of what she is referring to in the letter we are already looking into and we are already in the process of working toward the same goals she mentions in the letter,” said UCOP spokesperson Brooke Converse.

The UC SHIP has been scrutinized by student groups and unions, including UAW Local 2865 which represents UC Student Workers, for its $400,000 lifetime coverage cap and $10,000 annual prescription drug cap. A group of about 50 students and workers protested outside the Tang Center on Wednesday against the proposed increase and coverage caps.

“The letter shows that UCOP is way outside the mainstream in it’s denial of coverage of life saving care to students,” said Charlie Eaton, a doctoral student in sociology at UC Berkeley and financial secretary of the union. “It’s time for UCOP to commit that they will eliminate lifetime and annual caps on coverage in 2013.”

The letter added that making these plan changes is especially important for the upcoming 2013 – 2014 school year.

“We believe this is especially critical in the coming 2013-2014 school year, as the market changes and grows more competitive with full implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” the letter said. “UC students and student workers should have the access to the same health care protections that millions of other students, student workers and Americans already enjoy.”

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

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Initiated last week by UAW Local 5810 — a union representing more than 6,000 postdoctoral researchers at the university — the petition claims that the UC system has violated a 2010 contract between the university and the union that allows for all postdoctoral scholars and their dependents to enroll in the Postdoctoral Scholars Benefits Plan with equal, affordable rates.

Union activists claim that the university violated the contract after the union received complaints in the fall from postdoctoral researchers who had been billed for health care services but were told that the university would not cover them.

“Although postgraduates provide fellowships, awards and millions of dollars in funding to the university … they’re more or less free labor,” said Neal Sweeney, president of UAW Local 5810. “They’ve been affected with a lot of hardship.”

UC Office of the President spokesperson Brooke Converse said that the university does not agree that there has been a contract violation, although there are efforts being put forth to appease the union’s demands.

“In trying to keep relations harmonious, we are looking into collecting in ways other than directly from postdoctorates,” Converse said.

The union and the university are currently in negotiations, although no final agreements have been made. Converse said she could not make further comments until negotiations had progressed.

The petition claims that the current situation for some postdoctoral researchers forces them to look outside the UC-provided coverage for “inferior catastrophic plans at great personal cost.”

Blanca Rios Touma, a visiting researcher in the UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development, opted out of the PSBP due to its higher cost compared to the travel insurance she currently holds.

“My case is not the worst — there were postdocs with families,” Touma said. “People who are expecting babies — their cases are really dramatic, because the university premium is so high.”

Mehmet Somel, unit chair of the Berkeley UAW Local 5810 joint council, noted that postdoctoral researchers are generally between 30 and 36 years old, and a decent number have families to take care of.

“Some people had to buy expensive health insurance specifically for their young children while not having any for themselves,” Somel said.

Sweeney added that the current coverage terms appear to be especially problematic for international researchers like Touma, as a majority of those affected by the lack of equal access to health care are in the United States on immigrant guest-worker visas.

“This is the most important thing for the administration to work on,” Somel said. “It shouldn’t even be a question that people working within the university should have health care and other benefits.”

Contact Mia Shaw at mshaw@dailycal.org.

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A report released on Jan. 11 by Alliant Insurance Services, an actuarial firm hired to consult for UC SHIP management, said that UC SHIP has accumulated a projected $57 million deficit throughout the 2010-13 plan years.

Bahar Navab, Graduate Assembly president and UC Berkeley representative on the UC SHIP advisory board, said that the UC Office of the President is recommending student premiums be increased by an average of 25 percent for the 2013-14 plan year. The report suggests increasing premiums for UC Berkeley students by 19.8 percent as well as similar increases at other UC campuses.

“We are working with campus constituents to review numerous recommendations on how to improve the delivery of care,” said UCOP spokesperson Brooke Converse. “We are looking to gradually increase premiums to ensure that the deficit does not increase and reduce cost through improved delivery of care.”

According to the report, the unexpected deficit is in part due to “fragmented and generally incomplete” data that were given to Aon Hewitt, the actuarial firm UC SHIP hired to set premiums for the plan. Additionally, the firm did not regularly monitor plan usage unless “engaged by UC SHIP management,” the report says. UC SHIP hired new actuarial firms to replace Aon Hewitt and review the data in August.

“Self-funded programs sometimes operate in a deficit for an initial period after inception,” Converse said in an email. “As the 2011-12 plan year progressed, it became apparent that the amount of claims would exceed the projected premiums set by the actuaries.”

Navab said she was told that financial aid would not be able to cover the increase in premiums and that the hike would harm students most in need of coverage. However, Converse said that the cost of health insurance will continue to be factored into financial aid.

“If the plan continues to increase in cost, students may choose to opt out of UC SHIP,” Navab said. “What this may mean is that you will have adverse selection where those most in need of services, and thus the costly patients, will be those that stay in the plan.”

The report also recommends that the plan reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and encourage covered individuals to make use of student health services and UC medical centers instead of outside facilities to help close the deficit.

Charlie Eaton, a financial secretary for UAW Local 2865 representing UC student workers, says that students should not be the ones to suffer because of the deficit.

“Financial mismanagement is the cause of the losses from the UC SHIP, and ultimately it’s the UCOP and it’s the health services and the chief financial officer who are responsible for these huge losses,” Eaton said. “Students should not be left with the bill for UCOP financial mismanagement with a gigantic fee increase.”

A petition started by the union last week urged UC SHIP to drop its lifetime coverage and annual prescription-drug coverage caps to match requirements put in place by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Currently, UC SHIP is not mandated to comply with the Affordable Care Act, and it is unclear how the deficit will affect the feasibility of dropping the caps.

Mitchell Handler cover academics and adminstration. Contact him at mhandler@dailycal.org

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The Solar Energy Research Center, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2014, will have approximately 40,000 square feet of space to house the northern branch of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, among other smaller labs. Consistent with its green agenda, the facility will be designed using renewable and recyclable materials and to maximize natural light.

“I think (SERC) will be beautiful, and it will house all of the workers in one area,” said lead JCAP director Nathan Lewis. “It will really enhance collaboration and congeal the whole program into a major coherent effort to make fuel from sunlight.”

The construction is estimated to cost a total of $54.4 million. The state will refund the university up to $30 million worth of bond sales to investors, according to UC spokesperson Brooke Converse. She added that UC officials are planning to begin selling bonds in spring 2013.

The remaining $24.4 million for the project will be paid for through a $10 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission and a $14 million gift to the university that will be used as an endowment for external financing of the project, Converse said in an email.

The new facility will be used by JCAP to research artificial photosynthesis and its role in generating an alternative solar-based fuel source, according to Heinz Frei, acting director of the northern division of the center, which is split between the Berkeley lab and the California Institute of Technology. He said that the fuel will be created from material that is already abundantly found on nonarable land.

“Artificial photosynthesis uses a single integrated system to directly convert carbon dioxide and water molecules through sunlight into a transportation fuel in one system,” Frei said. “It’s similar to a plant leaf that converts carbon dioxide and water with sunlight into sugar molecules and biomass, but it’s a nonbiological engineered system.”

If successful, the solar fuel generator would produce fuel that is 10 times more efficient than current biofuel made from corn, Frei said. This way, fuel could be made on a large enough scale to have a significant impact on worldwide fuel consumption, he added.

JPAC is currently two years into a five-year plan to produce a working fuel generator prototype. The prototypes that the researchers have already produced do not yet create fuel at a large scale that is more energy-efficient than corn-based biofuels.

“You want to make something that is like gasoline with similar properties but in a renewable fashion — that’s what artificial photosynthesis will do,” he said. “Biofuels are already available but not yet solar fuels — that’s a technology that doesn’t exist yet, so this is an important reason to have this center.”

Contact Andy Nguyen at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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AB 1955 — which was authored by State Assemblymember Marty Block, D-San Diego — was influenced by recommendations for changes to protest protocol generated after last fall’s Occupy protests at UC and CSU campuses, according to Maria Lopez, Block’s press secretary.

The bill requires all CSU campuses to appoint a liaison to ensure safety and an appropriate police response and requests that the UC do the same. Though the bill’s recommendations for UC campuses are nonbinding due to the university’s legislative independence from the state, the UC Office of the President has released a statement in support of the bill’s concept.

In a March letter expressing the UC’s position on the bill, officials said the university would withhold full support of AB 1955 until the completion of a report by UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law Christopher Edley Jr. that conducted a systemwide review of policies governing demonstrations and protests on UC campuses.

A draft of the report released May 4 found that senior campus administrators with decision-making authority should be available during significant protests.

“There must be an established system for coordination between police and administrators, with well-defined roles and a shared understanding that ultimate responsibility for the campus’ response rests with the Chancellor,” the report reads.

The campus established a Protest Response Team in January, which UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore said is made up of senior campus leaders who fulfill liaison roles similar to what the bill specifies.

California State University has not come out with an official opinion on the bill, according to Mike Uhlenkamp, director of media relations and new media at the CSU.

The state Assembly passed the bill with concurrence on Senate amendments Aug. 22 with 76 members in support. Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, and Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, were the only Assembly members to vote against the bill, and two others did not have votes recorded. In a statement, Donnelly said the bill would not have prevented last fall’s incidents at UC Davis, where seated students were pepper-sprayed by campus police.

“The bill is too vague to be effective,” Donnelly said. “There is nothing preventing an individual campus or student group from appointing a student or petitioning a faculty member to play that role if they deem it beneficial.”

Alex Kim, who camped out in front of UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s campus home last November in association with Occupy demonstrators, said the idea of a liaison was good in theory, but the effectiveness of any liaison would depend on his or her relationship with the student body.

“Administrators are people too, with their own patience and tone,” Kim said.  “The person who is the liaison should be someone who is friendly and familiar.”

Contact Chloe Hunt at cthunt@dailycal.org. Contact Jacob Brown at jbrown@dailycal.org.

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