Faculty and members of the administration discussed the University of California’s fiscal situation in the wake of Tuesday’s election results at the UC Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate meeting Wednesday.

Senate members lauded the passage of Proposition 30, which will prevent a midyear tuition increase, as well as the results of state and the national elections.

“This is a better-than-average day for all of us,” said Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. “We’re pleased with the results of the elections … having 54 percent of Californians say, ‘Yes, we support higher education’ is a really important symbolic act.”

Birgeneau credited the work of students leaders in the ASUC, Graduate Assembly and student organizations for the proposition’s success, saying that “over the last couple of months, students stepped up in a way that they were pushing us instead of us pushing them.”

The meeting went on to discuss the problems that remain in spite of Tuesday’s developments, ranging from the views Californians may have of UC Berkeley to financial problems that still face higher education.

“Like all public institutions moving into the new world, we must articulate a new future of what we want to be and then find a way to get there,” said Christina Maslach, chair of the campus division of the Academic Senate. “We have to change the story about the return on the investment the public makes on us — what the impact of UC education is for all our students, what the impact of our research is … Changing the story is not changing what we say but what we do.”

Faculty members also noted that budget cuts have impacted their ability to adequately research and teach.

“Since we have no department staff — we’ve lost a lot of people — I have less and less time because I’m dedicating more to the administrative side of things,” said Leslea Hlusko, an associate professor in the department of integrative biology. “I find myself having a reduction in teaching and research.”

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer stressed that these problems are part of the “disruptive transition” the campus is facing as a result of increasingly tight budgets and are not permanent but that campus initiatives are making it so that there is “room to save money and to save quality.”

Staff writer Justin Abraham contributed to this report