California's Proposed Budget Cuts and Dental Schools

[UCSFDentistry]

I wanted to use this forum to address the upcoming California budget cuts proposed by Governor Jerry Brown. I want to know how this dramatic $500 million dollar reduction in funding will affect the UC Dental System. I have already heard that some of UCSF's faculty will be leaving. Will this cause additional faculty to leave UC Dental schools? How will this impact our graduate education, or even post-graduate education? Will this increase tuition? Will it hurt research opportunities? What are some of the problems that you foresee happening? Feel free to post your views.


Here is one article if you haven't read about it yet.
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/24764

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[r8 dds]

UCSF has already had issues in holding on to their faculty. I would assume these California budget cuts would cause more issues.

This is off topic, but related in a sense. I know that for Obama's planned budget cuts, he wanted to aim at all graduate students to reassess loan programs and to allow interest to accrue while in school, rather than after school. Horrific!

 

[UCSFDentistry]

UCSF has already had issues in holding on to their faculty. I would assume these California budget cuts would cause more issues.

This is off topic, but related in a sense. I know that for Obama's planned budget cuts, he wanted to aim at all graduate students to reassess loan programs and to allow interest to accrue while in school, rather than after school. Horrific!

Yea. I heard that as well! I should have asked people to comment on that too. Thanks. I think it is sad when the government tries to make education less attainable.

 

[r8 dds]

Yea. I heard that as well! I should have asked people to comment on that too. Thanks. I think it is sad when the government tries to make education less attainable.

Here are some of the links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/13/graduate-students-higher-debt-obama-budget_n_822603.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/13/obama-budget-proposal-cut_n_822689.html

Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew, says in a interview:
LEW: Well, let's just be clear. Interest will build up, but students won't have to pay until they graduate. So it will increase the burden for paying back the loans, but it will not reduce access to education.

Will not reduce access to education? Yeah, it'll probably just deter people away from it that's why.

 

[gigawatt]

Eliminating graduate student loan subsidies wouldn't be as Earth-shattering as you guys are making it out to be--after all, only a max of $8.5k/year can come as Subsidized Stafford Loans even as it stands. The balance of your cost of attendance has to come in the form of Unsubsidized Stafford Loans (limited), DirectPLUS Loans, and private loans, all of which already accrue interest while in school.

The subsidized loans are nice, but they're about 10% (34k/four years) of what some people are going to end up borrowing to pay for school ($300k+)...not a huge deal really.

 

[Spit]

Dont want to de-rail the thread, but can someone expand on UCSF's issues with retaining faculty members? You can PM me if you want to keep this on track.

Back to the topic, I can't really imagine the schools increasing the cost of tuition It already is just as much as any private school to be OOS at a UC school. Given I haven't heard from UCSF yet so no reason to take that much concern in it, but this whole military scholarship deal is looking better and better... Between Obamacare and the acruing of interest while in school, Obama really wants to kill any desire to go in to the medical field.

 

[lnngu]

Yea. I heard that as well! I should have asked people to comment on that too. Thanks. I think it is sad when the government tries to make education less attainable.

Will not reduce access to education? Yeah, it'll probably just deter people away from it that's why.

Between Obamacare and the acruing of interest while in school, Obama really wants to kill any desire to go in to the medical field.

Eh... a bit of twisted logic, don't you think? I'm as distraught as anyone about the subsidized loans, but I doubt anyone wants to make/deter/kill anything. There's simply no money.

I find it curious that the same sentiments that cause our current political climate to be anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-spending, where people are clamoring for *everything* to be cut, give rise to "the government is trying to screw us" when their wishes are granted.

 

[r8 dds]

Eliminating graduate student loan subsidies wouldn't be as Earth-shattering as you guys are making it out to be--after all, only a max of $8.5k/year can come as Subsidized Stafford Loans even as it stands. The balance of your cost of attendance has to come in the form of Unsubsidized Stafford Loans (limited), DirectPLUS Loans, and private loans, all of which already accrue interest while in school.

The subsidized loans are nice, but they're about 10% (34k/four years) of what some people are going to end up borrowing to pay for school ($300k+)...not a huge deal really.

That's true. A lot of my loans are subsidized loans.

 

[UCSFDentistry]

We are getting a little off topic. Lets address the problems that the California budget cuts will cause and not Obama's cuts and loans. How will the UC's research be affected and the general education at UCLA and UCSF?

 

[Machiavelliansm]

At my interview, I was told that UCLA dental school receives only 13% of their funding from the state albeit an important 13%. I'm not exactly sure what this percentage pays for but it gives you an idea that the dental school probably isn't as dependent on state-funding as undergrad.

 

[redchesus]

Sorry to sidestep again, but for those who want to keep informed:

Here's a map of Obama's 2012 proposed budget. Discretionary spending is down pretty much everywhere (except military expenditure... heh...), which includes postsecondary education. I'm sure everyone has their own ideas as to a better allocation of the money, but given that the country is broke, helping out doctor-to-bes just isn't a top priority, it sucks but yeah...

Back on topic:

I'm going to do more research into this because I'll be OOS at a UC school, so this is relevant to my interests. bbl

 

[Spit]

Well, I can say that someone asked about budget cuts at my UCSF interview and they said that they are in a very good financial situation to handle any budget cuts. Take it for what its worth.

 

[Machiavelliansm]

is the financial structure(?) similar between the two UC's? ie. if one is screwed, so is the other?

 

[dantemac]

I saw a great point someone made on here, as the US dollar is going to bust and inflation slowly but surely creeps up upon us, tuition prices increase with the salary you can expect.

So, it is a valid point that tuition prices and our loans and attendant interest on those loans will increase. But the price you can charge for the procedures you will be doing will also increase.

I have talked to dentists who are 70 and those who are 27. They all say the same thing, they are making bank and can handle the loans. The UC system won't screw you out of that fact of life.

 

[UCSFDentistry]

Bump.

 

[mcchuster]

Inflation + education = i'ma be broke. Debt debt debt = American culture. sigh*.

 

[Cambo21]

It seems like a lot of states are really hurting. The situation in California doesn't sound good. I know that UW is also increasing tuition by 14% and UNLV just announced they may have to declare extingency (essentially bankruptcy), and the dental school will have to absorb a 2.9 billion dollar cut if the gov's budget proposal passes.

 

[321931]

Inflation + education = i'ma be broke. Debt debt debt = American culture. sigh*.

Add to that, no savings, and credit credit credit. sigh*

 

[Maygyver]

This isn't really that big, but I asked about the budget at my interview at UCLA, and was told that so far they wouldn't be laying off faculty. Of course all schools tuitions usually increase, but they couldn't be that exact on how much theirs would. They also said they aren't really completely sure how the budget cuts will affect them since they are still being planned. Hopefully that helps. I know I'm wondering too.

 

[Osity]

If the incumbent does change the current system and eliminate that subsidy, it won't have a big effect on us, since the subsidized loans are such a small part of the overall amount borrowed.

The U.S. dollar has a very small chance of 'busting'. There will be inflation, which is invitable in almost any economy. Everyone acts like inflation is a bad thing; however, as long as inflation doesn't turn into hyperinflation, it will actually work to our advantage. Our loans will be a fixed amount, and our salaries will rise with the rate of inflation (because the cost of services provided rises), so we will have a rising income to pay off a fixed debt.