The University of California San Diego says it could be facing half a billion dollars in annual budget cuts.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that University Chancellor Pradeep Khosla issued a public statement that that the school might have to slash its $9 billion budget by as much as 12.5%.
As a result, UC San Diego has indefinitely postponed construction of two planned research buildings, one on the main campus in La Jolla and the other at its hospital in Hillcrest. Their joint cost: about $565 million.
The university will keep building the Triton Center, a $428 million, four-building complex that is envisioned as the new social hub of UC San Diego, the school said in a separate statement.
Khosla had already said in February that UC San Diego expected to lose $150 million in funding that it had expected to receive from the National Institutes of Health to help pay overhead costs in research, plus face a $50 million state budget cut.
The chancellor did not go into detail how how cuts could affect UC San Diego’s more than 44,000 students, who worry the cuts will mean larger classes, shorter library hours and fewer teaching assistants.
