UC Regents approved a fiscal emergency plan to close the $813 million state funding gap. The plan includes student fees increases, faculty and staff furloughs/salary reductions, and additional cuts of at least $300 million. Student fees were increased 9.3 percent, or $662, for the 2009-2010 academic year in May. In July, Regents approved UC faculty and staff furloughs of 7 to 26 days that will save about $184.1 million in payroll costs, amounting to about a quarter of the state funding gap. Each chancellor at UC’s 10 campuses will determine how additional program cuts will be made to close the remaining $300 million funding gap.

John M. Wiemann will retire after 14 years as vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement. During his tenure, Wiemann led the Office of Institutional Advancement in providing services and leadership to all departments on campus, as well as coordinating fund-raising efforts such as the Campaign for UC Santa Barbara. Wiemann joined the faculty of the Department of Communication in 1977 and has been honored as a W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Fellow and a Fulbright-Hays Senior Research Scholar, among many other distinctions.

The Mosher Alumni House recently received a Merit Award in the 2009 Gold Nugget Awards (GNA) under the category of Outstanding Special Use Facility. The GNA competition features a variety of categories open to 14 Western states as well as all international countries. Mosher was recognized for its contemporary form and the sustainable principles and materials used throughout the building. For example, roughly 75 percent of the interior spaces are designed to receive sufficient daylight in order to reduce dependency on artificial lighting. Barry Berkus ’55 was the architect, Seltek Pacific was the contractor and UC Santa Barbara Design and Construction Services was the developer.