UC San Diego warns cuts, hiring freeze and federal funding threats could force layoffs and paused projects

UC San Diego Chancellor Khosla told the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 that his campus faces a substantial budget gap if the governor's proposed 8% reduction and the deferred nonresident‑replacement payment are enacted. Khosla said the combined impact on UC San Diego would be about $73 million—about 15% of the campus’s state funds—and that the campus already has frozen hiring and is preparing to pause projects and consider layoffs.

“We have frozen all faculty hiring and staff hiring, in non permission critical positions,” Chancellor Khosla said. He told members he was pausing capital outlay projects “where construction has not yet begun, such as a new multidisciplinary research building at Hillcrest,” and warned that continued cuts plus possible federal research funding reductions could push the campus into even deeper shortfalls.

Khosla also described the campus’s federal research exposure, saying UC San Diego runs roughly $1.8 billion in research and could lose billions if proposed federal facility and administrative rates are reduced. “If this happens across the federal government, UC San Diego will lose around $250,000,000 annually,” he said, adding that such losses could result in thousands of layoffs and “ripple effects across our regional, state, and national economies.”

Committee members used Khosla’s testimony to press the Department of Finance and LAO about alternatives to protect instruction and student services. The Chancellor and UC witnesses repeatedly emphasized that cuts of the magnitude contemplated would likely increase class sizes and lengthen time to degree, and they urged the Legislature to consider alternatives to protect students.