Mark Yudof has been called one of the Top Ten Best College Presidents of All Time by Time magazine. When he became president of the UC System in 2008, he stepped into a financial bear trap: Arnold had just cut the UC budget by 20 percent when the UC was already facing a billion-dollar deficit. Not to mention the fact that there wasn’t going to be much help from the rest of the state itself as California was feeling the brunt of the recession.

“Most people have to work for a living; others get to play video games.” That is what United States Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) said about research at UC Irvine’s Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science.

After taking the oath of office on Jan. 3, Governor Jerry Brown wasted no time introducing a bold proposal to solve California’s budget crisis. His plan involves a combination of tax and fee increases and drastic spending cuts coupled with transfers of funding from the state to local governments, all of which are intended to help address a staggering state budget deficit that currently stands at $25.4 billion. The plan is far from perfect, but it is the right move to save California before it’s too late.

Pie charts, graphs and the impending doom of what is yet another wave of cuts and despair aren’t exactly sexy. We at the New University bring you this Special Budget Issue, not because of its propensity to attract the masses, but because we believe that it is important to inform. We want the community to be aware of the ramifications and different ways that everyone in the UCI community is affected by the current financial state of affairs in California.