<p>*…California has slashed public university budgets, yet construction is booming at campuses statewide.</p>
<p>The University of California system has $8.9 billion in building projects under way at its 10 campuses and five medical centers, including about $2 billion at UCSF, which is near the top of the spending list.</p>
<p>…The cost of construction is ultimately bankrolled by taxpayers, Kline said, because California’s public universities and colleges are paying a staggering $1.1 billion a year in interest on those construction bonds, more than double the amount of 10 years ago, the Legislative Analyst’s Office reported in August…The schools also have to clean, light, heat, cool and maintain the new buildings, the burden of which comes out of hard-pressed operating budgets that were cut by $1.4 billion this year, including $650 million at UC…*</p>
<p>[Buildings</a> go up as universities’ budgets go down | Full Page](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/15/MNVV1NJPN7.DTL&ao=all]Buildings”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/15/MNVV1NJPN7.DTL&ao=all)</p>