The new state budget brings renewed funding for UC academic preparation programs in 2005-06, but at about the same level of support as this past academic year. A little more than $17 million comes from the state while UC adds another $12 million for systemwide efforts to encourage underserved young people to seek a University education.

At UCSB, funds for such outreach efforts are also expected to remain constant, estimates Joseph I. Castro, executive director of campus outreach initiatives. “The Faculty Outreach Grants (allocation) will be at least $150,000, and possibly more,” Castro says of the largest program sponsored by the Chancellor’s Outreach Advisory Board. “But we won’t know until the fall.”

This sum was the total amount funneled into seven programs and projects last March. Three of them were in the area of science and engineering and four were in the arts and humanities. They ranged from $15,000 each for projects titled “Teatro Pipeline” and “Santa Barbara Pre-Algebra Collaborative” to $31,000 for a College of Creative Studies Summer Arts Institute.

For more information on UCSB academic preparation program go to <www.campusoutreach.ucsb.edu>.