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President of the University of California system Mark Yudof has called on President Barack Obama to put more federal funds behind the public higher education system.

At the annual conference for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Sunday, Yudof asserted that because state support for higher education is dwindling, universities have been forced to increase tuition and fees, cut programs, and cap enrollments.

"The stimulus has not worked to the extent many of us hoped," Mr. Yudof told the audience. "It cannot work as currently constructed."
 
Last month, Yudof released "Exploring a New Role for Federal Government in Higher Education," which outlines why he thinks the federal government needs to play a bigger part in higher education and how it might do that.
 
Possible solutions Yudof proposes to universities’ budgetary woes include offering financial incentives to reward colleges with high numbers of Pell-eligible students, adding supplements to federal research grants to help pay for graduate programs that train researchers, and starting a program in which colleges would compete for federal funds based on strategic measurements such as graduation rates.
 
Yudof’s report is framed by the UC system’s own dire financial situation, which has left the 10 campuses fraught with discord. Wednesday the UC Board of Regents passed a 32 percent tuition increase amidst violent student protests state-wide, with 14 students arrested.

On the panel, Yudof was joined by President of the University of Kentucky Lee T. Todd Jr. Todd encouraged universities to join together and develop a plan that shows how they will respond to the national call to educate more Americans.

"If we don't write it, somebody else might, and that's dangerous," Mr. Todd said.

More from the Chronicle of Higher Education