The birthing process for the University of California Merced campus has been a most laborious one.

After the state approved the new institution of higher learning, backers of the campus have had to wage a vigorous fight to keep funds coming down the pipeline to make UC Merced a reality.

Due to the looming dark fiscal cloud that started hanging over state government a couple years ago, the Legislature in 2003 pushed back UC Merced's opening from the fall of 2004 until the fall of 2005.

Already, the state has spent more than $350 million to open the campus. The university has hired about 170 employees, including 13 faculty members, with a payroll exceeding $7 million. Three major buildings are under construction at the Lake Yosemite site east of Merced.

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, chancellor of UC Merced, said $20 million in state funding is needed this year to open the university next year.

The funding would enable the campus to hire an additional 40 people to teach the first 1,000 undergraduates. The money also would buy equipment, library supplies and materials.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his state of the state address in January, said he intended to include $20 million in his budget for UC Merced this year.

"We must not let the dream (of a UC campus) bypass our Central Valley. That is why my budget is funding UC's 10th campus," the governor said.

But along came the Legislative analyst's report last week, proving that nothing comes easy for UC Merced.

Legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill now wants to cut that $20 in half. Her recommendation that the governor's proposed spending be slashed to $10 million is based in large part because she did not receive a report from UC Merced officials.

In her report to the Legislature, Hill said she did not receive a spending plan from UC Merced. "Lacking an expenditure plan for the budget year and detail on expenditures in the current year," she wrote, "we can find neither justification nor rationale" for the full $20 million funding this year.

However, shortly after she issued the report, university officials supplied her with that information. Larry Salinas, director of governmental relations for UC Merced, chalked up Hill's harsh recommendation to bad timing.

University officials remain optimistic in light of what has become almost annual criticism from the Legislative analyst's office. "We've been proving ourselves every year," said university spokeswoman Patti Istas.

Indeed they have.

UC Merced has established satellite centers in Bakersfield and Fresno with another planned for Modesto.

The Bakersfield Center at 2000 K St. contains about 16,000 square feet that is being utilized by UC Merced. It includes a computer laboratory with 27 work stations, classrooms with video-conferencing capabilities for meetings and distance-learning classes.

The center would be enhanced with the opening of the UC Merced campus next year.

Tomlinson-Keasey points out that despite the state budget fiscal crisis a delay in funding the opening of the Merced campus in 2005 would be pound foolish.

She said delay would wreak havoc with campus funding because the number of students would run below projections for years to come, meaning a lower cash flow that would take a long time to recover.

While we would have preferred a UC campus in the San Joaquin Valley closer to Bakersfield, the cold reality is that if the Merced facility does not open next year, it could be years before a UC campus opens in the valley.