2008 Woodie Awards
CSU budget issues on the horizon
Jessica Anderson, Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: News
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2008-2009 budget proposal is leaving many state agencies with a dismal outlook for the future, including the California State University (CSU) system.
"It's going to be a little cloudy for a while," said SSU's Vice President of Administration and Finance, Larry Furukawa-Schlereth. "[In] May we'll have the revision of the budget. That's when we'll see the real impacts."
One thing is for certain; despite record undergraduate applications for Fall 2008, the CSU system will be forced to turn away at least 10,000 students, if this budget plan goes through.
The plan leaves the CSU system with a $312.9 million cut, and deals 10 percent cuts to most other state agencies as well. The reduction equates to approximately $875 lost per full-time equivalent student.
This multi-million dollar cut contradicts the "Compact" made between Schwarzenegger and the CSU and University of California (UC) systems in 2004, which promised to allot minimum funding for the CSU students' needs over the following five years. However, the 2008-2009 budget does not only fail to meet the terms of that agreement, but confines the CSU system to a budget that cannot accommodate enrollment increases.
As one of the largest high school classes in California's history prepares to graduate this spring, the state's higher education systems will not be able to take on all prospective applicants.
The CSU has received nearly 50,000 more applications for the upcoming fall semester than were received last year. Yet, all but seven of the CSU campuses have closed admissions earlier than expected for first-time freshmen, and enrollment numbers are capped at the current levels. This "no-growth" budget is predicted to leave many prospective students without access to higher education.
California's overall budget is facing an estimated $14 billion funding shortage.
It is not just the CSU that is taking the hits from this state budgetary crisis; the UC and California Community College (CCC) systems are also on the financial chopping block.
"It's going to be a little cloudy for a while," said SSU's Vice President of Administration and Finance, Larry Furukawa-Schlereth. "[In] May we'll have the revision of the budget. That's when we'll see the real impacts."
One thing is for certain; despite record undergraduate applications for Fall 2008, the CSU system will be forced to turn away at least 10,000 students, if this budget plan goes through.
The plan leaves the CSU system with a $312.9 million cut, and deals 10 percent cuts to most other state agencies as well. The reduction equates to approximately $875 lost per full-time equivalent student.
This multi-million dollar cut contradicts the "Compact" made between Schwarzenegger and the CSU and University of California (UC) systems in 2004, which promised to allot minimum funding for the CSU students' needs over the following five years. However, the 2008-2009 budget does not only fail to meet the terms of that agreement, but confines the CSU system to a budget that cannot accommodate enrollment increases.
As one of the largest high school classes in California's history prepares to graduate this spring, the state's higher education systems will not be able to take on all prospective applicants.
The CSU has received nearly 50,000 more applications for the upcoming fall semester than were received last year. Yet, all but seven of the CSU campuses have closed admissions earlier than expected for first-time freshmen, and enrollment numbers are capped at the current levels. This "no-growth" budget is predicted to leave many prospective students without access to higher education.
California's overall budget is facing an estimated $14 billion funding shortage.
It is not just the CSU that is taking the hits from this state budgetary crisis; the UC and California Community College (CCC) systems are also on the financial chopping block.