Sonoma State Star

Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: News

The 2007-2008 ASI officers are approaching the end of their term. Some of the officers, such as President Whitney Diver (bottom right), are graduating. Other officers, such as Jonathon White (top left), are running for reelection. [Click to enlarge]

With the prospect of $386 million cut from the 2008-2009 CSU budget, a group of SSU faculty, students, unions and administrators came together on March 20 in Person Theatre. The goal was to interact and discuss ways to avoid the impending budget cut.

"We want to remind everyone that today's budget summit is not about [SSU's] budget, nor is it about how we would manage cuts in our 2008-2009 academic year," said host Ed Beebout as the summit commenced. "We're here today to brainstorm for a common cause, to come up with ideas for winning support from the public and state law makers. It's a chance for us to be proactive, instead of reactive."

Currently California is in the midst of a $14 billion deficit. In an attempt to combat this, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed $386.1 million budget cut, which the CSU Board of Trusties approved. The actual cut would be $312.9 million, while an additional $73.2 million would be produced by a 10 percent increase in tuition.

"Based on the Governor's budget, funding of $386.1 million is needed to fund 2.5 percent enrollment growth supporting an additional 10,000 students, employee compensation, mandatory costs and avoid a student fee increase," said Calstate.edu.

In response to the prospect of these losses, SSU participated in a CSU unified response. Each of the 23 campuses planed to hold a community incorporated meeting to devise ways to combat these looming budget cuts.

According to a document sent by Media Relations Coordinator Jean Wasp, these meeting were sponsored by California Faculty Association (CFA), the CSU Administration, the California State Student Association, staff unions and other campus constituencies.

After Beebout introduced the event, each member on the panel gave an introduction. Despite Beebout's request to keep focus on the entire CSU situation, there were moments in which panel members did direct concerns as to how SSU could expect to be affected.

Continued...

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