California State University faculty and staff members are being asked to vote on furloughs, or mandated time off without pay, to help reduce a projected $584 million budget deficit for the upcoming year — and many programs are on the chopping block as well.
The CSU Board of Trustees will vote July 21 on whether to once again increase fees for students, a decision that would add to the ten percent increase earlier in May.
“The number being mentioned is about 15-20 percent,” said Joe Wills, Chico State’s director of public affairs and publications.
If the trustees pass a 20 percent increase, it would bring the basic State University Fee for Chico State students to $4,026 per year — before paying other fees for such programs as athletics, the student union fee, or the fee for health services.
Dan Reed, the interim director of Chico State’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office, doesn’t know what will happen to student aid programs such as Cal Grants, he said.
“The governor has proposed a elimination phase out of Cal Grant programs,” Reed said. “Of course, financial aid officers are hoping that doesn’t happen.”
Assuming Cal Grants are phased out or eliminated, students’ financial aid packages, which were put together in March, would have to be re-done. July 30 is the fee-payment deadline for the fall semester and until that day the Financial Aid Office has the freedom to tinker with the financial aid packages to ensure students have money for next semester.
If California doesn’t pass a budget by Aug. 1, the office will be in uncharted territory.
One of Reed’s concerns is that if he sent out the money to students, and then the state asked for the money back due to a budget shortage, he would have to try and retrieve the money from students.
“I’d have to get it back and that’s no fun,” Reed said.
Although the system allows students who are receiving Cal Grants to delay payment of their basic tuition fee until Cal Grant money is available, those who would normally receive Cal Grant B stipends from the state will not be receiving them immediately, due to the budget stalemate.
Even after the budget passes, the awards may not be distributed, according to a press release from the California Student Aid Commission.
“At this time, CSAC is warning all students that new awards are considered tentative pending a final budget,” the press release reported.
If new awards were withheld from students, the university would try to redistribute other money to make up the difference, Reed said. But until a budget passes, his office will not know exactly what to do.
“We’re not sure — and that’s the same song we’ve been singing for months,” Reed said.
The budget crisis is not just affecting CSU students; university faculty and staff are being asked to take two days a month unpaid leave, which is equivalent to a 9.5 percent reduction in pay, to help with the deficit.
California Faculty Association members will vote online regarding the furloughs beginning July 13 and ending at noon July 20. The California State University Employees Union will also vote on a proposal for furloughs.
Other measures are being taken at the university level in case of reduced funding from the state.
In a memo issued June 29, Chico State President Paul Zingg said the university is taking steps to affect mandated enrollment reductions, such as cutting off applications for fall 2009, limiting applications for spring 2010 to upper division transfers from Chico State’s surrounding area and transitioning summer sessions from state support to a system that could support itself financially through fees.
Joe Wills also suggested that equipment purchases and maintenance could be deferred to save money.
Zingg warned that measures such as these may not be enough, saying the salary savings that could be realized at the CSU level may not be enough to cover the proposed budget cuts the university faces.
“All of our units and divisions will have to make budget reduction decisions in anticipation of cuts likely to be 10 percent or possibly higher,” he said.
Don Bunce can be reached at
why not cut art.
or sports.
or even the paper....because we don't need to be informed or anything.
There is no such thing as an unimportant class, they are all important.
We should not be increasing student fees if anything we should be decreasing student fees.
The only way we are ever going to bounce back is to become aggressive in combating this financial debacle.