In California’s budget game, university forced to play defense

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.

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7 comments

Chico State Student

Thu Aug 27 2009 13:59

GLT classes to be dropped. If these "feel good" classes are dropped, who's to stop there.
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.

rich mckone

Sun Jul 19 2009 12:01

The following shows why, in the competition for state $, the University system will lose out to the prison system every time!

If each correctional contract bed saves $30,283 in operating costs and avoids spending at least $162,500 for construction of a prison bed, why do we have so few?

According to the state budget, each prison bed costs $52,363 in annual operating costs while contract beds cost $22,080, a savings of $30,283. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DC&R) has only 4% of permanent capacity in contract beds. Texas has 9% in contract beds and Florida has 6%.

If DC&R added 8,505 contract beds, 9 % of capacity, it would save $257.5 million in annual operating costs and avoid spending $1.4 billion for new prison bed construction. The savings could be applied to the deficit.

Such an action would be opposed by the correctional employee unions and will not even be considered despite a $26 billion deficit. Actually, the annual $10 billion prison budget could be reduced by about 10% and $6.5 billion in prison construction bonds could be applied to the deficit without any impact on public safety. That illustrates the incredible influence of the prison unions!

Rich McKone, Parole Agent III, Retired, DC&R, Former Criminal Justice Planner, California Council on Criminal Justice & California Youth Authority 865 Dogwood Loop, Lincoln, CA 95648 – (916) 645-1219/Cell: (916) 216-5902

rich mck

Sat Jul 18 2009 12:08

A glance at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DC&R) budget reveals an opportunity for substantial cost savings. It doesn’t involve the early release of any inmates. DC&R institution beds cost $52,363 in annual operating costs while contract beds cost $22,080, a savings of $30,283 for each contract bed. DC&R has only 4% of permanent capacity in contract beds. Texas has 9% in contract beds and Florida has 6%.

If the DC&R increases contract beds to 9 % of capacity, adding 8,505 beds, it would save $257.5 million in annual operating costs. More importantly, it would avoid spending $1.4 billion for prison bed construction. The savings could be applied to the deficit.

This painless change will never be made, regardless of the $42 billion deficit, because it would be opposed by the correctional employee unions.

tax payer

Wed Jul 15 2009 15:10

How about raising the cost of tutition at the Community Colleges so that it is more in line with what students pay in other states. Full time tuition and fees at any Community College in California is only about $300 PER STUDENT per semester. Raise the total tution and fees to $1500 - $2000 per student per semester.

CSU Critic

Wed Jul 15 2009 00:47

The amount of money wasted by the CSU system is mindblowing. Thousands of students are admitted to CSU campuses each year who do not have basic math and english skills. Most of these students pay nothing in tuition due to Cal Grants. If the CSU is serious about cutting costs they ought to start by requiring anyone entering the CSU system to meet all the required prerequisits before being admitted. Second, feel good non-core courses like ethnic studies, woman's studies, and GLT studies should be elminated. These schools are funded with state tax dollars, let those who want to navel gaze do it on their own dime.

OakRaidFan

Wed Jul 15 2009 00:31

Agreed. We should become aggressive in combating this financial debacle. How? Number one, raise the Vehicle License Fee back up to its statutorily-mandated level of 2.0%. The LAO (Legislative Analyst Office) says that if Gov. Schwarzenegger had raised it upon taking office after the 2003 recall election, California would currently have a budget surplus. Surplus. SURPLUS. Instead, he lowered it down to 0.65%. Last month (June), he raised it to 1.15%, which is still almost one-half of where it should be, by law. Number two is tax the business side of Prop. 13.

Homeless in Woodland

Tue Jul 14 2009 21:10

From a tactical stand point this is a stupid way of dealing with this crisis. Quit playing defensively.

We should NOT be furloughing your employees. Reduce there pay and require a full work week and encourage EVERYONE to work harder and produce more. Simply furloughing employees is in no way going to stop the hemorrhaging.
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.

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