CSU budget gets cut $312.9 million

TELL THE GOVERNOR: HIGHER EDUCATION IS PART OF THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM

Governor’s Plan to Cut Cal. State University Funding by 10% Contradicts His ‘State of the State’ Goals for More Teachers, Improved Infrastructure, Vets’ Education

Gov. Schwarzenegger presented to the public his plan for the 2008/09 state budget today, and it includes a deep $312.9 million cut in the CSU.

The plan on paper is a sleight of hand, adding up the money promised in the funding Compact, assuming 8500 more full-time-equivalent students, subtracting 10% and layering on a steep student fee hike.

Bottom line, the only new money is from fee increases and student enrollment is supposed to increase. The CSU administration announced today the plan means turning away 10,000 eligible incoming students.

Gone is additional funding to, among other things, increase hiring of tenure-track faculty.

During reporters’ questioning, the governor’s Director of Finance Mike Genest said “because of the budget situation, that Compact is not in effect” and that means “it eliminates the provision that says they (the CSU administration) cannot raise student fees more than 10%.”

The governor presented a similar plan for UC and 10% cuts to every other state agency. Genest predicted lay-offs in some agencies.

See the governor’s proposed budget docs at http://www.ebudget.ca.gov

See his budget plan for the CSU at http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/GovernorsBudget/6000/6610.pdf

At a CSU budget advisory meeting this morning prior to the governor’s announcement, many groups in the CSU community agreed to issue a joint statement on the budget cuts. The groups include CFA, the CSU administration, the California State Student Association, the CSU Employees Union, Academic Professional of California and others.

In the meantime, California Faculty Association President Lillian Taiz released today the following response to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget for 2008/09:

Today the Governor cut a staggering $312.9 million from the California State University system. This latest blow to the CSU budget follows the half billion dollars in cuts that the system suffered just a few years ago. The university has never recovered from these earlier cuts and its current budget still lags behind the CSU budget of 2002.

If adopted, this budget will be a serious set back for the California State University. Budget cuts of this magnitude will harm our more than 400,000 students while at the same time eliminating access to the university by 11,000 new students, according to the CSU administration.

The Governor’s budget also assumes another 10% student fee increase—the 6th in the last seven years; and since the cuts will translate into course reductions, increased class sizes, and longer times to graduation, California’s students and their families will once again be paying more and getting even less.

The loss, in the end, would not only be dollars, but the loss of the hope and optimism about the future that is an intrinsic trait of a society committed to broad educational opportunity.

Furthermore, the cuts it will make the goals enumerated in the Governor’s State of the State message laughable. And it would be yet another terrible blow to California’s economy.

The CSU prepares the people who do exactly the type of work the Governor called for this week. And it creates an avenue into the middle class for hundreds of thousands of people who earn more, participate in California’s economy at a higher level and, from the view of state revenues, comprise a larger, stronger tax base.

On Tuesday, noting that our K-12 schools have 30% fewer teachers than schools in other states, the Governor said he intends to ‘create’ 100,000 more teachers. The CSU awards nearly all K-12 teaching credentials and most of the bachelor’s degrees in education in California.

The Governor also said he wants to expand educational opportunities for returning veterans. The CSU’s 23 campuses already teach more veterans seeking bachelor’s degrees than any other institution.

The Governor described the state’s severe infrastructure needs $500 billion over the next 20 years. The CSU awards more than half of the state’s baccalaureate degrees in engineering. As for building on campuses, directing money to building more classrooms is important, but it is more important to have teachers in the buildings already standing.

This budget would hamstring the CSU’s ability to provide every eligible student a quality, affordable education. And that will hamstring the state of California.

We, the faculty, as well as the CSU community, will fight this budget cut. We continue to send our message to the Governor until he realizes that higher education is part of the solution, not the problem.

Background on the CSU Budget

• The California State University is already under-funded—the university system endured a disproportionate impact of the last fiscal crisis beginning in 2002. Over two years, $500 million were cut, leaving a deep funding hole that was never restored.

• At that time, the CSU turned away eligible students, cut classes, and increased class size, all of which resulted in longer times to graduation. Most importantly, these cuts threatened the faculty’s ability to offer quality education.

• In inflation-adjusted dollars, the CSU budget today remains below the 2002 level.

• The “Compact” funding, adopted with a handshake between the CSU chancellor and governor in 2004, was promised to provide minimum funding the CSU needs to meet students’ needs.

• The governor also has indicated he will declare a fiscal emergency for the current 2007/08 budget year which began last July. This declaration starts a 45-day countdown during which the legislature must bring the current budget into balance. It is estimated to be about $3.5 billion out of whack. After 45 days, the governor could eliminate line items from the budget.

• If drastic cuts are applied to the CSU this year, there is the threat of reopening hard-fought CSU employee contracts, including the agreement that narrowly averted a faculty strike in spring 2007.

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LA Times article on CSU Audit

Audit advises Cal State to change top salary formula

Method of comparing pay with that of schools around the country is flawed, the state says.
By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 7, 2007
The state auditor Tuesday criticized the 23-campus Cal State University system for the way it has raised pay and benefits for top executives, provided them moving expenses and given some post-retirement pay without requiring work.

In a report requested by legislators, the Bureau of State Audits urged the Cal State system to abandon a method that compares salaries of top administrators to those at 20 other schools nationwide but does not figure in such items as housing and car allowances that can add $60,000 a year to a campus president's package.

Such a flawed survey, supposedly showing a large lag in pay, was behind a controversial move by the Cal State Board of Trustees in September to hike average salaries for 26 top administrators and campus presidents about 12%, in some cases amounting to more than $44,000 a year, the audit noted.

As a result of that decision, system Chancellor Charles B. Reed now is paid $421,500 a year and campus presidents average $292,000, plus housing and car allowances.

The audit also called for tighter scrutiny of programs that allow retiring executives to take a year's paid transition time before returning to faculty or other positions. The university needs to ensure and publicly document that such executives are providing real services, the report said.

Cal State officials said they felt vindicated that the audit did not allege illegalities or policy violations. They said they already had taken steps to better control and publicly explain its executive compensation.

"We will be taking a look at everything that was pointed out in the audit and trying to make a determination whether additional policies and procedures need to be prescribed," said Board of Trustees chairwoman Roberta Achtenberg.

But she said she did not want to force trustees and top administrators to "micromanage every decision."

Reed said he was willing to include nonsalary benefits in national comparative compensation surveys as long as that was done for faculty and staff as well as for managers.



Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge), who is chairman of the Higher Education Committee, said he was pleased with the audit and wished that the Cal State trustees had waited for its release before approving the recent executive raises.

"Left on their own, they are showing a capacity for not doing the right thing," he said of the trustees, describing the recent raises as a misuse of limited funds at a time of rising student fees.

Faculty union leaders said the audit confirmed their longtime allegations of Cal State mismanagement.

The report shows "unacceptable nonchalance in how the public's money is spent," said John Travis, current political action chairman of the California Faculty Assn.

The report also focused on what it described as "questionable reimbursements" for real estate closing costs and moving expenses that in some cases have totaled more than $80,000 for new campus presidents.



larry.gordon@latimes.com