Letter
from the Chancellor
Welcome
to a new academic year at the Cal State
Long Beach, and thank you for choosing to
be a part of our university system.
Over
the past year, California's severe budget
crisis has resulted in deep budget cuts
for the CSU and other state-funded agencies
and institutions. The 2003-04 budget approved
by the Legislature and Gov. Davis this summer
will result in a net reduction to the Cal
State University system of $304 million
after fee revenues are considered, an amount
that comes to approximately 11 percent of
the CSU's General Fund appropriation.
This
situation presents a significant challenge
for the CSU system. We know that higher
education is vital to California's economic
prosperity, and that our state relies on
the system to provide high-quality, accessible,
student-focused higher education for its
citizens. Yet these deep budget cuts,
along with budget language stipulating that
the CSU system would not be funded for any
enrollment growth for 2004-05, will for
the first time put limits on the CSU system's
long-standing promise of providing unlimited
educational opportunity.
For
the near term, we are going to focus on
ensuring that the students we enroll get
the courses they need to graduate. For the
long term, we will continue to work with
the Legislature to create a consistent,
predictable higher education funding plan
and fee policy that will allow us to serve
all qualified students in good economic
times as well as bad.
We
will call on students in the coming months
to assist us in this effort by contacting
your local legislators and letting them
know how important your CSU system education
is to you. In the meantime, I invite you
to learn more about these issues by visiting
the CSU system's "Budget Central"
at http://www.calstate.edu/BudgetCentral
or the California Post-secondary Education
Commission's "Student Fees Q &
A" at http://www.cpec.ca.gov.
Thank
you again for choosing the California State
University. I wish you a rewarding academic
year ahead.
--
Charles B. Reed
Chancellor of the California State University
System
|
