Additional
fee increase, budget cuts loom ahead
By Sean Emery
On-line Forty-Niner
Faced
with cuts in funding, Cal State Long Beach
enrollment is expected to be increased while
non-instructional funding will be cut, according
to a budget report presented at the Academic
Senate meeting Thursday.
The report, delivered by William Griffith,
Vice President for Administration and Finance,
is based on the 2003-2004 proposed budget.
Faced with California’s worst budget crisis
in a decade, Gov. Gray Davis has proposed
a variety of large spending cuts and tax
and fee increases. As a result of the budget
cuts the CSU system and the UC system will
face $700 million worth of cuts from state
funds.
In response to mid-year cuts by the governor,
CSULB was faced with a general fund reduction
of $6.4 million. In order to deal with this
budget reduction, university fees were raised
10 to 15 percent, and campus operating division
budgets were cut by two percent.
For 2003-2004, the report projects a general
fund reduction of $447.7 million for the
CSU system as a whole, and $34 million for
CSULB. This represents 17 percent of CSU
system funding, and 18.5 percent of CSULB’s
funding. These reductions include the governor’s
mid-year cut, as well as an expected 10
percent budget reduction, amounting to a
loss of $19.4 million from the CSULB budget.
It also includes $2.8 million from a May
2002 revise cut being made permanent, and
$7.4 million from CSU unfunded mandatory
costs.
To make up for the $34 million budget shortfall,
the report proposes a number of solutions.
The first is a State University Fee increase
of 25 to 20 percent. The second is to increase
the number of full time equivalent students
by almost eight percent. The third is to
cut the budget for campus operating divisions
by 4 percent. This means that the university
will be raising fees, accepting more students,
and cutting campus operating budgets.
By raising enrollment, the university hopes
to use the funds that the state gives the
university for each student to help to offset
the loss of funding. At the Academic Senate
meeting, Griffith emphasized the fact that
the raising of enrollment is not meant to
be seen as a long-term solution.
“This is a short term fiscal strategy,”
Griffith said. “It’s not a policy decision
on enrollment.”
According to Griffith, the strategy of the
university will be to set a target number
of students, while maintaining faculty.
In order to accomplish this, he emphasized
that there are no planned cuts in the instructional
budget. The four percent budget cuts will
come from all non-instructional areas.
“These cuts are painful, but manageable,”
Griffith said.
Griffith also emphasized that the budget
proposal outlined in the report is based
on the analysis and forecast of the best
case scenario.
“It could only get worse, it can’t get better,”
Griffith said.
Also discussed at the Academic Senate meeting
was a proposed policy on smoking outside
of buildings on the CSULB campus. The policy,
which passed the Academic Senate, is meant
to help limit the exposure of nonsmokers
to secondhand tobacco smoke.
The policy bans smoking within 20 feet of
any exterior entrance or exit to buildings
and rooms, as well as 20 feet from any air
intake vents. The policy also bans smoking
in and around Brotman Hall, and along the
walkway that runs from the main library
to the second-floor-west eating plaza of
the University Student Union.
The policy also states that new locations
can be added to the list of nonsmoking areas
by the request of the faculty, staff, and
students if it can be proven to be a location
where access to university facilities or
services are limited by unwanted exposure
to secondhand smoke. These smoke free areas
would be published on a list put out by
the president’s office during the summer
term.
“We wanted to keep [the policy] simple enough
that people could understand it,” Wayne
Dick, Chair of the Academic Senate and a
member of the committee that drafted the
proposal said, “We want to build a culture
[at the university] of respecting peoples
space.”
Dick described the policy as an effort to
adhere to state guidelines, while still
respecting smoker’s rights.
“We were doing our best to stick with the
state guidelines of 20 feet,” Dick said.
“It may not be the best of all scenarios,
but I think it can work.”
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