Budget OKs staff salary hike, enrollment increases for CSU, UC

By Katie Plourd
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

A budget agreement made by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California State University and the University of California systems will hike enrollment and provide salary increases for staff at Cal State Long Beach and other universities across the state.

The Higher Education Compact was agreed upon by CSU Chancellor Charles Reed and UC President Robert Dynes last May as a way to ensure the quality of California's public higher education system. The compact outlines budget policies for 10 years, beginning with the 2005-06 fiscal year, according to a press release from the CSU system. The compact will not be able to meet all the capital needs for the two systems, but it attempts to build a base in which the CSU and UC systems can use to climb out of debt.

According to Janet Parker, the director of budget and HRIS at CSULB, the compact gives hope of increased funding for the school.

"After four years of consecutive budget decreases the agreement gives us a solid basis for mandatory needs," Parker said. "There have been no additional fund increases other than tuition increases in these four years."

Proposed in the compact is a general fund increase provided by the state of three percent from the previous year's budget starting in the 2005-06 fiscal year, Parker said.

This money, according to the compact, will be used for staff salary increases, health benefits, maintenance and other costs, which will maintain the quality of CSU and UC institutions.

Parker said staff salary increases is an important need because, other than professor salary raises, there has not been a salary increase in almost three years.

The state funded budget will increase an additional one percent from the prior years. Funding will be used for instructional equipment, instructional technology and libraries on campuses throughout California, according to the Higher Education Compact.

One of the major impacts the Higher Education Compact will have on public universities across California is increased enrollment throughout the state. Funding will allow an enrollment increase of 2.5 percent per year throughout the next decade, according to Parker.

The funding will help meet the criteria of the Master Plan for Public Higher Education in California, proposed in the 1960s. The Master Plan calls for the state to provide adequate resources in order to meet enrollment demands, according to the Department of Finance of California.

Jennifer Hosaka, a junior at CSULB, thinks the salary increase for staff is a good way to provide efficient services for the campus.

"The staff is an important part of our campus," Hosaka said. "An increase in salary will result in staff working harder to make our campus better."

Although Hosaka said staff salary increases would be beneficial, she does not see eye-to-eye with the proposed enrollment increase.

"I see how the administration is trying to help, but increasing enrollment isn't going to help students," Hosaka said.

Kara Adan, a CSULB junior, agrees that increasing enrollment is not the way to solve the overcrowding issue.

"Classes are too full as it is," Adan said. "More students are going to make it harder to get into classes and harder to get around school."

Once the California legislation passes, the proposed budget will determine how CSULB will accommodate such increases, Parker said.

"The agreement here is between the governor and the UC and CSU, it has to be funded by the budget first," Parker said. "If we have the money then it will be used."

The agreement is a commitment from the current administration that acknowledges the crisis in California's public higher education system and shows that they are trying to do something, Parker said.