The California State University Board of Trustees has adopted a plan in case Proposition 30 does not pass in the Nov. 6 election.
Proposition 30 proposes a temporary sales and income tax increase that Gov. Jerry Brown says would fuel revenue into public education in California. According to an analysis of Proposition 30, conducted by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, if this measure is not passed, $6 billion will be cut from the state budget. Universities of California, CSU campuses and community colleges will receive the largest cuts if Proposi- tion 30 is not passed.
The CSU Board of Trustees is being proactive in case Proposition 30 is rejected and the plan that was adopted last week will take effect in January.
“It is clear that we cannot simply cut our way out of another $250 million hit to our budget,” CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said. “We need to take a balanced approach in terms of cost reductions and revenue enhancements.”
The board voted 11 to 3 to raise tuition fees by $150 starting next semester. That would bring San Diego State’s spring ‘13 tuition to $3,688, which would amount to $58 million in revenue for the 2012-13 school year.
In addition, the board approved an increase in nonresident student tuition. The plan is to increase the tuition of out-of-state and international students seven percent or $810 per year.
Finally, CSU campuses will continue to reduce faculty assigned time, layoffs or non-renewals of contracts to yield cost reductions for the current school year and beyond.
CSU Media Relations Manager Erik Fallis has been watching the ebb and flow of the budget cuts throughout the years.
“We (the CSU) have two revenue sources, the state and students,” Fallis said.
Fallis said tuition, although it has increased, has not helped deter the billion-dollar hole the CSU system is in.
“We, the whole CSU system, has taken an institutional hit,” Fallis said. Throughout the past years, the students are not the only ones who have been affected. The CSU system has continuously been consolidating staff and services as well. Fallis said this type of budget reduction is much trickier than raising tuition costs be- cause students see tuition as a single number when professors and staff are losing their jobs.
Fallis explained that a reduction among employees in turn hurts the quality of education. There are more students in classrooms, fewer advisors helping students graduate on time and fewer library resources.
Assistant professor of the Depart- ment of Rhetoric and Writing Studies Paul Minifee has seen the effects par- ticularly among his colleagues who are lecturers. Lecturers are not on a tenure track and their sole responsibility is to teach, not conduct research. Their contracts range from a year to three years at a time.
“Our department is largely com- posed of lecturers who teach courses and who run a lot of our department,” Minifee said. “A number of them teach at two to three different schools, so when they get classes cut from them; they are suddenly scrambling for an extra class somewhere. It’s now at the point where we aren’t cutting classes, but cutting them. Some of them have been with the university longer than I have.”
If proposition 30 is passed, the board has voted to roll back the 9.1 percent tuition fee increase that’s already in effect. This means $249 will be reduced from the tuition starting in Spring 2013.
This means students should receive a reimbursement of approximately $249 for the tuition increase applied this semester.
