The new school year has come with great obstacles due to a “dysfunctional state government,” according to Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander.
The budget cuts for the 2009-10 school year have been the most severe in the 60-year history of CSULB. Alexander said the state deficit had increased to $42 billion and, as a result, “those of us who work in the public sector took the brunt of the decisions passed this past summer, particularly those of us in public education.”
Alexander said CSULB lost $42 million from its budget shortly after the 2009-10 school year began.
He presented the audience with a detailed list of the cuts that CSULB has had to make for the new school year in order to offset the $42 million loss:
- Two furlough days a month for faculty, a 10 percent loss of pay
- Reduced student enrollment
- Hundreds of classes cut
- Closed spring 2010 admission
- Elimination of 70 staff positions
- Suspension of Kaleidoscope, Open House and the Presidential Forum on International Human Rights for this year
- Suspension of the University 100 program for the next two years
- A $978 increase to all student fees this summer
According to Gail Franks, professor of dietetics and nutrition, the CSULB faculty has spent their summer making drastic alterations to their courses.
“The only guideline we have is to do everything you’ve done before with 10 percent less,” she said. “We have to now, in a relatively short period of time, see how we can adjust our syllabus, deliver the content, establish the assignments, the tests, and, in a way, reduce the in front of class time and not dilute what we are delivering.”
Associated Students Inc. President Christopher Chavez said he was glad Alexander was “very frank and forthcoming about the situation we’re in.”
“The more that the university community knows what’s going on the better off we all are because we can make the effort to really make sure we’re addressing the issues that we’re facing,” Chavez said.
Alexander assured the audience that the CSULB campus would remain a legion of strong, shared governments. According to Alexander, approximately $17 billion has been added to the grant programs and the CSULB students themselves have received $13 million more in grant money this year.
“I believe we will reach better decisions for developing more reductive strategies together,” he said. “Our institution will be strengthened if we all work together during this period of economic uncertainty.”