Faculty and staff continue to focus on possible scenarios for Cal State Long Beach’s budget outlook for 2010-11.
Mary Stephens, vice president of administration and finance, presented three different plans via PowerPoint along with Vice Provost David Dowell at last Thursday’s Academic Senate meeting.
All three scenarios were prepared without any furlough reductions and “not based on any [prior] knowledge,” Stephens told faculty at the Towner Auditorium.
Scenario 1, which would result in a projected $1.5 million in mandatory costs along with no additional state reductions or fee increases, showed a $9.5 million fee-revenue loss due to enrollment reduction. The unresolved budget shortfall came out to almost $29 million.
“We do know we have to reduce our enrollment by an additional 10.8 percent,” or 3,044 full-time students, Stephens said.
Scenario 2 prepared for a 10 percent fee increase to go with the same mandatory costs and $5 million in state reductions, which was “totally pulled out of the air,” Stephens said. The unresolved budget shortfall would result in about $25 million.
Scenario 3 was tweaked to include a projected 10 percent increase in state reductions.
“We wanted to make the point that we could have two fee increases and still not really help our problem,” Stephens said.
The likelihood of one scenario being implemented over the others was not determined.
“We’re making no judgment,” Stephens said.
With mid-year state cuts still possible, the university is anticipating next year’s planning to start with at least a $20 million problem, according to the slides, which will available on CSULB’s Budget Central Web page. A recalculation of the budget from Chancellor Charles Reed’s office will result in an additional $3.9 million cut “in order to protect smaller campuses,” Stephens said.
What is still unclear is whether or not student fees will be increased by the trustees or if furloughs will continue. The amount of mandatory cuts has yet to be determined, Stephens said.
“All of this is the state of California; the battle’s not at the chancellor’s office, it’s not on campus or at Brotman Hall — it’s in Sacramento,” said Chris Chavez, president of Associated Students Inc. “This just underscores the importance that if students don’t want to see fee increases, if they want to be able to have the classes to graduate on time, then they need to start calling their state Legislature’s offices and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing up there to help us?'”
In a summary of the 2009-10 budget, a little more than $10 million in permanent cuts and $2 million in one-time cuts were made, according to the presentation.
A list of nominees for the faculty representatives of the provost search committee was narrowed down to four names at the meeting: Laura Forrest, associate professor of advanced studies in education and counseling; Hamid Rahai, mechanical engineering graduate adviser; Cyrus Parker-Jeannette, chair of the dance department from the College of the Arts; and Lisa Vollendorf, associate professor of Spanish.
The committee is searching for a successor to Interim Provost Donald Para.
In other news, Marilee Samuelson, director of the Academic Advising Center, attended her final Academic Senate meeting and will retire after 30 years.
“This has been our family. I love this institution,” Samuelson said.
The presentation slides and more information on the budget can soon be found at the Budget Central page.