After announcing a new Student Excellence Fund fee will be added to student tuition for summer and fall 2011, President F. King Alexander spoke in-depth about the new fee and the possibilities of further budget cuts.
Alexander announced a new $94 per semester fee in a campus-wide e-mail sent Feb. 23. The increase is meant to help offset the $500 million proposed reduction for the California State University system due to state budget cuts.
The Student Excellence Fund was based on campus needs and programs that were in jeopardy of being cut completely, like the Multicultural Center and the Beach Learning Community, Alexander said. The new fee is also being used to sustain U-Pass.
“Long Beach Transit needed an additional $200,000 and reduced services during the holidays to keep the U-Pass,” Alexander told the Daily 49er.
After deciding to keep the U-Pass program, Cal State Long Beach backed off plans to build a new parking structure, saving millions of dollars.
A new student advisory group will be appointed to collaborate with Associated Students Inc. and review the results of the funding, Alexander said. The advisory group will be used to determine what programs are more effective and if any adjustments to the funding are necessary.
Some students are not supportive of the new fee because they do not want to pay for programs they are not using, but Alexander said: “[That] is a bad way to look at it. There’s never a good time to increase a fee, but students expect certain things when they come to this university. It’s about supporting the larger campus community.”
In addition, an increase in health care premiums requires an additional $1.5 million, Alexander said.
“We have to come up with $1.5 million to have the same coverage we did this year,” Alexander said. “We have to come up with that no matter what.”
More budget cuts may be on the way depending on the outcome of a June referendum to extend three existing state taxes.
“[If they are not extended,] furloughs, enrollment reductions, January reductions and tuition fees would be on the table,” Alexander said.
Alexander stressed the importance of students voting in June. Without the extension, CSULB will be at risk of going from an 18 percent budget reduction to a 35 percent reduction, he said.
Currently, CSULB is expecting to admit 3,900 freshmen and 3,300 transfer students for fall 2011, Alexander said. However, “if June does not work out, our hands are tied,” he said.
“We have six scenarios we are working on for budget cuts,” Alexander said. The possible budget cuts range from $400 million to a worst-case scenario of $1 billion, which Alexander said he “doesn’t even want to think about.”
If that happens, Alexander said, “Spring semester admission would be out again and fall 2012 would be reduced.”
One of the most worrisome aspects of the financial situation is the continuous uncertainty, Alexander said.
“I get worried that the older generation is going to bail out on the younger generation. They’re losing their connection to the greater good of providing higher education.”
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