Cal State Long Beach faculty and staff assembled at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Aug. 26 to hear President F. King Alexander and Provost Donald J. Para discuss the challenges facing the Cal State University system, among other topics.
CSULB received 70,000 applications for admissions — 40,000 of them being from first-time freshmen, which is the second most applications in the state next to the University of California, Los Angeles, according to Para.
Para also addressed the budget, explaining that, in addition to the previous $40 million in budget cuts, CSULB could also face a loss of an additional $8 million if the state of California does not bring in its estimated revenue.
Despite the decreased amount of state support funding a handful of new faculty members were hired for the 2011-2012 school year. Para emphasized that these new teachers were hired because the university needed them.
In spite of budget cuts, Para said that enrollment has risen and that the university will support a fairly normal number of classes. CSULB students also continue to graduate with some of the lowest amount of debt in the country, according to Para.
“[CSULB] shows some of the strongest graduation rates for Pell grant recipients and under represented/minority students,” Para said.
According to Alexander, private universities in California receive 30 percent of Pell grants and financial aid, but these schools also make up 50 percent of student loan defaults.
While Alexander was in Washington over the summer, advocating keeping Pell grants, he said he was upset to hear many refer to Pell grants as “student welfare.”
“Society wants the value of an educated society, but wants to shift the burden of cost to the individual who receives it,” Alexander said.
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