With a possible $250 million trigger cut lingering over the Cal State University system, the System Wide Budget Advisory Committee came together in May to discuss cost-reduction and revenue-enhancement strategies.
The committee reviewed previously suggested strategies as well as new ones, though it made no decision as to which route would be best for the CSU.
“The ideas we talk about today are … not even suggestions at this point,” Benjamin Quillian, executive vice chancellor and chief financial advisor, said. “They are merely the ideas that come forward.”
The CSU will be facing the trigger cut this fall if November voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure.
However, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Budget Robert Turnage said regardless of the trigger, the CSU has a multi-hundred million dollar budget gap to solve based on the prior cuts.
“The magnitude of the cuts is one thing,” Quillian said. “The speed with which they have happened is another.”
Other members of the CSU community also took part in the meeting, such as representatives from the California Faculty Association and the California State Student Association.
Some of the most discussed topics were increases in class sizes and faculty workload, reductions to enrollment and tuition increases.
Turnage said every percentage point of tuition increase translates into approximately $15 million that can be used for educational programs.
Quillian confirmed that tuition increases would not be the sole source of revenue to cover the $250 million trigger.
Gail Brooks, vice chancellor for human resources in the CSU, said increasing class sizes from 31 to 32 students could save as much as $36 million. However, she said that such an increase could negatively impact faculty in carrying out their full range of professional responsibilities.
Brooks also discussed the reduced enrollment plan for spring and fall 2013, explaining that each one percent of declined enrollment produces a net budget impact of $20 million.
However, CSU spokesman Erik Fallis said reducing enrollment does not necessarily save money but instead “[brings] your enrollment in line with the resources you have.”
Even with discussing potential plans for the budget’s future, the committee dismissed other previously mentioned plans, such as shutting down campuses. Quillian said closing a campus “would be contrary to [the CSU’s] mission.”
Nevertheless, other plans of cutting academic programs and furloughs, which previously reduced expenditures for a year by $270 million, according to Turnage, remain on the table.
Quillian said the CSU cannot wait for the vote on Gov. Brown’s tax measure to make plans for handling such a large trigger.
“If it doesn’t pass, we have to be ready to move,” Quillian said.