At the last CSU Board of Trustees meeting, the requested budget for the 2007-08 school year was passed. The budget included the request for no student fee increases. However, the budget still needs to pass through many more processes.
“This is all based on state funding,” said Paul Browning, media relations specialist for the CSU Chancellor’s Office. “Less funding leads to an increase in fees.”
The budget includes not only a request for a lack of increase in student fees, but also more money for salary increases and money for special programs in the California education system, Browning said.
“We want to make sure you are getting the best education possible, and so do you,” he said. “If you increase faculty salaries, you get better instruction.”
The current proposed budget must go through many steps, said Debbie Brothwell, the director of budget and analytic business services at Cal Poly.
“This is just a budget request to the state,” she said. “The governor’s comes out in the May revision and then the final budget is in July.”
The budget must go along with the governor’s compact agreement made to keep the numbers predictable, Brothwell said.
The numbers should reflect room for a 2.5 percent enrollment increase, which is an additional 11,000 students total in the CSU system, Browning said.
“Right now, none of the numbers are specific to Cal Poly,” Brothwell said.
Some of the money is to go towards the Board of Trustees’ “priorities,” Browning said. These include programs for K-12 math, science and special education, he said.
The CSU system takes most of its students from California, so they are trying to use these programs to reach out to high school students, Browning said.
Currently, there are negotiations with the faculty association to increase all salaries by 25 percent, Browning said.
Though the costs of education seem to be high, Browning said they aren’t that bad.
“If you compare the CSU to a university, we are one of the best deals in town,” he said.
The changes in the current proposed budget will all depend on the climate and state revenues, Brothwell said.
“It really depends on if the state still has a deficit,” she said.
So why do increases happen every year even if the budget doesn’t call for them? Necessity, Brothwell said.
“Every year the price will increase a little bit because of the cost of living,” she said. “There is something called the higher price index that states how much fees can increase by each year.”
Browning said students should care about the budget.
“It’s all about them,” he said.