Fee raise passed by school, now pending student approval

The proposal to raise college-based fees (CBFs) moved a step forward Thursday when the Campus Fee Advisory Committee (CFAC) passed the proposal. Now it’s up to the students to decide.

As a result of Thursday’s decision, all Cal Poly students will have the opportunity to vote online on March 11 and 12 to decide if the university should raise CBFs to $362 per quarter, an amount deans and administrators say is necessary to maintain the current level of faculty and curriculum.

Although students already pay CBFs in different amounts – currently ranging from $90 to $252 based on their respective colleges – the increase to $362 would apply evenly to every student at the university.

Currently, the amount a student pays in CBFs was assessed by the dean of the college and used to fund instructional necessities within that college such as faculty salaries and laboratory equipment. However, because some colleges have more expensive programs than others, a university-wide increase would mean a portion of a student’s fees might not necessarily be going toward his or her particular college.

Before making their decision, CFAC heard short presentations by the deans for the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Liberal Arts. According to both deans, because of decreased state funding and rising enrollment and inflation, Cal Poly colleges are at risk of drastically reducing their class sections as soon as this fall.

“If it weren’t for CBFs, we would be under water right now,” said College of Science and Mathematics Dean Phil Bailey. “It’s hard to ask students to increase their fees, but I think we stand in the balance now of either remaining a great university or deteriorating. We ask the students to take the responsibility to maintain the value of a Cal Poly diploma and the excellence of a Cal Poly education. We just can’t do it without more resources.”

According to College of Liberal Arts Dean Linda Halisky, 97.7 percent of her budget pays for faculty. She noted that her college has already reduced the assignments of 130 lecturers to the equivalent of over 20 full-time, 45-unit positions.

“We’ve cut our lecturers just about as much as we can cut them and still provide the programs students need to graduate,” she said. As an example, Halisky said the College of Liberal Arts is in danger of losing 20 to 30 sections of General Education Area A courses this fall.

“That will hold everybody up, across the university, in moving toward their degree,” she said. “(The College of Liberal Arts) has about 60 percent of its instruction in general education. Our commitment is to that. We believe those courses are intrinsic to the education of every student at Cal Poly and if we can’t offer them, we’re hurting everybody.”

According to Bailey, the CBF increase would allow the university to continue providing a wider variety of classes, which would allow students the ability to graduate in four years. “The university is pledging to the students that we’re going to be laser-focused on our curriculum; that we’re going to offer the courses that you need. If a new freshman comes to Cal Poly and says he or she wants to graduate in four years, we are going to do everything we can to make that happen.”

Bailey also pointed out that while the fee increase alone translates to $3,600 dollars for a four-year degree, it is still less than the amount a student would pay for an extra quarter because they were not able to get all the classes they needed. One quarter at Cal Poly currently costs a student approximately $6,000 when including fees, books, and room and board.

Unlike the referendum passed by students in 2002 which initiated CBFs, this vote will be held through the Cal Poly Web site for two days and requires participation of at least 38 percent of the student body to pass. Because a referendum would require the vote be pushed to later in the year, the deans proposed this alternative process so they would know by the end of March how many faculty members they need to hire or retain for next year.

The downside to this process is that students have less time to research the budget problem and form an educated opinion.

According to Associated Students Inc. President and CFAC co-Chair Angela Kramer, the real task is getting enough students educated on the subject to achieve the 38 percent turnout. “That is a very ambitious number,” she said. “For the students who aren’t necessarily as involved on campus, or they work full-time, it’s a little more difficult for them to be engaged in that consultation process. But what is good about this (online format) is that all students will have the opportunity to vote on this, regardless of whether they went to the forums or not.”

Kramer said that the university will be sponsoring at least three public forums on the topic, as well as posting unbiased background information and a 30-day schedule listing every opportunity for participation on its college Web sites this week. “Even if you can’t attend a forum, you should be able to self-educate just as easily,” she said.