Q. What led to the budget deficit?
A. The economic downturn combined with state fiscal issues that included failed tax increase referendums created a $564 million deficit for the California State University (CSU) system.
Q. What steps were taken to solve the deficit?
A. The two major steps that were taken to solve the system wide deficit were a 10 percent furlough for full time staff and faculty and two separate fee increases for students. The first fee increase was a 10 percent hike, while the second was 20 percent, which totals a 30 percent increase.
Q. What is a furlough?
A. A furlough is a forced unpaid day off. The California Faculty Association (CFA) and several other unions that work for the CSU system voted to approve a furlough. It will save the CSU system an estimated $275 million by cutting 26 workdays. The furlough made up slightly less than half of the deficit.
Q. How are furloughs going to work?
A. Furloughs will work differently for different people. The library is planning on certain low traffic days to furlough the entire building. Professor furloughs will be handled differently in each department. Some departments are taking furloughs on days that they are not teaching classes, while some departments are doing the exact opposite.
Q. What if I receive financial aid?
A. One third of the second fee increase is to pay for students that cannot afford the increase. Students getting Cal Grants A and B can defer university fee payments for the fall term, because the state might delay the funding of these grants. Students will apply on a case-by-case basis to get short-term loans from the individual CSU campuses. Pell grants will still be given to students who qualify.
Q. Why don’t they just let in more students?
A. The CSU system is actually trying to reduce enrollment by 40,000 students because for every dollar in tuition that students pay, the CSU pays two.
Q. Is a fee increase legal?
A. Two CSU students have sued CSU over the legality of double billing students. There was a similar case in 2005 when the University of California raised fees for students after having already sent a tuition bill. The lawyer that successfully represented the students in 2005 is also representing the CSU students. If the CSU students are successful the over 450,000 students in the CSU system would be eligible for a refund.
Q. What about the College Based Fees?
A. The Chancellor’s office put a hold on the college based fees that students approved last year. It is uncertain when or if the increase will occur.
Q. Could the money allocated for campus construction this summer be used to retain classes and lecturers?
A. The building of a $124 million addition to the Science “Spider” Building and the plan to turn South Perimeter Road into a walking plaza in the fall will be the first to be delayed. There are also no plans for new academic buildings on campus. But work on the Recreation Center and the University Union Plaza will continue as planned.
Both projects use funds that cannot be reallocated to other projects. The gym renovation is being paid for by a student fee increase approved in a 2008 student referendum. The fee increase will not be added until construction is completed, which the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Web site projects to be in 2012. The referendum approved a $71 million bond to be taken out in order to pay for the costs. The funds for the UU remodel are coming from the ASI union reserve fund that can only be used for facilities, said Carl Payne, chair of the University Union Advisory Board.