CSUN University News Clippings

Colleges call on lawmakers for budget relief

(June 2, 2009)

By Matt Krupnick
Published: 6/1/09

Higher-education leaders and scores of college students flocked to Sacramento on Monday to plead with lawmakers for budget relief.

The heads of California’s three public college and university systems asked legislators for help dealing with billions of dollars in cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The institutions need control over where to cut, they said, and the schools need answers soon.

“Give us the number we have to live with and give it to us as soon as possible,” Charles Reed, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, told a legislative budget committee. “Our schools open in August.”

Higher education would be hit hard by Schwarzenegger’s proposal, driven primarily by a deficit of more than $23 billion and declining tax dollars. Besides more than $1 billion in cuts to the three systems, the governor also has proposed eliminating new Cal Grants for 118,000 students this year and nearly all state money for San Francisco’s Hastings College of the Law.

Community colleges, which already receive significantly less funding per student than either university, could be forced to turn away hundreds of thousands of students. State Chancellor Jack Scott said Monday that more cuts would bring some smaller colleges to the brink of bankruptcy.

And University of California President Mark Yudof predicted that far fewer students would be able to attend the 10-campus system if the Cal Grant cuts took effect.

Years of budget reductions have created irreparable damage to the state, Yudof said.

“We need to arrest this race to the bottom,” he said, calling on a phrase used recently by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The hearing attracted students from around the state, many of whom shared stories about using community colleges to overcome drug abuse and other troubles.

Three-quarters of military veterans who return to school do so at a community college, said Troy Carter, a veteran who graduated from a Sacramento college last week. Proposed cuts would prevent veterans from integrating back into society, he said.

“Returning combat veterans will not have the same opportunities I had,” Carter said.

Several lawmakers and college leaders raised the possibility of fee increases at the community colleges. California’s two-year schools cost $600 per year for full-time students, far less than in other states.

Because of improved federal financial aid, California’s fees could be tripled without affecting most students, said Steve Boilard, higher-education chief for the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Several speakers cautioned against sharp increases, however, reminding lawmakers that past hikes have led to enrollment declines.

“The fee increases (would be) disastrous to us,” said Ed Murray, a faculty leader at City College of San Francisco.

Publication: Contra Costa Times