CSUN University News Clippings

Opinion: Steve Scauzillo: Budget cuts hammer CSU staff, students

(July 31, 2009)

RIO Hondo College media student Marlene Chavez won a scholarship and was the editor of La Cima Magazine. Yet when she tried to transfer to Cal State Fullerton, she got a conditional acceptance only to their Irvine satellite campus.

CSU Fullerton, traditionally one of the biggest and best state colleges for communications/media, not accepting the best and brightest from local community colleges is a shocking higher education moment. One that is a microcosm of a sea change in higher education taking place in our Valley - and it’s not good news.

The university is reeling from state budget cuts. It is part of the 23 CSUs that were told to cut $584 million this week. Chancellor Charles Reed said that is the largest cut he has seen in his 40 years of government service. “This is nothing short of a mega-meltdown financially,” he said. CSU Fullerton, one of the biggest four-year universities for Whittier-area and San Gabriel Valley students, must absorb $38.7 million.

Administration, faculty and support staff have agreed to take 24 furlough days this year - about a 10 percent pay cut. Students will be paying 30 percent more for tuition this fall - up from what it cost last semester. But that only raises $79 million statewide, not nearly enough to close the gap.

In an attempt to put a human face on a number in the state budget, I spoke to several employees - both faculty and others - at Cal State Fullerton this week on background. Mostly, there’s anxiety and fear. No one knows how furloughs will happen, or how they will affect students. Full disclosure: I am an adjunct faculty at the school and I don’t know if or how furloughs will affect part-timers. But I do know that university staff work hard as do the students who attend these schools. And I believe that cuts, furloughs and fee hikes could inflict damage that will have a lasting negative impact.

“I know some people in my division who are hoping furloughs will be on Fridays and Mondays,” one employee told me. Why, so they could have a four-day weekend, I asked?

“No. So they can get a part-time job,” was the sobering answer. These are white collar workers at CSUF who are looking to add waiting at tables or retail sales work to feed their families.

Some say the university would shut down two days a month. But that would mean cancelling classes on those days, an option CSU Fullerton or Cal Poly Pomona may choose next spring if class schedules are adjusted.

Many told me the old mandate, helping students complete bachelors degrees in four years, is now out the window. Students will have fewer classes to choose from and will stay in school longer. At nearly $5,000 a year (not including books, room and board), that will add up.

CSUF is taking 1,200 fewer students this fall and has already closed admissions for spring 2010. The CSUs will accept 40,000 fewer students over the next two years - a shutting of the doors on California’s next generation workforce.

My opinion? I wish cuts would land as far from the classroom as possible. CSU presidents should cut the student affairs budgets and close the recreation centers. Why not jettison university police departments and contract with local law enforcement, as many K-12 school districts have done (i.e. Pasadena Unified).

The we’re-all-in-this-together mentality is a pride booster. And furloughs are better than layoffs. But perhaps the fringe services that most students don’t use can be trimmed.

As for Marlene Chavez, she’s planning on going to Chapman University - a do-able move for some with scholarships, grants and loans, but one that most students from our area simply could not afford. For those students, it just became a lot harder to pay for college - if they can get in.

steve.scauzillo@sgvn.com

Steve Scauzillo is opinion page editor.

Publication: San Gabriel Valley Tribune