Universities, community colleges face nearly $270 million in cuts
Saturday December 07, 2002By JENNIFER COLEMAN
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO (AP) Officials with the state's public colleges and universities warned they may have to offer fewer courses and consider fee increases as a result of midyear spending cuts proposed by Gov. Gray Davis.
Under the plan announced Friday, the state will reduce its spending by $10.2 billion over the next 18 months. The cuts will remove $74 million from the University of California's current budget of almost $4 billion and $60 million from the California State University system, which has an annual budget of almost $3 billion.
Chancellor Charles B. Reed on Friday called a Dec. 16 special meeting of the CSU governing board to determine how to meet its 2002-03 operating budget given Davis' proposal.
``This year is a problem. Next year could be a catastrophe,'' Reed said in a written statement. ``We do however expect to accommodate our student enrollment for the remainder of this year, and will make every effort to honor our commitment to students to provide classes and services.''
The CSU had been anticipating the budget crunch and had cautioned CSU presidents to be prudent with spending, and encouraged them to maintain a reserve by instituting partial hiring freezes, excluding full-time faculty, and not entering into major contracts.
The trustees were expected to analyze the CSU's expected revenue and projected expenses to determine if possible fee increases would be needed.
``It is with great reluctance that we are considering even a modest student fee increase,'' said UC President Richard C. Atkinson. ``But we must look to a package of solutions if we are to ensure that students continue to have access to the classes they need to graduate on time.''
Davis' Education Secretary Kerry Mazzoni said the state aims to keep fees low, but ``even a small fee increase would still keep California the most affordable state for higher education.''
The cuts proposed for the state's community college system total $200 million over 18 months, and $135 million of that is from the system's current $6.2 billion budget.
For the Los Rios Community College system, with 75,000 students on three Sacramento-area campuses, that translates to cuts of approximately $8 million, said Chancellor Brice Harris.
``It means we won't be able to offer courses to meet student demand,'' he said. ``At a time when the state is in a recession and people are flocking to community colleges, that certainly is a challenging situation.''
Tom Nussbaum, chancellor of the California Community College system, said the cuts will translate into ``increased class sizes, reduced offerings and deferring purchases of equipment'' at the 103 campuses statewide.
``It's bad. It's not my worst nightmare. Coming midyear, that's very tough. But given a $21 billion shortfall, I could foresee it being a nightmare,'' Nussbaum said.
In previous recessions, the system has seen the loss of hundreds of thousands of students, he said.
``When we hit these down-cycles in the economy, we have floods of students come to our door, right at the time when the state cannot afford to fund us,'' Nussbaum said.
On the Net:
Read the state budget at http://www.dof.ca.gov
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