California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a state budget Tuesday, that made official the $3 billion cut to the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems.
In addition to faculty furloughs finalized Wednesday, the CSU Board of Trustees voted to increase student fees by 20 percent on July 21. This fee increase is on top of a 10 percent fee increase that was already approved. One-third of the fee increase will go financial aid.
Brian Ferguson, communications specialist for the CFA, said “This budget crisis has been a very painful experience for students.”
With the increased student fees, quarterly tuition for Cal Poly students will be $2,066 — which totals at $6,198 in a three-quarter school year, not including summers.
This amount is higher than the $4,827 CSU average, but still lower than the UC average of $8,700.
Cal Poly’s tuition is also lower than other polytechnic universities like Cal Tech, which will see tuition of $33,324 in 2009-01 and Virginia Tech, which has an annual tuition of $8,604.
The chancellor’s office also announced an enrollment freeze for spring quarter July 9 that would help reduce enrollment by 35,000. The chancellor’s goal is to reduce enrollment by a total of 40,000 students for the 2010-2011 academic year.
A few infrastructure projects at Cal Poly will be put on hold as a result of the deficit, including a $124 million upgrade of the science “spider” building and the project to turn South Perimeter Road into a plaza in the fall.
Projects like the $71 million Rec Center remodel and the $3.1 million University Union Plaza renovation will continue because the projects use funds that cannot be used for academics.
Koob said there is no way to reallocate the money in light of the current budget situation.
“The fact is that it’d be illegal to spend it anywhere else,” Koob said.
Cal Poly’s current $226 million budget will see a cut of about $33 million, which is a 15 percent cut for the 2009-10 school year.
Lauren Rabaino, Katie McIntyre and Tim Miller contributed to this report.
It’s too bad students are facing another round of fee increases. Especially when it’s not necessary.
What the students need to know is this. The reason the State of California is facing its budget problems is due to the compensation packages paid to state employees (including all of Cal Poly’s employees) and the fact that the public employee unions representing virtually all state workers are holding the taxpayer hostage. Of course state employees will deny this position but here are the facts and they are accurate:
A public employee is paid roughly the same amount as a private sector employee BUT while the private sector employee must pay 100% for their retirement, the public employee must only pay 8%. Further, the private sector employee must work until age 67 to get social security while the public employee must only work 30 years then they cash in on a retirement that in most cases is 90% of their working salary.
Here’s how the numbers pencil out:
Public employee – makes $60,000 per year, pays 8% into their pension plan and upon retirement (roughly in their early 50s) has a pension waiting for them of $54,000 per year plus full benefits until they die.
Private sector employee – makes $60,000 per year, pays 6% into social security. Must work 15 years longer to receive full social security benefits at age 67, receives $20,000 per year from social security, must pay for their medical and make up the difference between themselves and the public sector employee with personal savings.
In summary, the private sector employee would need to be paid $200,000 per year so they’d make enough to save (after taxes) the additional $30,000 per year the public sector employee is receiving in retirement for which they’ve paid next to nothing.
Students should know, it’s the public sector employee that’s causing their fees to increase, parks to close, social services to be cut. These are the facts and they can’t be denied.
What gets me is that one-third of the fee increase will go financial aid, which means they raised the fees for only some of the students– those not eligible for financial aid (the ones on financial aid aren’t going to be affected).