Cal State System Crippled by Budget Cuts, Chancellor Says

FULLERTON —  California State University Chancellor Barry Munitz said Thursday that the 20-campus system has been so crippled by this year’s round of state budget cuts that it will be unable to serve the same number of students next year unless it gets significantly more money.

Failing that, Munitz said, CSU--the nation’s largest university system with 375,000 students--must consider slashing enrollment and courses at most campuses. He gave no specific figures but said that, in effect, the university will not be able to live up to its mandate under the state Master Plan for Higher Education to offer low-cost, quality education to the top third of California high school graduates.

“If we are to be the gateway to socioeconomic mobility in this state, we have to have the resources to do it,” Munitz told more than 50 faculty and students gathered for his address to Cal State Fullerton’s Academic Senate. “If the state of California wants us to maintain our master plan commitment without the necessary resources, we have to call a halt to enrollment (growth). . . .

“We cannot continue to bear a greater and greater burden without fundamentally affecting the quality of the education (we) deliver.”

Munitz vowed to take his message to Sacramento. He said the governor’s chief education adviser, Maureen DiMarco, has promised to arrange a special meeting with Gov. Pete Wilson, himself and top officials of the University of California and state community college systems.

During his address Thursday, Munitz ticked off the cuts that the 20 campuses have faced this year because state funding for the system fell $60 million below last year’s level, and $414 million below what CSU officials had sought to meet projected enrollment growth and increases in the cost of personnel, equipment and maintenance:

- A total of 868 non-faculty staff positions were eliminated.

- About 1,000 full-time instructors were laid off and another 2,000 part-time lecturers were not rehired.

- More than 3,800 courses were not scheduled or were canceled.

- About $12.5 million in equipment replacement funds were eliminated by the governor.

- No money went toward an estimated $350 million in deferred maintenance costs to fix everything from roofs to cooling and heating systems and elevators across the system.