Colleges Await More Cutbacks This Week
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Orange County’s two state universities are waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued his first round of college funding cuts, totaling more than $50 million. Officials at California State University, Fullerton and the University of California, Irvine say they expect more cutbacks when Schwarzenegger delivers his full budget to the Legislature by Friday.
“So far, the new governor has given us mid-term (UC system) cuts of $30 million and is proposing another $85 million in cuts for next year,” said Roy Dormaier, UC Irvine’s chief budget officer.
Cal State schools lost $23.8 million in funding in December and are expecting mid-year and 2004-2005 cuts in the new budget as well.
“The $23.8 million he was talking about cutting he cut,” said Colleen Bentley-Adler, director of public affairs for the California State University system. “Now we’ll have to take a 1% drop in enrollment.”
OC college officials say they’re waiting to see what the cuts mean for their campuses. UC Irvine gets about $300 million annually from the state, about a third of its budget. Cal State Fullerton gets $150 million from the state yearly, about half of its budget.
“Like with any typical budget, it’s too early to say what the total cuts will be,” UC Irvine’s Dormaier said. “The Legislature can agree with (the governor) or make changes and send those back to him. Some people are very upset with cuts in education and health and welfare. Others are saying, ‘All the cuts are going to be painful, but we need to get started in making the reductions to balance the budget.'”
This past year, Cal State schools saw a $304 million drop in state funding, even before December’s cut to offset the rollback of the state’s vehicle license fee.
For the current school year, the Cal State schools got $2.4 billion from the state, or about half of Long Beach-based university system’s $5 billion budget.
With about 32,000 students, Cal State Fullerton is the fourth-biggest campus in the 23-school Cal State system. Last month, Cal State Fullerton got approval for a $250 million plan to expand dorms, parking and to build a new College of Business and Economics building.
Student fees, which have risen amid the budget crisis, will fund part of the expansion. The Cal State system and state funding will bankroll the new business and economics building and other projects. Some new facilities are contingent on a college construction bond measure, slated for the March ballot.
At UC Irvine, the school’s Dormaier said his campus expects to share cuts with other UC schools on a per-student basis. That means UCI could lose about 10% of the $15.7 million in non-labor institute funding,about $1.6 million.
“It’s a matter of shifting money around and phasing out programs,” Dormaier said. “We’re looking at how to make up the cuts. We have a freeze on hiring currently in effect. We would keep positions vacant, but we’re not taking actions on enrollment at this point in time.”
Dormaier said that the UC system might have to scrap outreach programs.
“There’s not a clear indication what we’re going to do about the summer outreach programs and things like that that we’re planning on,” he said. “We suspect they’re going to try and eliminate all state funding for outreach.”
About two-thirds of outreach funding comes from state coffers. The rest comes from the federal government and individual grants and gifts.
Dormaier said the UC system is girding for even more severe cuts.
“We are worried the total cuts will be much greater,the previous state administration told us to prepare for a 20% cut,” he said. “The university’s budget in round terms is around $3 billion in state funds,20% of that is in the $600 million range. Those are huge, scary numbers.”
UCI had been planning for 50% growth in enrollment in the next decade. But funding issues could prolong those plans, according to Dormaier.
Enrollment this year jumped 2.9% to about 24,500 students,an increase of just 700 students.
