Budget cuts will cost Poly 500 students

Less money in the state budget translates to less money for the university’s operating costs, an administrator says

By Nick Wilson

Cal Poly will enroll 500 fewer freshmen in 2008-09 in anticipation of a tighter budget, university President Warren Baker said Tuesday at a media gathering.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week called for $312 million in budget cuts to the California State University system as part of his proposed 2008-09 state budget.

Cal Poly typically receives about 6 percent of the budget distributed among the 23 CSU campuses, Baker said.

University officials pointed out that the state budget still needs to go through the legislative process, which ultimately requires lawmakers’ approval by a two-thirds majority vote. So the amount of funding is undetermined officially.

This year’s freshman class at Cal Poly has 4,369 students, officials said. The university was surprised by the high number of students who accepted their admission offers. The university enrolled about 19,770 students as of last fall.

Cal Poly’s standard for admission for next year will include higher grades and test scores, Baker said, and fewer offers will be made. Incoming freshmen this year had an average grade-point average of 3.71.

“Budget reductions mean less funding and less access to education,” Baker said.

Larry Kelley, Poly’s vice president for administration and finance, said less money in the state budget translates to less money for the university’s operating costs.

Fewer students could mean fewer classes—and thus fewer faculty members than this year. Eighty percent of the university’s budget goes to salary for faculty and other employees.

But Kelley said cutting classes is not a given, and a smaller freshman class could lead to lower costs for all student-related operations, including things such as utility bills, the campus police force and food service.

Despite the expected decrease in enrollment, the university still should fill its new student housing complex, Baker said. The university expects to make new beds available to more than 1,000 students in September after an initial phase is finished, Baker said.

The project, which is expected to be completed by fall 2009, will bring nearly 2,700 new beds to Cal Poly’s student residence program, allowing the university to house about one-third of its current total enrollment.

Meanwhile, cuts in the state budget also have Cal Poly officials seeking alternate funding sources for projects on campus, including state and federal grants and private donations and partnerships.

In his Tuesday talk, Baker said the university is hoping California voters will pass a statewide bond measure expected to be on the November ballot that would provide funding for public school facilities.

If it passes, $100 million would be allocated to Cal Poly for new science facilities.

That project, which would upgrade deteriorating buildings, is estimated to cost about $127 million, university officials said. The university has about $30 million now for the project.

Kelley estimated the university’s budget consists of about 70 percent state funding, with the rest from other sources.