Punitive Enrollment Language

CSU Response to Proposed Budget Bill Language

Enrollment

The proposed language stipulates that all enrollment served by CSU during the 2008/09 college year will be considered fully funded by the State, even if actual enrollment exceeds the funded enrollment target for full-time equivalent resident students in the budget bill.

This language departs from long-standing budget policy that recognizes the State’s obligation to appropriate marginal cost funding for all enrollment the university is authorized to serve. The proposed language would impact campuses’ ability to use one-time funding or class space availability to provide additional access that satisfies student demand during the fiscal year. It is anticipated that CSU campuses will provide access to university instruction to 4,500 full-time equivalent students above the resident student enrollment level funded by the State in 2008-09. On a headcount basis, this estimate would include approximately

• 2,630 first-time freshmen
• 2,030 transfers
• 1,025 first-time graduates and postbaccalaureates

The funding loss to CSU that is foreshadowed by the budget bill language is about $37 million annually beginning in 2009-10. That money, if made available by the state in 2009-10, would be used to provide permanent access to this number of  students by hiring 245 new tenure-track faculty (roughly 60% of available funds), increasing student academic and support services such as libraries and counseling and career guidance by over $8 million, supporting admissions and financial aid processing as well as maintaining classroom and laboratory space, and purchasing instructional equipment to provide the highest quality of instructional support. If this funding is denied in 2009-10--which the budget bill language essentially promises—the university will be unable to do any of the above. Instead, CSU will be on the horns of a dilemma: either to (1) lower the number of students served to a total consistent with state support or (2) see an inevitable erosion of program quality for all students by trying to serve students that are not supported by state funds.

The impact of this State funding loss by campus is displayed in Table 1. We estimate that 62% of these new students would be first-time freshmen and graduate/postbaccalaureate students. The remaining 38% would be undergraduate and graduate transfers, many of whom CSU is required to admit once they have fully met the eligibility requirements for community college transfers.

TABLE 1: CSU Enrollment and Funding Impact for 4,500 Full-Time Equivalent Student (FTES) Enrollment Estimate Above Funded Targets for 2008/09

(Enrollment distribution based on 2007/08 projected campus over-enrollment and Fall 2007 enrollment pattern of new students)

Approximately 55% of this student enrollment will come from student populations in traditionally underserved communities.  CSU outreach activity that has successfully increased applications and admissions from these student groups will be undermined if the proposed budget bill language is enacted.  The potential impact at each of the CSU campuses is displayed in Table 2.

TABLE 2: Potential Impact of Proposed Budget Bill Language Limiting Student Access in 2008/09 by Student Ethnicity

(Enrollment distribution based on Fall 2007 enrollment pattern of new students. The table identifies the number of students from traditionally underserved communities who may be affected by a decision to no longer fund enrollment growth that exceeds budget year targets.)