As state leaders in Sacramento chip away at services in attempts to balance a massive budget deficit, education has been one of the first issues brought up to the chopping block.  Here in Long Beach, particular focus has been put on the California State University system as its headquarters and flagship university – Cal State Long Beach – are both located here.  The CSU system today faces its toughest challenge ever – spreading out $584 million in budget cuts across its 23 campuses.  Being one of the system’s largest and most prestigious schools, Cal State Long Beach has had to shoulder its fair share of the burden, losing more than one-fifth of its upcoming year’s budget ($42 million of $200 million from the state is gone).

Classes will be cancelled, faculty will lose resources and students will pay more.  But the losses accrued outside of revenue sheets are the ones that matter.  In a recent op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, CSULB’s own head of geography Vincent J. Del Casino Jr. explains the situation thusly:

Trust me, the faculty can and already does teach with the bare bones. But what happens when there is no money to replace failing technology or retiring experts in our fields? What happens when this institution’s greatest assets — its people — either drift away, demoralized, or are shunted aside as the system downsizes? All because the state can’t manage its affairs and fulfill its own policies and goals.

So what is the cost of gutting the Cal State system? Fewer nurses. Fewer teachers. Fewer engineers. Fewer poets and artists. Fewer film and electronic arts experts. Fewer MBAs. Fewer people to drive the future of California, including fewer geographers trained in my department. These reductions in educated human capital will hit California at a time when the state needs 2 million additional college graduates by the year 2020.

In a recent letter to students, CSULB President F. King Alexander outlined some of the issues facing the university, how they are being dealt with and what it means to the more than 30,000 students who attend class there.  He provides five main courses of action that the university will take in effort to handle the budget slash.

First, enrollment will be reduced from 38,000 to 36,000 students this fall, meaning that acceptance will be more demanding than ever, and many college-bound hopefulls will be turned away. The following year, enrollment will be nearer to 33,000.
 
Second, no students will be accepted during the Spring semester.

Third, student fee increases are very likely. Even for a university consistently ranked among the best values in the nation’s public university system, these fees will be a costly penalty to students.

Fourth, the school plans to have two furlough days per month and will potentially layoff a substantial portion of its faculty.

Fifth, even with the previous four actions, Cal State Long Beach must find $7-9 million more in savings to meet its budget deficit. 

During my time studying at Cal State Long Beach, the issue of tuition increases came up often, and while I sympathized with my classmates who shouted and marched in protest, I believed that the amount I was paying for an education of that quality basically amounted to larceny.  CSU fees are among the lowest in the state while the level of teaching provided is among the best. Compared to my friends attending various UC schools, I was making out like a bandit.

But that was a different story – those fees were raised in order to continue providing a top-notch level of service.  What the CSU has been forced to do to students and faculty because of state budget constraints amounts to charging more for providing less.  It’s a sinkhole that the CSU system may not work itself out of for several years.  In his letter, F, King Alexander says that, “…early discussions regarding next year’s budget (2010-2011) have provided little hope or optimism that these funds will be restored soon.”

That’s unfortunate news for everyone in Long Beach. The College Promise makes it easier than ever for local students to move through LBUSD into LBCC and eventually CSULB, but today they may find that admission is more selective than ever, and that the quality of teaching may not be as high as it once was due to faculty cuts and larger class sizes. The state has dipped its hands into every budget it conceivably could, but this is the one that may cost us all the most down the line.