Five Reasons To Support the Compact - The "right agreement at the right time"

The compact carries out the Master Plan's central tenets of quality, access, and affordability for the CSU. Quality: Restores system base funding levels. Access: Provides funding for a minimum of 2.5 percent enrollment growth per year. Affordability: Calls for gradual, predictable, and moderate fee increases. The compact restores the state's Master Plan commitment to funding higher education. Last year the legislature approved a budget trailer bill that directed the CSU to cap enrollment in the upcoming academic year. The final budget also included an additional $84.5 million cut to the CSU, including $15 million that was made without warning. The compact sets a floor, not a ceiling for the CSU's annual budget. Nothing stops the CSU from requesting more funding, or the legislature or the governor from providing more funding. Under the compact, the legislature retains their role in the development of the budget. The compact gives campuses the flexibility to plan for the year ahead. The budget year and academic year are not in alignment. We need to admit students and hire faculty members before a new budget is signed. This agreement will allow us to make those decisions with confidence. The compact will minimize the need for faculty and staff layoffs. At least two of our campuses – Hayward and Humboldt – have said that the compact’s promise of future funding may minimize their need to do staff layoffs this year.