| Recapturing the Promise of California's
Higher Education Master Plan
 The
California State University (CSU) is a higher education leader
with a massive impact throughout the state of California and
beyond. Its 40,000 faculty and staff educate more than 400,000
students in 23 communities and seven targeted regional sites
throughout California. Each year, 77,000 CSU graduates go
on to excel in the state’s economic, political, and
civic organizations and enterprises, and in the nation’s
workforce. The university shares in the economic stability
of the cities it serves, provides a cadre of students to assist
in community services, and has educated over 200 current political
leaders and administrative staff in the state capitol.
The CSU provides higher education access to over 100,000 students
from low-income households and assists approximately 400,000
students in California high schools to identify and acquire
the improvements needed in math and reading skills to succeed
in college. The university secures over $300 million in external
resources through partnerships with federal, state, and private
enterprises that support applied research educational programs
in areas such as agriculture, biotechnology, and marine studies
that directly benefit California’s economy and workforce.
The CSU works in concert with the community colleges and the
University of California to provide the most cost effective
educational opportunities for students and their families—by
spearheading efforts to create joint-doctoral programs, securing
uniformity in the articulation of courses, and counseling
students to reduce the number of excess units transferred
to and/or acquired at the university. The CSU reviews the
marketplace to ensure its workers are paid fairly and competitively,
its students are charged fees judiciously, and its incentives
to attract and retain faculty, staff, and students comply
with the vision, mission, and goals established by California’s
higher education master plan.
The CSU is a forward-thinking institution that builds on
the past to establish long-range goals for the future. We
look not only after the needs of the students we currently
serve but at the requirements of the students we will serve
in the future.
For 2005/06, we seek to recapture the historic vision for
higher education the state of California embraced over four
decades ago and to move forward with an aggressive plan of
action to expand the quality of instructional services to
the students of the California State University. Californians
rank education as the highest expenditure priority in the
state, and view higher education as the most important factor
in keeping the economy strong and growing and the quality
of life vibrant and nurturing. The state honors these values
by supporting and preserving one of the nation’s finest
institutions for baccalaureate and postbaccalaureate education.
The CSU, in turn, provides a quality-driven educational experience
defined by learner-centered programs and services, and outcome-based
accountability.
 The
CSU has joined with the governor in developing a compact for
higher education that establishes a funding base from which
thoughtful and deliberate planning for the future can occur.
We will develop annual budget blueprints that methodically
address long-range goals to meet demand for access, pay competitive
wages, keep instruction affordable, assist students with need,
and eliminate structural deficiencies in facilities infrastructure,
learning and research materials, and instructional equipment.
We will work with the legislature to ensure the minimum needs
to keep the university operating are funded, and to acquire
the funding support for CSU programs that keep the state’s
economy prosperous, its workforce well-trained, the influx
of credentialed teachers high, the cost of providing services
low, the qualified student body diverse, academic preparation
and outreach services accessible, and the time it takes to
progress to degree relevant to the needs of the multitude
of students we serve.
The budget plan prepared for the 2005/06 fiscal year is the
first in a series of university funding proposals that will
be aligned with the state’s recovery from several years
of fiscal deficits. It is based on revenue commitments in
the compact agreement and budget priorities that will increase
the CSU’s ability to respond to enrollment demand and
program demand in areas critical to California’s workforce.
It defines a fair-share cost of education based on a reasonable
expectation of students’ ability to pay. It is responsive
to issues defined by CSU constituencies as important to the
quality of the educational experience.
In 2005/06, we begin our recovery from three years of budget
decline by addressing four core areas important to CSU access
and quality:
- Mandatory costs that must be paid to avoid the deterioration
of existing programs;
- Salary increases that keep wages competitive, workers
motivated, and productivity high;
- Enrollment funding that provides access to the university,
the courses and services students need to achieve degree objectives,
and the financial assistance required to mitigate costs for
students with need; and
- Structural funding support that eradicates permanently
some of the CSU’s accumulated deficiency in building
maintenance and repair, library materials, instructional equipment
used in classrooms and laboratories, and technology infrastructure
that assists the delivery of instructional and institutional
(financial, human resources, and student) services.
 We
can satisfy these core requirements with the revenue commitments
made possible by the compact agreement, which is discussed
in greater detail with the 2005/06 budget plan. By addressing
these four concerns within the framework of the compact, the
CSU will begin the legislative budget process focused aggressively
on other critical funding priorities that move us closer to
achieving the long-range goals established for the university.
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