Budgetary Challenges

The CSU received General Fund increases in fiscal year 2005/06 consistent with the Governor/CSU Higher Education Compact. This increase followed three years of budget reductions that critically constricted the university’s ability to fulfill its Master Plan mission. In 2005/06 and 2006/07, the Compact’s budget language provides a General Fund increase of 3 percent above the prior year’s base to prevent erosion of competitive faculty and staff salaries, health benefits, maintenance, inflation, and other general operating requirements at the CSU. In 2007/08 through 2010/11, the Compact increases funding support by an additional 1 percent for general operations. Beginning in 2008/09 and through 2010/11, the Compact will also provide a 1 percent increase above the prior year’s base to address long-term deficiencies. The CSU will use this budgetary support to address a number of budgetary challenges.

Two challenges that are discussed in prior sections of this 2006/07 Support Budget Documentation book are:

1. Long-Term Budget Need ($101.3 million)—The 2006/07 budget plan funds $10 million for longterm needs to reduce $101.3 million in annual deficiency. Long-term deficiencies have been previously discussed in this document.



2. Marginal Cost Calculation Review/Adjust Graduate FTES Unit Load ($26.2 million)—One of the CSU’s proposals to revise the marginal cost funding methodology for enrollment growth is to change graduate student full-time equivalency from 15 units per term to 12 units per term. A total of $26.2 million is required to fund the lower unit conversion that includes $24.2 million for base graduate student enrollment and $2 million for 2006/07 graduate student enrollment growth. Additional information is provided in the review section on marginal cost enrollment funding.

The following discusses additional budget challenges that have been identified for 2006/07.

Five-Year Salary Lag Funding ($315.4 MILLION)

The inability of the university to offer compensation increases that keep pace with the annual rise in inflation or increases within the state and national marketplace erodes the CSU’s ability to attract and retain a highly motivated and qualified workforce. There are critical salary-related concerns within a number of CSU classifications that require special attention in the bargaining process if the CSU is to successfully negotiate contracts in the years ahead. The current 2004 salary lags based on the California Postsecondary Education Commission’s (CPEC) 20 comparison institutions was 13.1 percent for faculty and 49.5 percent for executives. Also, CSU Human Resources salary studies identify salary lags for most staff employee classifications. Employee salary lags were exacerbated due to lack of funding for adequate compensation increases between 2001/02 and 2004/05, inclusive.

The table above compares the U.S. Department of Labor’s changes in employment salaries and wages with CSU compensation increases during that period.

In fall 2005, the CSU Board of Trustees reviewed the current salary lags and recommended addressing the problem over a five-year period. It was further recommended that the approach taken to address the lags consider funding provided in the Compact and any additional revenue necessary to address the identified lags. To address faculty, staff, and management salary lags, the board instructed staff to develop a five-year strategic budget plan beginning in 2006/07 that reduces salary lags to zero. The CSU 2006/07 budget request includes the first year of salary lag funding as indicated in the compensation section. For 2006/07 through 2010/11, the CSU budget plans include a 3 percent base compensation increase. The table that follows identifies compensation funding that would be provided above the 3 percent base increase to reduce faculty and staff salary lags:

As indicated by the five-year plan, it will take $425.2 million to ensure that CSU base salaries do not fall further behind those of national comparative institutions. It will take another $315.4 million to address the salary lag over the next five years in an effort to close the salary gap and attract the most qualified workforce while competing nationally to fill all future positions within the CSU.

Initiative To Facilitate Graduation ($8.9 MILLION)

The CSU’s most important contribution to the state and its economic vitality is its graduates. In College Year 2004/05, the CSU awarded a total of 83,988 degrees that included 66,768 bachelor’s degrees, 17,167 master’s degrees, and 53 doctoral degrees (via joint programs with the UC or independent California universities). These individuals left the university ready to participate in all aspects of California’s society and economy as workers, taxpayers, voters, community leaders, and agents of social progress.

The CSU continues to pursue increasing the number of graduates by lessening the time to degree. Some of this expanded capability can be accomplished by embracing new efficiencies. To that end, the CSU Board of Trustees has set forth a three-part Graduation Initiative.

The first element of the Graduation Initiative is providing a clear signal to 11th-graders as to their readiness for college work in English and mathematics. Based on the results of the Early Assessment Program, students in the 12th grade can take the right courses to gain full proficiency upon entry to the CSU as freshmen. Avoiding remediation means avoiding classes that do not count toward the degree. Student time and the added expense to the CSU can be saved.

The second element of the Graduation Initiative is providing community college students clarified and improved pathways to their CSU undergraduate major. The Lower Division Transfer Patterns (LDTP) project will identify best course-taking patterns for these students while they are still at community college. The duplication of courses can therefore be avoided in student study plans both at the community college and at their CSU campus. Again, student time and the added expense to the CSU can be saved.

The third element of the Graduation Initiative is “Campus Actions to Facilitate Graduation.” The CSU Board of Trustees has set forth an action plan that relies upon a series of 22 enumerated strong practices and recommended or required campus actions. The goals are strengthened advising, better support for learning specific academic content, improved tailoring of class schedules to student needs, social and academic peer support, and an orientation to the goal of graduation.

Budget challenges flow from all three elements of the Graduation Initiative.The Early Assessment Program relies on administering, scoring, and providing the results of a test to California public high school 11th-graders. It relies as well on partnering with high schools to introduce fresh curriculum, especially in English, that is better tailored to equip high school students to meet college expectations.The CSU further provides professional development to high school teachers, ensuring that their goals for student learning match the CSU’s expectations.Testing, curriculum development, and professional development for teachers constitute serious budget challenges.

For its part, the Lower Division Transfer Patterns program will require fresh articulation of community college course offerings to elaborated and refreshed course outlines developed by statewide faculty disciplinary groups. It will require modifications to key Internet-based outreach mechanisms including CSUMentor, ASSIST, CaliforniaColleges.org, and others. Articulation and related faculty and staff work together with modifications to Web applications constitute additional budget challenges.

On the campuses, where Campus Actions to Facilitate Graduation will be implemented, requirements include installing or modifying sophisticated information systems to support student study plans, degree audits, and related tools for advising and class schedule construction; the development, testing, and deployment of support mechanisms for student learning (both technology based and otherwise); and the reconsideration and refreshment of policies and practices surrounding orientation, declaration of majors, repetition of courses, and similar items. Taken together, campuses will experience budgetary challenges in seeking to implement strong practices in these areas where not now found, and in freshly emphasizing and deploying the strong practices where they currently exist. The reassignment of some faculty and the hiring of student service professionals and interns will be required to accomplish these things.

Implementation of the CSU’s Initiative to Facilitate Graduation will require $8.9 million.

Increasing Bachelor Of Science In Nursing (BSN) Graduates ($3.0 MILLION)

Each year, California’s demand for nurses exceeds the number of students who are prepared to enter the nursing workforce. By the year 2010, over 47,000 additional nurses will be needed to serve California’s population. Currently, California’s institutions of higher education graduate only 6,000 nurses annually. To meet demand, California higher education will need to graduate at least 9,000 additional nurses for a total of 15,000 nurses annually. In 2003/04, only 15 to 20 percent of students seeking admission to CSU clinical nursing programs could be accommodated due to limited numbers of qualified faculty, facilities, and clinical placement opportunities in health care facilities. The California State University is eager to increase the number of students it prepares for careers in nursing.

To help meet California’s demand for qualified nurses, the California State University proposes to expand capacity for students applying for admission to the CSU’s basic/generic BSN program and to implement an accelerated baccalaureate program for students who already possess a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree in fields other than nursing. Admission under each of these two programs will prepare students for the registered nurse licensure exam and a bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN).

Students admitted to the basic/generic BSN program will follow the traditional path to the degree established by CSU Schools of Nursing. The accelerated BSN program will be a full-time, foursemester, year-round educational experience with course work that can begin as early as 2006/07. The program would begin in summer 2006 because summer provides for greater availability of faculty and, in some cases, clinical placements. At the conclusion of the accelerated program, students will take the RN licesure exam and be available to enter the workforce full time as baccalaureate-prepared registered nurses. The combined program to increase the number of BSN graduates will require an additional $3.0 million as further described below.

The 2006/07 CSU marginal cost of instruction methodology calculation yields:

• A gross marginal cost rate for instruction of $8,592 per annual FTES; and,



• A state General Fund cost of $6,340 per FTES (which equals the gross marginal cost per FTES minus student fee revenue per FTES calculated in accordance with the approved methodology).

The CSU marginal cost of instruction is premised on a budgeted SFR (student-to-faculty ratio) of 18.9:1.

Nursing instruction is considerably more costly than almost any other disciplinary instruction in the CSU. The CSU publishes information about actual disciplinary instruction offered and disciplinary indicators analogous to SFRs in its annual
CSU Statistical Abstract.

The increased cost for undergraduate BSN nursing instruction is $2,482 ($11,074 - $8,592), which would increase the state General Fund marginal cost rate to $8,822 ($6,340 + $2,482) per FTES for students enrolled in basic or accelerated BSN programs.

The CSU requests $3 million for fiscal year 2006/07 at the required state marginal cost rate of $8,822 per FTES to provide instruction for an additional 340 annual FTES in undergraduate nursing programs.

Iincreasing The Percentage Of Tenured And Tenure-Track Faculty (ACR 73) ($35.8 Million First-Year Costs)

In May 2001, the legislature passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution 73 (ACR 73), which urged the CSU, the CSU Academic Senate, and the California Faculty Association to develop a plan to increase the percentage of tenured and tenure-track faculty over eight years. In response to that resolution, a plan to achieve the goal of at least 75 percent tenured/tenure-track faculty and 25 percent temporary faculty was developed and forwarded to the members of the state senate and the state assembly, the governor, the director of the Department of Finance, and others in July 2002.

The plan identified the funding requirements to recruit and pay new tenured/tenure-track faculty to achieve the goals identified in ACR 73. In addition, an integral part of the plan to successfully recruit more tenuretrack faculty to the CSU was the phased reduction in the SFR from 19:4 at the time the plan was developed down to a ratio of 18:0.

Given the difficulty of attracting new faculty to CSU campuses in many parts of the state, the eight-year plan was believed to be challenging, but achievable. It identified the need to conduct from 1,800 to 2,000 faculty searches per year over the eight-year period. With adequate funding, the plan was structured to achieve an annual increase of 1.5 percent in the tenured/tenure-track faculty percentage and an annual decrease in the SFR of approximately 0.15 per year.

To achieve the goals of the plan, a current estimated $35.8 million would be required in year one, followed by additional increases in each subsequent year over the eight-year implementation.

Mathematics And Science Teachers Iniitiative ($2.645 MILLION)

The California State University requests $1.365 million to recruit and train between 150 and 200 added credential candidates in the CSU’s mathematics and science teacher credential programs in 2006/07. The CSU is appropriated $250,000 in 2005/06 for purposes of program development and administration. The CSU will also add $1.28 million from enrollment growth funding received in 2006/07 to support the mathematics and science program expansion effort.

The CSU currently prepares 60 percent of the state’s elementary and secondary teachers, and is in a unique position to be able to help address this critical need in the state’s public schools. In response to the state’s need, Chancellor Reed has set a goal for the CSU to double the number of current math and science teacher credential candidates (748) by the year 2010.

Recognizing the magnitude of the challenge, the CSU has developed a multifaceted program to tap all possible sources of math and science teacher credential candidates and provide each with an educational pathway to earning a credential. The overall program has four broad elements:

• Growth in the Credential Program Pathways
• Recruitment and Academic Support
• Public Information Campaign
• Program Administration

Growth in the Math and Science Credential Program Pathways

The CSU will expand its capacity in math and science teacher education by building on existing programs and offering new ones. Rather than relying on a single program model, the CSU will expand multiple pathways, each one designed to serve a targeted group of potential math and science teaching candidates. Each of the CSU’s 23 campuses will build an approach that includes a mix of the following expedited credential pathways:

• Math and Science Integrated/Blended Programs for Undergraduates: Integrated/blended programs allow community college transfer students and early deciders to earn a bachelor’s degree and a teaching credential in just over four years rather than the traditional five-year baccalaureate plus one year of post-baccalaureate teacher education.



• Field-based,Technology-infused Programs: This pathway targets career changers and traditional students who may earn a credential by working at a school under university and district supervision while concurrently engaged in a Web-based, integrated program of professional study. This program is modeled after the CalStateTEACH program that has been operating for more than five years. Students following this pathway will not take courses on campus and typically complete their post-baccalaureate program in 16 to 18 months.



• Internship Programs: This pathway allows those who have already earned a baccalaureate degree and subject matter qualifications to teach while enrolled in a campus-based credential program. The length of the program will be one to two years (full- or part-time) post-baccalaureate.



• Credential Enhancement Pathways: Campuses will identify new populations of potential candidates who could be attracted to math and science teaching careers (e.g., career changers or candidates pursuing education credentials in nonmath/ science areas) and create new routes for credentialed teachers to convert to mathematics or science with supplemental authorizations. These pathways could be developed in traditional or integrated/blended teacher education programs.

Campuses will be asked to identify the specific programs/pathways they will grow and demonstrate how their plan is aligned with assessed needs for middle and high school math and science teachers in their service region. Campuses with larger existing capacity will expand more rapidly and to a greater degree than those with limited capacity.

Existing enrollments and program capacity will determine enrollment targets for each campus. Campuses currently producing more than 50 credentialed math and science teachers annually will be asked to increase enrollments by 15 to 20 annually in each of the three college years: CY 2007/08, 2008/09, and 2009/2010. Campuses currently producing between 20 to 40 new math/science teachers will be asked to increase by 10 to 15 annually beginning in 2008/09 and 2009/2010. Campuses currently producing fewer than 20 newly credentialed math/science teachers annually will be asked to increase by 5 to 8 annually beginning in 2009/2010. The first table below shows the enrollment growth plan.

This enrollment growth trajectory will exceed the chancellor’s goal of doubling the number of math and science teacher credential candidates enrolled by 2010. The second table below presents a system view of this growth.

Recruitment & Academic Support for Future Math and Science Teacher Candidates

This task will ensure that high school and community college students and their families get accurate information and support to ensure that students enroll in rigorous academic curricula that prepare them for success in college and their subsequent teaching careers. CSU outreach personnel, Early Assessment Program (EAP) coordinators, and faculty will work with local high schools and, especially, partner high schools where teacher preparation programs are the most active, to share college information with counselors and students who are considering math and science teaching careers. Middle and high school students and teachers will be invited to participate in campus-based math and science activities. Funds will be used to:

• Increase outreach visits to local high schools including parent/family information meetings in the evenings;



• Enhance existing efforts by EAP coordinators to identify students needing assistance in collegelevel mathematics; and



• Produce electronic and paper resources on college readiness and admissions with a focus on math and science.

The CSU academic technology unit will leverage existing work in the Early Assessment Program (Math Success Website,ALEKS, etc.) to assist students needing additional help to attain mathematics proficiency by the time they enter college and expand these student support websites to the sciences. Prospective credential candidates will get tutorial assistance, primarily online, to prepare for subject-matter examinations as appropriate.

Public Information Campaign

The CSU will conduct a public information campaign to build awareness of the need to strengthen math and science teaching and recruit more qualified teachers. This campaign will be aimed at the general public and families of prospective students and will direct those interested to the appropriate programs and campuses. This campaign will consist of an enhanced Web presence, print materials, and media events at both the system and campus levels. As part of this effort, the CSU will seek to establish partnerships with the business community to support additional activities. Existing staff will carry out systemwide activities. Campus activities will be supported additionally through outreach and recruitment budgets.

Program Administration

A full-time program manager will provide oversight, coordination, and administration of the Math and Science Teacher Initiative with clerical assistance. A faculty advisory committee nominated by campus deans will guide policy goals and competitive processes, and assess implementation effectiveness.

To achieve the goals of the Mathematics and Science Teachers Initiative described above, funding of $2.645 million is required.

Special Education Teachers Initiative ($1.4 MILLION)

The California State University requests $920,000 to recruit and train between 100 and 125 added students in the CSU’s special education teacher credential programs in 2006/07 in order to address the severe shortages in this field. The CSU will add $480,000 from 2006/07 enrollment growth funding to support this effort.Target populations for added enrollments and credentials awarded include: (1) populations of undergraduates, including liberal studies students, traditionally interested in elementary (multiple subject) credentials, for which there has been a decreased demand in the state; (2) community college students and recent graduates from other colleges and universities, with majors in psychology, human services, and other fields appropriate for teaching; and (3) additional individuals, including current paraprofessionals in special education who have an interest in advancing to teaching positions.

1. Special Education Credential Program Pathways Growth


The CSU system and its campuses will increase enrollments and credential production in special education, particularly by building on existing programs in order to capitalize on existing faculty resources. This is important because there is a significant shortage, not only of K-12 special education teachers, but also of faculty in the field able to prepare additional teachers to meet the severe shortage.


• Pathways to Special Education for Undergraduates: CSU students will be enabled to begin planning for and earning a credential during their undergraduate course work. Rather than the traditional pattern of waiting until completion of the baccalaureate degree for selection of this career choice, the proposed approach features early recruitment into special education. Length of program: four and one-half to five years, depending on summer enrollment.



• Articulated Programs with Community Colleges: Community college transfer students will be able to participate in articulated 2 + 2 + 1 programs that lead to a bachelors’ degree and a special education teaching credential in a continuous and fully articulated program.This approach again features recruitment early in the student’s college experience and student advisement to create an efficient path to the baccalaureate degree and credential. Length of program: four and one-half to five years, depending on summer enrollment.



• Credential Pathways for Paraprofessionals: Campuses will enroll new populations of students, with a special focus on paraprofessionals in the special education field. Programs elsewhere have demonstrated that this is a particularly promising group for recruiting into special education teaching positions. Due to part-time study, the program may take as long as five to six years, but individuals are often employed on emergency credentials after completing the baccalaureate degree.



• Internship Programs: As a result of the significant shortage of special education teachers, many students obtain intern-teaching positions and complete their credential while working full time. Students are required to hold a baccalaureate degree. Despite the apparent attractiveness of such positions, the well understood demands of teaching high-need students have historically limited the numbers of interested candidates. Financial incentives, including stipends, have been demonstrated to be effective in encouraging students to choose this route and are included in the proposal. Length of program: one to two years post-baccalaureate varying based on parttime versus full-time enrollment.

Approximately 10 to 12 campuses with high-growth potential will participate in the program.They will develop a five-year growth plan that includes designation of projected additional annual enrollments and required faculty resources, including both instructional faculty and those providing supervision to student teachers and interns.The growth plans will identify the school districts in which candidates will be placed in order to address the largest shortages within various regions of the state and those from which paraprofessionals will be recruited. Such careful planning is critical because a substantial number of California districts are out of compliance with the No Child Left Behind program due to inadequacies in special education programs, and campuses will be asked to give special attention to these districts.

Funding is included for the added costs of training additional faculty in supervisory and mentoring roles, for financial aid to attract students to this hard-to-fill field, and for stipends that off-set student costs (e.g., textbooks and classroom resources for student teachers) that serve as an incentive for program enrollment. The proposed allocation to support the elements required for program growth is $1.2 million.

2. Broad-Based and Early Recruitment Efforts

Significantly increasing the numbers of students who seek special education credentials requires comprehensive and early recruitment.A problem with traditional recruitment of special education teachers is that it begins late in individuals’ collegiate education. Because of the added rigors of teaching special needs students, potential candidates often chose other teaching fields. Early recruitment and scholarships have been shown to be effective in increasing enrollments in special education. Each of the strategies proposed include identification of candidates during lower-division study and beginning them on a structured path to a special education credential.

Effective recruitment requires that campuses conduct workshops and seminars, offer pre-credential experiences in which students have the opportunity to work with special needs students, and market special education programs through the media and special events. Special funding beyond what campuses have for ongoing programs is needed for comprehensive recruitment and marketing targeted to a range of populations, including high school and community college students and paraprofessionals. The $150,000 budget includes support for a public information campaign including public service announcements, newspapers and other print media, Web resources, and other media.

3. Program Development

Due to its size, the CSU is able to undertake program development activities that serve multiple campuses and have substantial economies of scale. In the case of special education, a range of recruitment materials, online learning resources to facilitate enrollment in programs by students for whom travel to campuses is difficult, and Web materials to assist students access federal and state loan cancellation programs for new special education teachers can be developed centrally. The $50,000 program development budget includes funding for staff support and for the creation of common resources to be shared among the campuses involved in the special education program growth initiative.

Off-Campus Centers ($3 MILLION)

Off-campus facilities provide instructional services where demand cannot be readily accommodated on the main campus and where access to higher education might otherwise be denied to the regional population. Under a policy adopted by the CSU Board of Trustees, these centers may be established only when they will have no negative impact on established institutions of higher education in the region and are created only when alternative instructional delivery is insufficient to meet regional demand. The state has supported the establishment of CSU off-campus centers because they serve a critical “access” need and because they can be used to target specific degree programs.

The state has recognized the importance of these centers in providing student access by appropriating enrollment funding based on the CSU’s ability to provide the same quality of education students receive at main campus sites. However, while the CSU receives marginal cost funding to provide instructional services to the students enrolled at these off-campus sites, no state funding is provided for the additional fixed and variable costs associated with these facilities, such as leasing and maintaining the instructional space, providing library and other academic support services, providing local student services including admissions and record keeping, and providing administrative and non-faculty staff support. As the enrollments at these state-approved centers grow, these increased costs become an especially significant cost burden.

Funding is needed to address the fixed cost needs at three off-campus centers that have reached critical thresholds of enrollment. These off-campus centers (and their main campuses) are Antelope Valley (Bakersfield), El Toro (Fullerton), and Palm Desert (San Bernardino), which served 983; 3,034; and 766 FTES respectively in fall 2004. This funding would re-establish the state’s commitment to support the total cost of student access and would acknowledge the CSU’s long-range goal to have programs and services in place to address the educational needs of future generations of students in areas not traditionally served by institutions of higher education.

Joint Clinical Doctorate Program In Audiology ($.8 MILLION)

For more than 40 years, the CSU has prepared audiologists to enter the health care workforce with a two-year master’s degree program. The CSU’s production of master’s degree graduates in audiology provides fewer than half of the state’s approximately 90 new licensees required annually. With heightened national competition for audiology graduates, recruiting and relocating the remainder of each year’s new workforce from outside California has become an increasingly difficult burden borne by the state’s hospitals, physicians’ practices, public schools, and small audiology businesses. In addition, changes in accreditation standards require that, by January 2007, academic programs in audiology must offer either a clinical or a research doctorate in order to meet new professional entry-level standards. The CSU is preparing to address the state’s need for new audiologists and respond to the new accreditation standards through a joint AuD (clinical doctorate) degree program in partnership with the University of California.

The CSU envisions introducing new four-year, yearround joint AuD programs on three campuses in fall 2007 that fulfill the new accreditation standards. This budget proposal is premised on slightly exceeding the annual cohort of graduate students in audiology that the CSU has trained in recent years.

• Year One (2007/08): The first cohort of 60 AuD students will begin in fall 2007.



• Year Two (2008/09): The first cohort will move on to advanced course work and clinical practica required of the new level of curriculum, and a second cohort of 60 would begin.



• Year Three (2009/10): The first cohort would be overseen by University of California medical faculty and facility resources to supplement audiology course instruction and clinical practica. (At some program sites, the UC would be primarily responsible for Year 2 instruction and the CSU for Year 3 instruction.) The second cohort would enter its second year, and a third cohort would begin its first.



• Year Four (2010/11): Students in the first cohort will enter full-time supervised practica through clinical rotations in a variety of medical, rehabilitative, and private office settings.The second and third cohorts would continue through the program as their prior cohorts. The fourth cohort of students would begin the program.

The CSU recognizes that timely introduction of new joint AuD programs is essential for the well-being of hearing- and balance-disabled populations in California. Even with a seamless introduction of new joint AuD programs in fall 2007, the earliest date to anticipate that graduates will begin to relieve a shortage of audiologists is at the end of college year 2010/2011. This substantial lead time makes it essential that the CSU move forward now to meet its commitment of serving the people of California.

In fiscal year 2006/07, the CSU proposes an initial budget of $800,000 to launch the AuD programs. These funds would be used to instruct the first cohort of 60 CSU/UC AuD students. A more detailed multiyear budget plan is in preparation.