Governor Gray Davis proposed a $233.4 million increase in the 2001/02 general fund budget for the California State University today (May 14). The 9 percent increase, when combined with the $23.6 million in projected fee revenue from enrollment growth, would bring the total CSU base state budget to more than $3.4 billion.

"This budget is good news for students, but it is disappointing that it does not include compensation increases at the levels the California State University recommended. However, in a difficult budget year, we are pleased that the Governor provided full funding for enrollment growth, which assures that students have access to the courses they need," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "The budget also helps CSU campuses address the energy crisis with more than $34 million to compensate for natural gas cost increases."

The Governor proposed a $62.3 million increase for an additional 8,760 full-time equivalent students predicted to enroll in 2001/02. An additional $16 million has been allocated to support year-round operations for 3,138 full-time equivalent students to attend in the summer. The budget proposes reducing the employee compensation pool from 4 percent to 2 percent at a cost of $40.7 million.

"We are disappointed that some funding requests did not remain in the budget, including the reduction of the compensation pool. However, this year's increase would mean that the CSU budget has grown by more than $1 billion over the past four years," said Richard West, CSU executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer.

In addition to the proposed reduction in the compensation pool, other items removed from the proposed budget include: $10 million for workforce preparation and economic development; $8 million for K-12 academic preparation; $4 million for libraries; $4 million for plant maintenance; $1 million for diagnostic writing service; and $1 million for the CSU program for education and research in biotechnology.

Items remaining in the proposed budget include:

• $11.6 million to complete the CSU technology infrastructure build-out and increase network capacity.
• $3 million for the final investment in new campus costs at CSU Channel Islands.
• $17.5 million for the Governor's Teacher Fellowship Program, which provides $20,000 fellowships for individuals to attend teacher preparation programs and then teach in underperforming schools after attaining their teaching credentials.
• $18.5 million for the Governor's Education Technology Professional Development Program. The program will train 12,500 teachers in the use of technology in the classroom and will support curriculum which focuses on improving the quality of teacher instruction and the level of student learning.
• $1 million for the Agricultural Research Initiative, a collaborative partnership among CSU agriculture campuses that supports high-impact applied agricultural and natural resources research, development, and technology transfer activities.
• $1 million for marine studies as matching funds in collaboration with a federal research initiative to increase CSU applied research activities in this field.
• $650,000 to initiate a Central Valley Economic Incubator at CSU Fresno to serve high technology firms having engineering and computer science needs.