California State University campuses have been plagued with budget shortfalls over the last three years, but at the same time attracted substantial grants and gifts.

Until now.

The 23-campus CSU system has experienced its first drop in charitable donations in more than a decade, a 7.6 percent decrease. The two local campuses, San Diego State and Cal State San Marcos, experienced an even sharper drop in philanthropy.

"The reduction reflects a national trend in charitable giving – and in giving to higher education specifically – due largely to donor uncertainty in a period of slow economic recovery," said Richard West, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer of the state university system.

San Diego State received the lion's share of outside funding last fiscal year in the university system.

SDSU received $43.4 million in charitable gifts in the 2002-03 fiscal year, although donations dropped nearly 18 percent from the previous year, which had been the highest in a decade.

The university's outside donations were tied to a multitude of programs, including more than $1.5 million to expand the nursing program to help fill the critical shortage of nurses in the region.

An additional $250,000 came from Qualcomm for an information and communications technology program now being developed.

Some of the money went to support KPBS, the nonprofit public radio and television stations that operate on campus.

The university's premier athletic programs were big draws for private donations, officials said.

And SDSU received $3 million from Price Charities as part of an ongoing project in the inner city, the City Heights Education Collaborative. The university assists local public schools in raising achievement while operating numerous community programs in the area, which is heavily populated with the working poor and immigrant families.

In addition, San Diego State took in $49.2 million in government grants, which was the second highest in the system, behind the $51.8 million in contributions to Sacramento State.

CSU San Marcos, as one of the smallest and newest campuses, received $3.5 million in outside philanthropy for the last fiscal year.

Most of the money was given for programs whose impact would be behind the scenes, for scholarships programs, research or classes.

San Marcos won an additional $8 million in government grants in the past fiscal year.

And San Marcos got one of the most visible gifts in the system: a $44.5 million library.

While state taxpayers paid for the bulk of the five-story building that opened this semester, the high-tech center is brimming with extras made possible in part by the more than $2 million donation from the Kellogg family of Rancho Santa Fe, for whom the library is named.

Part of the library's special collection rooms was named in honor of another major donor, the Sulpizio family. The children of Richard Sulpizio, a former Qualcomm executive, and his wife, Gaby, attended CSU San Marcos. The family has donated nearly $1 million to the library.

Despite the dip in donations, many CSU campuses continue to receive multimillion-dollar gifts from people whose philanthropy, like the Kelloggs', gave them naming rights for major public buildings.

Cal State San Marcos recently opened the Clarke Field House, named for the late sports lover Helene Clarke of Oceanside, who had donated more than $2.5 million in honor of her late husband, M. Gordon Clarke, a former student athlete who dropped sports to pursue a business career with the Hughes Tool Co.

For the CSU system, charitable giving dropped to $238 million in 2002-03, down $19 million from the previous year, when donations were at the highest in 10 years.

Although donations declined last year, there has been an overall increase in private donations to the public system. A decade ago, the system received $150 million in philanthropy.

In addition, CSU took in $538.8 million in grants and contracts from private industry and government.

The drop in charity comes at a critical time for the 410,000-student university system, which has experienced three years of deepening budget cuts.

The result at Cal State campuses has been a 40 percent increase in tuition, shrinking budgets, staff layoffs, shuttered programs, fewer class offerings and caps on enrollment.

But the Cal State campuses continue to draw some major gifts by philanthropists.

Last month, CSU officials approved naming a wing in the Northridge library after the Tseng family, which had donated $38 million to the university, the largest gift ever to a CSU campus.

Officials also agreed to name the College of Extended Learning after the Tseng family, who run a travel agency.

Another donor who earned naming rights to a public building was San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will now have a Faye and Alex Spanos Theater, made possible by a $1.5 million contribution by the Spanos family for remodeling the theater.

Spanos, a developer, studied aeronautical engineering at Cal Poly in 1941, and although he did not graduate, a company spokeswoman said he was inspired by his music teacher there, Harold Davidson. Spanos played in the marching band, and was the drum major. Over the years, Spanos has given $3.9 million to CSU campuses.