In the 2022-23 final budget, the CSU received from the state a permanent base budget increase of $365.7 million and will receive a $68.5 million state-funded retirement adjustment in a subsequent General Fund appropriation. The 2022-23 total CSU operating budget of $8.0 billion is composed of $4.7 billion in state General Fund and $3.3 billion in tuition and fees. New resources to fulfill the CSU’s budget request for 2023-24 are $529.8 million, as shown in Table 1.
|
2021-22
Past Year |
2022-23
Current Year |
2023-24
Budget Year |
2023-24
Increase |
General Fund, Operations
| $4,864,822,000 | $4,317,574,000 | $4,781,354,000 | $463,780,000 |
General Fund, Academic Facilities and Infrastructure
| 340,560,000
| 340,560,000 | 390,560,000 | 50,000,000
|
Tuition and Other Fee Revenue
| 3,240,100,000 | 3,302,044,000 | 3,318,112,000 | 16,068,000
|
TOTAL OPERATING BUDGET AND INFRASTRUCTURE
| $8,445,482,000
| $7,960,178,000 | $8,490,026,000 | $529,848,000
|
|
2021-22
Past Year |
2022-23
Current Year
|
2023-24
Budget Year |
| Instruction | $3,065,003,000 | $3,182,672,000 | $3,182,672,000 |
| Research | 34,614,000 | 25,822,000 | 25,822,000 |
| Public Service | 26,015,000 | 18,825,000 | 18,825,000 |
| Academic Support | 812,116,000 | 816,791,000 | 816,791,000 |
| Student Services | 863,084,000 | 858,315,000 | 858,315,000 |
| Institutional Support | 1,353,058,000 | 1,205,697,000 | 1,205,697,000 |
| Operation and Maintenance of Plant | 1,496,914,000 | 1,096,540,000 | 1,096,540,000 |
| Student Grants and Scholarships | 794,678,000 | 755,516,000 | 755,516,000 |
| New Expenditures | 0 | 0 | 529,848,000 |
| TOTAL EXPENDITURES | $8,445,482,000 | $7,960,178,000 | $8,490,026,000
|
The operating budget is focused on fulfilling the CSU's core mission: to serve students with a high-quality, affordable, and accessible education. As shown in Table 2, the CSU spends 71 percent, $5.6 billion, of its total operating budget on instruction, academic support, student services, and financial aid. All these activities promote student success, enrich the academic experience, and ensure that each CSU graduate is ready to succeed.
The CSU's core values of inclusive excellence, equity, access, and transforming lives through the power of higher education are on exhibit every day at the 23 Cal State universities. University leadership, faculty, staff, and–importantly–students are accelerating the CSU's positive momentum in many areas, including record numbers of graduates and student success measures at all-time highs for students from all backgrounds.
The university is fertile ground for self-evaluation and commitment to transformation. To that end, more must be done to address existing inequities in academic preparation, retention, and graduation and to ensure that every Cal State student has the same opportunity to earn the lifelong and life-transforming benefits of a CSU degree. Based on the recommendations of an advisory committee comprised of a broad cross-section of faculty, staff, students, and community leaders, the university is implementing an equity action plan across the 23 universities. The plan includes:
- An immediate, systemwide reenrollment campaign to reach out to students who have stopped out and connect them with the support they need to return to college and get back on track
- The implementation and wide usage of digital degree planners across the 23 campuses to give students an accurate, real-time roadmap of the courses they need to graduate
- Expanded resources for students to take courses over the summer and winter intersession to accumulate academic credits and remain on track for graduation
- Efforts to dramatically improve outcomes in key courses with the highest enrollments of underserved students receiving Ds, Fs or withdrawals
- The elimination of administrative barriers that disproportionately impede low-income and first-generation students from progressing toward their degrees
As the CSU continues to advance the educational mission, strategic work groups like the equity action plan are underway. Collaborative partnerships that drive success at the system and campus levels will address four of the CSU's most critical strategic challenges: 1) creating a sustainable financial model; 2) managing enrollment to ensure that every qualified student can have access to a high-quality Cal State degree; 3) meeting Graduation Initiative 2025 goals to graduate more students and eliminate inequities in student outcomes; and 4) recruiting, hiring and retaining the diverse, world-class human talent that students deserve.
The recommendations developed by the CSU's leadership and foremost subject matter experts will offer the rich resources and actionable strategies to begin tackling the institution's most pressing strategic and operational challenges.
Financial sustainability and predictability are critically important for the CSU to accomplish its mission and to overcome its challenges. The State of California has been and is poised to remain an apt partner. California is underwriting the CSU's efforts in two incredibly important foundational ways. The first is the sustainable new financial investments by state lawmakers and governors over the past decade. The second is the multiyear compact between the governor and the CSU. The compact provides predictable funding over the next five years for our shared commitments to access, equity, and student success. Further, the compact is a critical safety net to protect the university from economic fluctuations. The CSU is grateful for both the past sustainable investments as well as the future financial commitments by state leaders.
The 2023-24 budget plan will allow the CSU to grow student enrollment, provide additional investment in Graduation Initiative 2025 (with particular emphasis on ensuring equitable student outcomes), improve compensation for all employee groups, cover fixed cost obligations, begin or continue initiatives included in the multiyear compact, and make progress on facility and infrastructure needs and critical capital renewal. Funding commitments included in the multiyear compact would support significant portions of the preliminary plan. State general fund above the compact would support other portions of the plan if the state's budget condition were to allow it and if state leaders were to choose to invest more in the CSU.
The budget priorities included in this plan are critical to the university and contribute to the mission and values under the umbrella of student success. Understanding this, stakeholders from across the CSU and throughout the state will continue to advocate with a unified voice for the needed resources to continue to transform lives, families, and communities and to help drive California to its brightest future.