Thom Davis, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CSUB, hosted the Fall 2023 Budget Open Forum on Nov. 6 to provide updates on California State University, Bakersfield’s budget. 

At the beginning of the event, Dr. Di Wu, chair of the Academic Senate Budget and Planning Committee, presented an overview of the 2022-23 Budget Book.  The 2022-23 Budget Book can be found here:  https://www.csub.edu/budget/budgetbook/2022-23-university-budget-book/index.html 

The university’s base budget in the current academic year is over $170 million. This includes funds from the state of California, fees for tuition, and state university grant appropriations. The budget book outlines that these funds are used for Academic Affairs, Business and Administrative Services, the President, Student Affairs, University Advancement, and campuswide costs.  

“The book has a length of 235 pages. There is so many information in the book, so you can explore in what you are interested in,” Wu said. 

According to CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny, the biggest update to this year’s budget is the money that Governor Newsom gave.  

“It is a limited budget, but we have past experience to manage it well here at CSUB, so we will continue to be optimistic about using money that we have been given. We are very grateful for the Governor and are making sure to make the biggest impact that is possible on that money, ”Zelezny said. 

According to Thom Davis last year, they spent some money out of the university’s reserves. The financial office’s upcoming goal is to increase the reserves. 

The capital financing shifts to debt service for the 2023-24 academic year increases through grants to help students affording the student housing, the capital project support, and the infrastructure project. There is a $1,858.8 million capital financing shift to debt services.  

“I feel fine about the budget. We as a campus have some work to do, but we are in the same place as the other campuses, so we can collectively as the CSU work together, ”Davis said.