Cal State Bakersfield held its Spring Budget Forum on Mar 24, prior the California Faculty Association rallied outside, speaking out about the fears of the oncoming budget cuts and the rise of tuition for students.
The forum was hosted by Chief Financial Officer Kristen Watson, and provided an opportunity for the campus community to review the new budget proposals, ask questions as the presentation went on, and share their opinions about the administration’s new budget plans.
CSUB’s budget, how did we get here?
The CSU’s funding comes from the state general fund allocation, then to the Chancellor’s office and is a set budget given to schools. Schools also receive the majority of funds by tuition which is paid by students.
CSUB received over $166 million from general fund allocations and student tuition for years 23-24, and for 24-25 received over $174 million.
The funding covers salaries and benefits for faculty and staff, financial aid for students, and operational costs.
However, a major issue CSUB has been facing, according to Watson, is overspending. During recent years, over $17.6 million has been overspent and it wasn’t made clear how this happened.
She explained how the budget for the 24-25 school year did increase from 23-24 by over 12.3% to about 18 million dollars, though schools spending has increased by 17.8% over 27 million dollars.
Watson is working closely with the numbers on the governor’s new budget proposal, which has a 7.95% reduction in in-state funding for higher education.
The best approach on this issue for the administration is by looking at the divisions or uses for the general fund allocations like athletics, academic affairs, or financial aid and see where they can reduce budgets to maintain a healthy one.
As questions started to arise, audience members were able to ask questions at any time to pause the forum. Though with only an hour and thirty minutes, many questions seemed to halt the forum from releasing more new information.
Dr. Tracy Salisbury, department chair of ethnic studies shared her frustration with the crowd and felt like it was a way to filibuster to get to the real historical stuff and to hold the actual people accountable.
“Let’s be real, Dr. Watson we need the real deal figures, I really have to say this feels like filibustering, because the bottom line is we had a shitty financial officer who deserved to be fired for getting it this wrong,” said Salisbury
“What we have to do now instead of listening to the same things, is figure out how we are going to protect what we have now without tremendous losses.” she also added.
Though Students have already started noticing budget cuts throughout the campus, Watson prepares the crowd that the projected budget for 2025-2026 will have a -1.15% decrease, which means CSUB will be losing about $2 million in funding.
“I recognize it’s a difficult conversation, and there’s a lot of anxiety with this approach, though we approached this conversation correctly, and avoided a situation where I just preached the information,” said Watson.
How Does this affect CSUB Students?
The projected budget for next year will see a decrease in general fund allocation from $116 million to $110 million a -5.56% decrease which is significant.
Though no plans have been made on how much higher tuition would be going up, Watson hopes the influx of new students will help the school collect more money from tuition fees.
CSU’s like Sonoma and San Francisco have already seen budget cuts in their athletic departments, students fear that all services or departments provided on campus might not be safe from budget cuts.
J.R. Perez, CSUB Alumni and the transitional coordinator of EOP, fears that the rise of tuition will negatively impact the students’ education and finances.
“With these budget cuts, we must have their promise that these students get access to classes and services. Students need services like advising or campus programming and classes for a successful education.” said Perez
He emphasizes the importance of the administration to keep services for students available despite the financial circumstances.
As registration for Fall 2025 is still being re-evaluated, the administration is currently working on reducing the number of classes or instructors that will be available for the fall term. Therefore students’ registration has been pushed to Apr. 28.
While classes are still being re-evaluated for next semester, students have noticed the “to be announced” on the faculty listings, which is disappointing for many. The reason for the change in faculty listing is to cut down on class sizes, by removing students choice of faculty preferences.
“No one has lost their job, we just did not fill open positions. At this point the only individuals that lost their jobs are MPP’s,” said Watson.
Solis, a Lecturer in ethnic studies and alumni expressed his support for transparency and believes it’s the right step to build trust in the community, though questions about the lack of planning from the administration or having any idea still is unacceptable.
“My biggest frustration is the attack on faculty and lecturers, pushing registration till April 28 and having faculty in limbo whether they’ll be able to know they even have a job, it’s unacceptable,” said Solis.
CSUB will be hosting a Presidents Open Forum on April 23 for more information.
