“We are grateful that Governor Brown has dedicated one-time funding to help address one of the university’s areas of need by helping finance some of our large backlog of deferred maintenance,” said Chancellor Timothy White in a statement on May revise of the proposed state budget.
White then followed with this May 14 letter:
Dear California State University Community,
Our budget request messaging to date has been very well received by the California state legislature, both in public and private conversations. It is inspiring to see the impact of individual and collective advocacy, and for that I express my heartfelt gratitude to you.
Because we are now entering the final push for our budget, I ask again for your help… send another message to your assembly member or state senator requesting sufficient funding for the 23 CSU campuses. You can find your elected representatives contact information easily here: http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/.
As you know, I took a tuition increase off the table several weeks ago. Thus, it is even more important that we secure a sufficient investment from the state. We must continue to reinforce that, through both our accomplished graduates and employees, the CSU is key to California’s rise to the world’s fifth largest economy.
Governor Brown’s revised 2018-19 state budget proposal released last Friday (May 11) still leaves us $171 million below the amount we seek to sustain our operating funds. These are the resources we need for course availability and student support consistent with our Graduation Initiative goals – as well as needs in enrollment demand, faculty and staff hiring, and fair pay. Absent sufficient operating funds for next year, we will need to make difficult decisions that would slow the universitywide gains in student access and achievement.
We are, however, grateful that Governor Brown’s revised budget proposal does include a further $100 million in one-time funding to help address the aging infrastructure in our academic buildings. This is a good and important step forward.
As budget negotiations come to a close in the next few weeks, it is imperative that we encourage our state’s lawmakers to #chooseCSU and prioritize adequate university funding for 2018-19.
Just as you are pushing hard to close the academic year strongly, we must also keep our foot on the advocacy gas pedal and close the budget process strongly and successfully!
With many thanks,
Timothy P. White
Chancellor