The California State University system is seeking $885 million in state general funds for the 23-campus system and the CSU Board of Trustees is expected to vote on the request at its Nov. 17 meeting and forward it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature.
The request for more funding, announced Tuesday, comes just after an announcement that 12 campuses, including San Francisco State University, will not be accepting a freshman class in the 2010 spring semester.
Despite the record jump in applications to attend the 2010 school year — a 53 percent increase of 266,000 applications — bragging rights will soon belong to community colleges, whose application numbers have also spiked because of the closed admissions to many CSUs.
San Francisco State University will also be capping the graduate applications it receives. The university said the state budget crisis is preventing it from delivering quality and access, and by limiting admittance, it may continue to grant both quality and access to the graduate students.
CSU is hoping to achieve $564 million in cuts through a 40,000 decrease in students for CSUs over the next two years, employee furloughs and hikes in student fees. Chancellor Charles Reed pointed to the state’s budget priorities and said too much money is being spent on the state prison system.
The governor’s budget plan, approved in February, cut state spending by $15 billion, but did not affect prisons and some corporations.