College of Sciences Budget Information

SDSU campus near trolley station. (photo: Barbara Huntington)

The following is a brief overview of the 2009/2010 budget reductions as best we know it at this time. Summarizing the budget reduction to date is not easy because the budget has been in flux since the Governor proposed his initial state budget in February of this year. At that time, the CSU 2008/2009 base budget of $3B was reduced by $66.3M. The amount of that net budget reduction was based upon the assumption that there would be a 10% fee increase in the 2009/2010 budget. In April there was a second CSU budget reduction of $50M because an anticipated $10B in federal stimulus funds were not received.

The Governor's May Revise budget included a further CSU reduction of $255M in response to the worsening state deficit due to the shortfall in the predicted state tax revenues. When ballot issues A-E were defeated at the polls later in May, the CSU suffered a further reduction of $118M. In early June, the CSU budget was reduced by an additional $510M, but this was offset by $640M in one-time federal stimulus funds.

Taken together, the net budget changes from the CSU 2008/2009 budget were $360M. After CSU mandatory costs (health benefit increase costs, one third financial aid set aside from the 10% fee increase, etc) are combined with SDSU commitments, the required SDSU budget reduction was $20.4M. The portion of this reduction allocated to Academic Affairs was $15M. The growing state deficit resulted in another $10.8M reduction for Academic Affairs in mid-July, but subsidies from other units decreased the Academic Affairs reduction to $8.7M. The reductions were then distributed to all of the colleges and divisions under the Academic Affairs umbrella on a pro-rata basis.

The allocation from Academic Affairs to the College of Sciences (CoS) was $28.1M, with about 95% of these funds dedicated to faculty and staff salaries. In 2008/2009 the CoS budget was reduced by $1.6M, the initial 2009/2010 budget reduction decreased the CoS budget by another $2.7M, and the second 2009/2010 budget reduction decreased the CoS budget by an additional $1.6M. The net reduction to the CoS is about 20% of our state funding. The CoS budget adjustments take the recent increase in student fees and other reductions approved by the Board of Trustees at the July 2009 meeting into account.

If the California State financial status continues to decline, there remains a possibility of further budget cuts.

There have been many questions about how a furlough program might impact faculty, staff, and students supported by non-state funds. The following is a brief summary of recent decisions from the Chancellor's Office.

1. If paid from non-state funds, one is not furloughed.
2. If paid from state funds, but those funds are reimbursed from a non-state source, one is not furloughed.
3. Partial reimbursements lead to furloughs only on the unreimbursed portion of the salary.
4. Students working on grants are not affected.
5. Furloughed faculty can pay themselves from grants during the furlough days.