There has been a lot of talk about the California State University budget for next year, including some very misleading statements. We’d like to take a moment to clarify the truth about what has been said by some in the administration. Californians have lost money, their jobs and their homes. They shouldn’t lose our great public university. The CSU system is facing a $394 million budget cut, the threat of increased student fees, enrollment caps lowered, students kept out, and faculty work increased, and the threat of layoffs for staff and faculty &- 3,000 faculty have already been laid off. The people of California, the students of the CSU system and their faculty and staff have all been blasted with the economic crisis, from lost wages and lost jobs to mortgage foreclosures. It is time to end the ripoffs.

The chancellor says that the $500 million cut proposed by the governor is 18 percent of the CSU.

The truth is that the governor adjusted the state’s allocation so the net decline in state funding is more like 12 percent. Additionally, the CSU trustees voted to increase student fees by 15 percent. Taking this increase into account, the total cut to the funding available to the CSU in 2011-12 amounts to $216.3 million, a reduction of 4.5 percent, not 18 percent.

The chancellor says that 84 percent of our budget is tied up into salaries and benefits.

The truth is that according to the CSU’s audited financial statements (posted online) salaries and benefits account for only 68 percent, not 85 percent, of CSU operating expenses. According to the same statements, salaries and benefits devoted to “instruction” account for just 35 percent of total expenses. Instruction as a whole accounts for just 38 percent of the CSU’s total spending in fiscal year 2009.

The chancellor says we’re going to have to “downsize the CSU” and will consider reducing enrollment, eliminating classes, laying off staff, furloughing employees and increasing class sizes.

The truth is that the governor’s budget proposal contains the following language: “The Administration will work with the Office of the Chancellor and the Trustees, as well as stakeholders (including representatives of students and employees), to determine the specific mix of measures that can best accomplish these objectives.” This means that faculty, staff, and student voices must be heard in this process. Speak up now!

Why is the chancellor giving out all this misinformation?

The truth is that the CSU administration is taking a shock doctrine approach, again, attempting to create panic to implement top-down radical, unilateral changes that will degrade the quality of what we try to do for our students. The chancellor is using our fear of budget cuts to advance his own vision of public education &- a vision where students pay more tuition but have access to fewer classes, where faculty teach more students per class, even more online, and where tenure is meaningless. Is this strategy connected to the fact that the faculty are bargaining a new contract right now? You bet.

What can we do about it?

We must insist on fairness during hard times. By standing together we can send a strong message to Reed that he must “Do the bright thing” by maintaining a student-centered public university which keeps a minimum of 50 percent operating budget devoted to instruction. We are the voices of the CSU: If we don’t stand up for ourselves, no one else is going to. We must also voice our concerns to our legislators. They need to hear from faculty, staff, and students about the need for public higher education as an investment in our state’s future. Join us this semester for our lobbying, media outreach, faculty rights, campus and community organizing. Together and with firm resolve we will make a difference.

Take class action on April 13! Faculty, staff, and students are planning a major action on April 13 at noon on the Library Quad. Mark your calendar and watch for details to be announced!

Kevin Wehr, President California Faculty Association, Capitol Chapter.