Tonya Malinowski / News Editor
The recent increase in cost of at Central will have many students wondering where exactly their money is going.
Commuting students will see a 5.3 percent increase in total cost of attendance, while on-campus residents can prepare for a 5.6 percent hike. Part of the augmented cost includes a $228 increase in tuition alone, excluding university fees.
“What happened this year was a realistic attempt to say, ‘we have to make up some of the money from these [budget] cuts, otherwise we can’t teach all the classes,’” University President Jack Miller said.
“How do you offer the same number of classes and pay the same number of faculty with 10 percent less money?”
The extra cost for on-campus residents comes from a 6 percent hike in cost of food service. Miller said the increased housing fees will help maintain routine repairs as well as eventually help fund the new residence halls planned.
Due to an unprecedented demand for housing this year, renovations on existing halls were postponed to accommodate more students. Carroll Hall was scheduled to see its first comprehensive renovation since 1957.
“When it comes to the end of May, we will have about 400 students on the waiting list for residence hall space,” Miller said. “If those students don’t get that residence space, they won’t come.”
In addition to an increased cost of attendance supplementing the budget cuts, CSUS management personnel will have no salary increase and take three mandatory furlough days next year.
Salary negotiations with instructional faculty are still in progress, though 21 full-time emergency faculty hires have been approved for the 2009-2010 academic year. However, Miller and University Provost Carl Lovitt agree that under-enrolled class sections are still in danger of being cancelled.
“These are all one-year, emergency positions and are not available for tenure,” Lovitt said. “They have the possibility of being renewed next year, but there’s a two year cap.”
The new faculty will be scattered amongst departments but the most will be placed in the new nursing program, criminology, and the school of engineering.
“We think we have enough students accepted already to come in with the same size freshman class,” Lovitt said. “We will probably have 500 students on the waiting list and I just don’t know if we will have room for them.”
According to the Office of Institutional Research, the fall 2008 semester saw an incoming full-time freshman class of 1,773.
In addition to tuition and fee increases covering the cost of instruction, Miller said students can expect new equipment and expansions in the computer lab as well.
Despite plans for campus improvements, Miller said the CCSU community can expect to feel the hit of upcoming budget cuts.
“I think it would be unfair to imply it would be unnoticeable,” he said. “If we get 10 percent less money and nobody sees anything was different than before, then we must have been wasting that money.”
