SSU braces for $4 million shortfall, student fee hikes

<p>Sonoma State University expects to raise student fees 10 percent in the next academic year and is bracing for a budget shortfall of $4 million or more, university administrators warned Wednesday.</p><p>“The university is very near its breaking point,” Larry Furukawa-Schlereth, SSU’s chief financial officer, told 200 faculty, staff and students at a town hall meeting to discuss the future of the university’s $77 million budget.</p><p>Many expressed dismay at the lack of state funding, and peppered administrators with hard-hitting questions regarding the use of campus funds.</p><p>Catherine Nelson, a professor of political science at Sonoma State, said she felt there was a lack of direction on campus.</p><p>“I’m getting more and more disturbed that the answer is there is no guiding vision,” she said.</p><p>Over the summer, the state slashed $15.8 million from the SSU budget. The university did not rehire about 100 instructors and eliminated 120 classes for this academic year, according to faculty members. Student fees increased about 30 percent, and the faculty agreed to a 10 percent reduction in pay. Administrators also reduced enrollment by about 380 full-time students.</p><p>Federal stimulus money provided a one-time budget injection of $600,000 in October that proved crucial to funding this academic year, said Lori Heffernon, director of academic resources.</p><p>“I don’t know how we would have survived without stimulus money,” she said.</p><p>Next year, SSU faces a $4 million shortfall — and the hole will grow even larger if the state makes additional spending cuts to higher education, which many people expect will happen, Furukawa-Schlereth said.</p><p>Making matters worse, the endowment fund managed by the SSU Academic Foundation to fund student scholarships has suffered investment losses, due primarily to the turmoil on Wall Street. Administrators worry they will not be able to fund scholarships next year, Furukawa-Schlereth said.</p><p>Meanwhile, officials are still hoping to find $1.7 million in funding for the current academic year, including money for athletic scholarships, the School of Extended Education, and endowment grants that support campus activities such as the Collaborative Autism Training & Support Program.</p><p>“These are vital programs to our campus,” Furukawa-Schlereth said.</p><p>Administrators think they have found money in the budget to cover these programs, but it will require the approval of President Ruben Armiñana, Furukawa-Schlereth said. For instance, a one-time dividend of $400,000 from a “risk pool” will help cover endowment grants.</p><p>Armiñana, who did not attend the meeting, was on vacation this week, Furukawa-Schlereth said.</p><p>Some people expressed concern that the construction of the $110 million Green Music Center on campus appeared to be an administration priority that was drawing scarce resources away from the university’s academic mission.</p><p>Furukawa-Schlereth assured the audience that the administration’s top priority was to maintain classes and the number of instructors on campus.</p><p>“I don’t want people to think the Green (Music Center) is sucking up money,” he said.</p><p>The California State University system allocated $2.5 million this fall for construction costs of the music center. About $1.6 million will be spent on chairs and the remaining $900,000 will be spent on the center’s audio system, including speakers and microphones. This money can only be used for the music center and cannot be used to maintain class offerings or instructors, Furukawa-Schlereth said.</p><p>One member of audience asked administrators if they were lobbying the CSU system for money to complete the Green center at the expense of academic funding.</p><p>Patricia McNeill, vice president of university development and head of the Sonoma State University Academic Foundation, said her department is still focused on raising funding for the construction of the music center. When that task is complete it will return its attention more fully to academics, she said.</p><p>Tim Wandling, chair of the English department, wanted to know why the School of Extended Education, which focuses on lifelong learning for adults, is saddled with a $535,000 debt payment for the Green Music Center. The university is having to use general fund money to bail out the School of Extended Education, and that money could have otherwise been used to re-hire instructors and offer more classes, he said.</p><p>Furukawa-Schlereth acknowledged the debt was costing the university, and also addressed concerns people had about the costs of landscaping currently occurring at the Green Music Center.</p><p>“The funds that are being used for landscaping are from donors,” he said. “It would be inappropriate to redirect those funds.”</p>