By: Katie Priest, Sep 24, 2024
The Division of Academic Affairs announced a $5.9 million gap in the operating budget for the 2024-2025 academic year at the Academic Senate meeting Sept. 18.
In a presentation to the Senate, executive director of Academic Resources Lisa Rotunni delivered the news of a large-but-less-than-expected gap in the budget. The California State University system overall is in a deficit of $218 million,according to Rotunni and Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Terri Gomez.
Combined, the total budget for the 2024-2025 academic year is $163.5 million, a number Rotunni and Gomez claims is $500,000 down from last year’s budget.
The budget is split into three main parts: the base budget, which accounts for $145 million of the budget and rolls over every year, one-time funds that are only available once and the amount changes yearly and designated funds that have a specific purpose in the budget like the student success fee.
Cal Poly Pomona accounts for 5.2% of the CSU budget. The Division of Academic Affairs makes up two-thirds of CPP’s budget, according to Rotunni.
“If we look at academic affairs as two-thirds of the university, then I calculate and say, ‘Well, we could have a $7.6 million budget gap.’ That does not make me sleep well, but that’s numbers that I can, sort of think about,’” said Rotunni. “Next year could be worse.”
Academic affairs had a carried over $13 million from last year but was only left with $2 million as $11 million of those funds were designated funds. The carryover funds for this year are down 68% from last year, a difference of around $4.7 million, according to Rotunni and Gomez.
In addition to the $145 million base budget and the $13 million carryover, the division received $5.1 million in one-time funds. The one-time funds for this academic year have been allocated from the university to pay for the 51 new assistant professors brought to university this fall. The $2.8 million will be added to the base budget in future years, according to Rotunni.
The division’s budget is also responsible for two-thirds of salary increases brought on by the new California Faculty Association agreement, totaling approximately $6.6 million out of a university-estimated $8.8 million needed for the increases.
“Our first priority, as you could see in the budget, is permanent salary,” Gomez said. “Cover that, and then there’s very little left after that. But that’s our first priority. So, moving everything we have to cover that. Then we’ll use one-time dollars to do the other stuff.”
The $163.5 million in the budget is allocated to cover all salaries of faculty and staff within the division, including temporary faculty. Totaling $161 million in salaries and designated funds, operating funds for the division were calculated last according to Rotunni with $2.5 million left over, leaving the division with a $5.9 million operating budget gap.
“I think we’re doing well at managing it now that we’re down to a $5.9 million gap,” said Rotunni.
The budget presented at the meeting is still in progress and will not be finalized until spring 2025.
“Part of what we wanted to do is to be in dialogue with you and transparency and share information on the budget as we have it,” said Gomez. “It is iterative. It will change, but this is what we have now.”
The Alternative Transportation Committee presented updates on a new mobility hub to be built on campus at the meeting. The mobility hub is a future on-campus hub for multimodal transportation, including buses, shuttles and bike options, according to the presentation shared by the committee.
The proposed hub will be located behind Scolinos Field in Lot B, making the hub approximately 135,000 square feet, according to John Lloyd, the Alternative Transportation Committee co-chair. In addition to the stations for buses and shuttles, the hub will also include a satellite station for the University Police Department .
“I want to be able to encourage my students to take the bus; I want to know that they’re safe,” said Lloyd. “Currently, our current bus stops out on Temple Avenue. They’re not safe if you’re especially there at night. If you’re a woman and you’re alone, waiting out there on Temple does not feel safe.”
The project will be funded by Foothill Transit through the Federal Transit Agency and infrastructure bill funds.
“I am so happy that they’re so willing to work with us and be able to give us a safer and better transit,” said Business Success Center Coordinator Pam Adams.
Many senate members expressed their support of hub and what it means for students in the future.
“This is the kind of thing that I think is going to both be sustainable, but it’s also going to reduce the stress and strain of in the traffic and so forth,” said University President Soraya M. Coley.
In her presentation the provost announced academic affair’s priorities and initiatives for the academic year including, an artificial intelligence task force.
“We need students to be ready and trained, and that means we got to get those training programs,” said Gomez. That means we need the tech. That means we have to have internships for students and AI hits every single college, every major, right? So faculty are sometimes, and rightfully so, you know, weary of it.”
One of the division’s action plans is to work on emerging technologies, including AI, to share ways for students, faculty and staff to utilize these technologies. The governance committee will work to ensure generative AI use will algin with the university and provide support to faculty, according to Gomez.
Presented in the provost’s report, the division is also planning to expand graduate studies through new program guidance and infrastructure growth. Future career paths for students are another goal for the division to provide internships and AI student support.
Featured Image by Katie Priest
