By Justine Sanchez, April 22, 2025
Terri Gomez, the provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, discussed the new payment plan used by other California State Universities for the 2025-2026 academic year in an Academic Senate meeting held March 26.
According to the existing payment plan model, students can add courses after the payment deadline without facing financial penalties. But the new model includes tiers for registration and a variety of due dates. When students register, they will be divided into three different registration blocks. Each block has a specific payment due date and a disenrollment date, creating a structured and staggered approach.
“Seventy percent of students are on financial aid, which won’t impact them, but there’s a group of students who are having a hard time paying their fees,” Gomez said.
It is possible that some students may miss their first registration window because of possible financial challenges. A second enrollment window, however, offers another chance to sign up for the courses that are needed to graduate. Students who receive financial aid will not be affected by the new payment model.
“We want to make sure that during our orientation, incoming transfer students don’t come and already have all the classes filled up, so the department chair will usually plan out and have some seats and classes set aside to make sure incoming students have a fair shot,” said Berit Givens, the former chair of the mathematics and statistics department.
In the previous system, students faced delays when attempting to pay registration fees. The new model would avoid balance and enrollment holds that delay payment.
If students have submitted a FAFSA or CADAA for the current year, they won’t be dropped for non-payment, even if their aid hasn’t been awarded yet.
Improvements to academic planning by expanding class availability and accessibility will run smoother as the dropped seats due to disenrollment will be quickly redistributed to other students who may need a class.
The model also allows a more efficient resource allocation, which enables better planning for department budgets and faculty assignments, such as unpredictable surges in full-time equivalent students.
For the 2025–2026 academic year, Cal Poly Pomona was one of the few campuses to receive funding due to enrollment growth, which was previously reviewed. A 290 FTES backfill for previous growth and an extra 200 FTES over the actual enrollment in 2024–2025 are two examples of the permanent financing that would help CPP. This adds up to almost $5.5 million in total state allocations and tuition income, as covered in the meeting, this is a substantial financial boost for the campus.
The Academic Senate also rediscussed the new General Education pattern. Courses will remain largely the same, unless the department chair decides to update the course in any way.
“For students that are already here they pretty much just pay attention to what you started with,” said Mario Guerrero, the General Education committee chair. “That’s going to be super important moving forward because it’s going to be so radically different, so always start with the year you began.”
As covered by Guerrero, recertification is a logical step as the entire GE pattern has been transformed over time.The goal of recertification is to ensure quality instruction in student learning, validate the shared university curriculum and meet faculty standards to continually improve pedagogy and student success.
“Existing GE courses in the old system are automatically grandfathered into the new GE pattern, but to retain their status in the new GE pattern, all courses must go through the recertification process to ensure they are meeting new requirements.” Guerrero said.
Feature image courtesy of the Academic Senate
