Academic Senate flags 60-year-old buildings as part of problem
By Rachel Prior, April 28, 2026
The California State University system has a $2.3 billion gap between funding and campus needs alongside $8.6 billion in deferred maintenance, according to a university advancement presentation at the Academic Senate meeting April 15.
At Cal Poly Pomona, the deferred maintenance backlog exceeds $890 million, considering almost one third of buildings on campus are at least 60 years old and 62% are at least 30 years old, according to the presentation from the Academic Senate Budget Committee. CPP’s facilities condition index indicates the campus is below the threshold for “fair” condition, according to a previous Academic Senate Budget Committee presentation from March 2025. The presentation estimates the campus must invest more than $50 million annually to bring facilities up to “fair” conditions. It also lists facility projects for the 2024–25 year, such as roof replacements for buildings 1, 17, 94 and 98, as well as restroom renovations.
Housing was another concern cited in the April 2026 presentation, with CPP facing a shortage of 1,761 student beds. To help with this, the CSU is asking the legislature to allocate up to $1 billion from a proposed multibillion-dollar housing bond for dorms at public higher education institutions like CPP.
The Academic Senate is also working to improve the allocation of unused scholarship funds through a new working group, according to Laura Massa, associate vice president for academic programs. “We don’t fully utilize scholarship money, so a new scholarship work group is being formed to improve distribution and access,” Massa said. According to the Provost’s report, the issue stems from inconsistent policies and timelines across departments, decentralized processes and limited campus-wide visibility, which can create barriers for students and leave some scholarship money unused each year. To improve this, the scholarship workgroup will focus on aligning practices across departments, improving transparency and taking a more proactive approach to distributing scholarship funds.
Senator Pamela Adams, who is an adviser for the College of Business Administration, raised concerns about how some scholarships may not provide real financial relief to students because they reduce other forms of financial aid.
“If you earn a scholarship here, they take it out of your financial aid, so you’re not actually making anything,” Adams said. “Why are you bothering to do this work if it doesn’t actually give you some advantage?”
Senator Berit Givens from the College of Science described how increased centralization has made awarding major-based scholarships more difficult than in previous years. She added that the changes have increased delays and frustration in providing student support.
“It used to be pretty straightforward and a joyful committee to be on,” Givens said. “And then it became more and more centralized … and in some ways became an incredibly annoying and difficult process to implement from the faculty side.” Related to frustrations from faculty, senators raised concerns about growing administrative workload and increasingly complex campus processes, including delays in requests such as university-issued devices for faculty.
College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences Senator Mario Guerrero, who is also the political science department chair, said the accumulation of responsibilities is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
“Campus processes have gotten too hard,” Guerrero said, emphasizing procedural insufficiencies, heavy workloads and cost pressures.
Nicole Hawkes, CPP vice president and chief of staff, explained many of the challenges reflect broader systemwide changes across the California State University system many other CSUs are dealing with.
To help address some of these campus needs, the Academic Senate Budget Committee listed long-term philanthropic priorities at CPP, such as investments in student career readiness, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and spatial excellence, as well as campus modernization.
Through efforts like Bronco Launchpad and Broncos Give, which occur each fall and spring respectively, CPP raised almost $146,000 in fall 2025, a 66% increase compared to 2024, and almost $687,000 in spring 2026, according to the university advancement presentation.
The Senate also introduced and approved numerous academic program changes, including first readings for minors in artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.
It also considered renaming graduate programs, such as changing the Master of Science in Sustainability to the Master of Science in Sustainability and Regenerative Studies. In agriculture, senators discussed renaming the Master of Science in Agriculture to Integrated Agricultural Science and Technology to give the program a distinct classification code to attract international students.
The next Academic Senate meeting will be May 6 at 3 p.m. in the Kellogg West Auditorium in Building 77.
Feature image courtesy of Reyes Naverrete
