CSU system announces tentative spending plan for extra $125M

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- The California State University system announced a tentative plan Tuesday for $125 million in extra money it received from the passage of Proposition 30 last fall.

Officials said the extra funds for the 2013-2014 academic year will be spent on expanding student enrollment. That means adding more faculty, staff, facilities and on-campus courses.

The plan also calls for $10 million to be set aside to make more courses available online.

"The online world is new for everybody," said Michael Uhlenkamp, a CSU spokesman. "There is not one specific paradigm that everyone has identified as the way to do it, so we are trying to find out what's the most efficient way to serve students, but to be able to give them the one-on-one interaction or the relationship they would also be able to find in a classroom."

Tuition will not be going up for the more than 450,000 CSU system students.

According to the plan, the money will also be used to boost salaries and pay for increased energy and health benefit costs.

The spending plan will be presented to the Board of Trustees Wednesday. The budget will be a little more than $2.3 billion for the upcoming school year.

Gov. Jerry Brown said the CSU system needs to be more efficient when it comes to student services.

"That means efficiency, innovative teaching online, earlier graduation - you can't hang around for seven years," Brown said. "The courses have to be made available. If they are not available in person, then they've got to be made available online. So, there is a lot of activity going on that could be positive, that could bring down cost and could increase access to the courses."

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jerry brown, budget, school, california news, sid garcia

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