Satellite Campus Given Chance of Surviving Cutbacks

Money for a south Orange County satellite campus for Cal State Fullerton has a fighting chance of surviving budget cuts by both the governor and the California State University system, sources said Tuesday.

At issue is $587,000 earmarked in the 1988-89 state budget for the long-proposed south county campus on part of the Saddleback College campus in Mission Viejo. Cal State Fullerton has been waiting for more than a year for start-up money from the Legislature.

The idea is popular in south Orange County, where thousands of students commute up to 45 minutes to Cal State Fullerton.

The Legislature passed the new state budget last week and sent it to Gov. George Deukmejian, who may line-veto any money items.

Republican Deukmejian had called for a 1% reduction of total funds in the budget to the 19-campus California State University system. The Democrat-controlled Legislature, however, passed a budget that calls on the system to trim its overall allocation by 3.3%.

Deukmejian’s office said Tuesday that the governor legally has until July 13 to act on the budget. But Tom Beermann, assistant press secretary to the governor, said Deukmejian is likely to act sooner, probably by Thursday or Friday. Beermann said he did not know what Deukmejian thinks about the $587,000 for the branch campus.

But a legislative source in Sacramento said Tuesday that Deukmejian is likely to leave the allocation in the budget “because it was fought for so hard by Assemblyman Ross Johnson (La Habra), who’s a Republican.” Johnson led the legislative fight for the money, the source said.

Pamela Spratlen, higher education consultant for the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, said Tuesday that the $587,000 would still be vulnerable to a cut even if it survived the governor’s desk. Spratlen said regardless of how much money Deukmejian leaves in the state university budget, the legislative mandate still requires the system to cut its allocation this fiscal year by 3.3%

“Since it’s easier to cut out a new program that hasn’t started than to cut an existing program, I think the $587,000 is vulnerable,” Spratlen said.

But the state university official in charge of the system’s budget said Tuesday that the university system wants the satellite campus money to survive.

“I can honestly tell you that so far we are not considering the elimination of that money,” said Dale Hanner, CSU vice chancellor for business. He is based in Long Beach. “My office worked very hard to help write the justification for getting that money into the state budget.”

Hanner added, “Now this is not to say that the money will not ever be considered (for reduction), but it so far has not. We are very anxious for it to survive. We think the campus in south Orange County would be a very useful thing.”