CSUN Tries to Cope With $6.6-Million Cut : Budgets: University officials aim at keeping enrollment up while reducing costs, fearing a vicious circle of reductions and more dropouts.

Grappling with a nearly $6.6-million state funding cut, Cal State Northridge administrators are trying to strike a delicate balance between shaving off excess and slashing so deeply into the curriculum that enrollment drops, which could trigger more budget cuts.

But administrators say that balance will probably tilt in the spring, especially if state revenues are lower than expected because of a recession or a decline in lottery revenue.

“One of the things that a lot of us are holding our breath on is the revenue projections,” said Bonita Campbell, associate vice president for academic planning and resources. “I don’t think we could handle a midterm cut without actually going into a layoff of long-term, full-time employees.”

Beyond edicts from college President James W. Cleary that departments cancel low-enrollment classes and restrict faculty travel and supply expenditures, the decisions about where to cut largely have been left to deans of the individual schools and the chairmen of the departments.

So far, their solutions have included laying off part-time instructors, reducing library hours and delaying faculty research projects, all with an eye toward maintaining the courses students want and need the most.

Offering fewer class sections sets off a chain reaction: As fewer class sections are offered, students have a harder time fitting the course they need or want into their schedules, which in turn lowers enrollment figures on which funding is based.

“It does get into a Catch-22,” Campbell said. “You’re expected to take care of the same number of students, provide them with the same level of services, but without the resources that are needed to maintain that level of service. When you add it up, something doesn’t work.”

The first and most visible change from the students’ perspective was that neither the Oviatt Library nor the South Library are open on Sundays this semester, except during final exams. Campbell said user surveys showed that on Sundays the libraries were frequented more by the college’s neighbors than by its students. However, when the proportion of the school’s population living on campus grows with the opening of new dormitories next year, that is expected to change.

Behind the scenes, the effects of the cuts have begun to be seen. Professors have been admonished by their department chairmen to charge students for copies whenever possible, to help meet the 15% cut in supply budgets. Computers and laboratory equipment that break down probably will not be repaired or replaced this year, administrators said.

And faculty members are working harder. Administrators report that in many areas, professors whose teaching loads had been reduced to give them time for research or administrative duties were instead asked to return to the full four-class load. Meanwhile, some of the part-time faculty members who normally would have filled in for those full-timers learned shortly before the start of the fall semester that they would not be teaching at all.

CSUN’s budget this year was initially projected to include $118 million in state funding plus $31.6 million from student fees and other campus sources. Current state estimates call for cutting the state portion by $6.56 million--resulting in a 4.4% reduction overall, Campbell said.

Although the cut was slightly smaller than what was predicted by the California State University system in August, that is of little consolation to faculty. They said the most recent round of cuts comes after years of budgets that have fallen short of both inflation and the growth of the student body.

“The faculty feels ripped off. . . . You really try to do a good job and those things that allow you to do that are being taken away from you,” said Nancy Owens, a member of the university system’s Academic Senate and a professor of home economics at CSUN.

Systemwide, the budget for supporting the 20 state universities declined from nearly $1.8 billion to about $1.7 billion.

Approaches to handling the cuts vary around the state, CSU spokesman Stephen J. McCarthy said. Probably the most drastic measures were taken at San Francisco State, where he said about 100 part-time lecturers were laid off and about 200 class sections were cut.

Among the few systemwide changes made to help offset the skimpier state budget were a 10% increase in student tuition--to $780 a year for full-time students who are California residents and $10,025 for non-residents--and an across-the-board 5% reduction in management personnel spending.

Also, for the first time this year at CSUN and the other campuses, a significant portion of such essential expenses as library books and periodicals and instructional equipment is being financed with state lottery money. In the past, most lottery money was reserved for such optional expenses as pilot programs and guest lecturers.

Faculty and administrators are concerned about the switch and what it could mean if lottery money declines by 20% to 25%, as anticipated.

“It’s very scary,” Owens said. “What happens when the lottery revenue drops?”

“I’ve done this for a while, seen budgets come and go, but this is the worst budget I’ve ever seen,” said William Eadie, chairman of the popular speech communications department.

Eadie is teaching two classes instead of his normal load of one, in addition to running the department and editing a national journal. Two other faculty members in his department abandoned research projects--at least temporarily--to resume a full teaching load, and fewer faculty will be able to travel to professional conferences this year.

For the spring, Eadie hopes to avoid cutting the number of classes by increasing their size instead.

In at least two other popular areas, philosophy and business, administrators also have held off making more drastic cuts until the spring, largely to avoid inconveniencing students and faculty. Even with the current budget, they expect to cancel several classes in the spring. If the state funds are cut even further midyear, “we’re really going to wince,” said William Hosek, dean of the School of Business.

Cutbacks in departments that offer the courses required for graduation hit students especially hard. Philosophy, for instance, has a 500-student waiting list for introductory logic courses, said Chairman Daniel Sedey. Faculty members say that students often cannot take logic and the other general education requirements until their senior year.

In the past, many CSUN students have cross-enrolled at community colleges to take those classes, Sedey said. But the Los Angeles Community College District also has felt the impact of the state budget deficit, causing Valley community colleges to cancel hundreds of classes.