Cal State Fullerton Expecting Layoffs, 10% Cut in Classes

Cal State Fullerton, facing the worst financial crisis in its 32-year history, anticipates having to lay off seven non-teaching employees for the first time ever and lose as many as 200 lecturers, university officials said Tuesday.

The university also expects to cut classes by 10%, which means that it will take the university’s 25,000 students longer to graduate. Next fall, students can also expect fewer services, as plans are being formed to cut library hours--possibly closing the facility on weekends--and reduce non-essential student health services, university officials said.

“Right at this point, it appears unavoidable” that there will be staff layoffs, said Norma Morris, staff assistant to President Milton A. Gordon, who was not available Tuesday for comment. “But it is the full intention of the university to do everything in its power, working with the unions, to try to avoid any permanent staff layoffs. . . . No layoffs of full-time, tenure-track or probationary faculty are anticipated at this time, but the cuts (will probably) affect temporary employees.”

Previous budget crises have buffeted the campus, and one faculty member in a Russian Studies Program was laid off in the early 1970s because of declining student enrollment in that program. In fact, the university has been faced with trimming its budget for most of the last five years.

This coming school year, however, the university expects to have to cut $14 million to $16 million out of its budget of $120 million--nearly triple the cuts on campus last year. As state deficit projections balloon even higher to $14.3 billion, educators across the state fear that Gov. Pete Wilson will propose even deeper cuts.

“This is the worst I ever remember it, by far the worst,” said Morris, a 25-year employee at Fullerton and key assistant to Gordon and his predecessor, Jewel Plummer Cobb, who retired last summer.

Morris confirmed that Gordon sent a notice about possible campus layoffs to the California State University headquarters in Long Beach on May 14. Such a letter is required from all 20 campus presidents when layoffs are anticipated so CSU officials can notify and confer with statewide employee unions. Only then can campus presidents meet with local employee groups.

But Morris declined to detail the number or area in which staff layoffs are anticipated, saying the administration has only a contingency plan at this point.

Other campus officials, however, confirmed that the letter targets one counselor, three clerk positions and three tradesmen positions--in jobs such as electricians or plumbers--for a total estimated savings of $193,332.

Barry A. Pasternak, Fullerton’s representative to the California Faculty Assn., said the planned budget cuts and drop in classes could mean that the university will not rehire up to 200 of its 700 full-time and part-time lecturers, who teach about 38% of the courses at Fullerton.

Most of those affected are expected to be among the 500 lecturers with less than six years of teaching experience at Fullerton. Beginning July 1, the 200 or so with six or more years of experience must be given two-year contracts. But even they will probably face layoffs, Pasternak said.

“It’s going to hurt,” said Pasternak, a professor in the department of management science in the School of Business Administration and Economics. “In my department, we have four full-time lecturers. It’s likely that three of them may not have a job here next year. . . . One of those (lecturers) has a baby due in September, and one just bought a house. Obviously, layoffs create turmoil in people’s lives.”

But campus spokesman Jerry Keating said final staff determinations will have to await the May 31 deadline for workers who want to take advantage of an early retirement incentive package.

A wave of people seeking the so-called “golden handshake,” which would give them credit for two extra years of service, would help the budget situation, he said.

But Pasternak and others, who derisively refer to it as a “tin boot,” say the plan will probably benefit only those who would be retiring anyway.

For students, projected budget cuts will mean larger class sizes and fewer course offerings, a cut of 350 to 400 in the 4,000 or so courses normally offered, university administrators said.

Decisions on which sections will be cut will not come until after the early registration for the fall semester is completed in mid-June. Administrators will then examine student demand for courses. Courses not in great demand will probably be cut, with students consolidated into remaining classes.

Early registration is the key to getting priority for courses that are offered, spokesman Keating said.

Students were widely expected to be displeased about impending cuts, particularly because the CSU Board of Trustees last month imposed a 20% fee increase to ease the budget crisis, as recommended earlier this year by the governor.

The increase means that full-time students at Cal State Fullerton will be paying $1,108 a year, up from $952 for the 1990-91 academic year, Keating said.

Even so, students can expect that cuts at the student health center will mean longer waits for medical appointments and non-emergency or non-essential services, university officials said.

The campus library is also going to be hard hit. Its book acquisition budget was cut $800,000, leaving little or nothing for building its collection of texts and periodicals. The budget cuts, moreover, are expected to result in reduced staffing.

That, campus officials say, will probably mean closing the library during hours of minimum use. One plan under discussion is closing on weekends, which would probably hurt working students who can get to the library only during odd hours, university sources said.

“It’s going to affect the quality, no doubt about it,” Pasternak predicted.

“I think the taxpayers of California need to wake up and understand that the future well-being of this state depends on education,” Pasternak said. “And the quality of their children’s education is going to be affected by these budget cuts.”