Students Pay the Price As Universities Cut Back

Your editorial “Stand Up and Deliver” (Sept. 4) highlights the problem facing the California State University system. While Chancellor Barry Munitz talks about quality education, the actions of the administration at the Fullerton campus make one question this commitment. It is impossible to achieve the same educational experience in a class of 125 as in a class of 50.

While I applaud your characterization of our faculty as having a “can-do spirit,” one should also not lose sight of the frustration many of us feel about how the budget cuts are being handled. For example, there are tens of millions of dollars in the CSU Parking Fund which, with legislative modification, could have been used to lessen the impact of the budget crisis on students. The CSU administration refused to consider this option.

At Fullerton, the administration has supported continued funding of our money-losing Division I football team and has pledged substantial fund-raising support to this effort. We see little such commitment to the academic programs of the university. In fact, as the cuts unfolded at Fullerton, a 10% funding decline translated into a more than 20% decline in course offerings in many departments. This is in comparison to less than a 5% cut in administrative positions.

While it may be easy to cut courses, educating the same number of students by increasing class size, the true price will be paid by our future graduates. It appears that the CSU administration has not yet learned the lesson that you can’t get something for nothing.

BARRY ALLAN PASTERNACK, President, California Faculty Assn., Cal State Fullerton