CSUN Reinstating 100 Classes Cut From Fall Roster : Education: Funds come from the Northridge school’s share of $15 million released Thursday to the state university system’s 20 campuses.

Cal State Northridge announced Friday that 100 classes eliminated from the fall curriculum earlier this summer in preparation for state budget cuts will be restored, thanks to a $469,000 transfusion from the statewide CSU system.

The money is the Northridge school’s share of $15 million that CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz decided to release Thursday to the system’s 20 campuses to restore 3,500 courses to the fall schedule. Most of the reinstated CSUN classes will be general education courses, which students already enrolled need in order to meet graduation requirements.

Earlier this summer, CSUN administrators cut more than 500 classes from the 5,600 planned for the fall semester. On Aug. 4, they restored about 75 by borrowing from money budgeted for spring classes. The approximately 100 additional classes restored Friday will limit total cuts to about 325 for this fall.

It is unclear how many of the 533 part-time instructors laid off earlier this summer will be rehired because of the infusion of money. CSUN had asked for about $800,000 to help restore general education classes and rehire laid-off instructors, but received less than half that much, CSUN spokesman Kaine Thompson said.

“It will be of considerable help,” President James Cleary said in a statement. “We will be able to serve more students and it comes at a time when we can still hire more teachers.”

The money was freed up because Munitz said he was confident the state would eventually approve a proposed 40% increase in student fees.

“We’re taking the fee increase before we’ve gotten it,” said CSU systemwide spokesman Steve McCarthy. “We’re borrowing it internally.”

Munitz said several recent actions in Sacramento encouraged him to release the funds. First, the Legislature’s conference committee recently agreed on a 6.5%, or $109 million, cut in CSU’s basic support budget, a trim less severe than anticipated. Both the governor and Legislature now support the 40% fee hike CSU leaders want, an increase that will bring annual fees to $1,308 for in-state students, excluding room and board. And Gov. Pete Wilson recently signed into law an early retirement incentive for CSU faculty members that is expected to save money and lessen layoffs of lower-paid part-timers.

It was not clear whether the class additions will increase CSU fall enrollment, which was expected to drop because of cuts.

Officials reported that the equivalent of 270,000 full-time students attended the 20 Cal State campuses last fall. They feared that previously announced cutbacks for the fall would reduce enrollment in the system to about 241,000. Thursday’s announcement, they hope, will help attract the equivalent of 255,000 full-timers.

At CSUN 25,629 students had registered for the fall semester as of Friday afternoon, Thompson said, and administrators expect the number to reach about 28,000. Classes begin Aug. 31, and students are expected to add and drop classes into the first few weeks of school.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) asked Munitz on Friday to defer collection of tuition and fees until after the state budget crisis is resolved, because students who receive state grants as part of their financial aid package do not know whether they will get any money, or how much.

CSU systemwide officials said that each campus was handling the disbursement of financial aid separately.

At CSUN, financial aid officials have already waived fees for about 5,500 students, said Leon King, director of financial aid. Most of them were students who receive the bulk of their aid from federal sources, such as Pell grants or government-backed loans.

But King said CSUN deferred collecting $2.3 million in tuition payments by 351 students who received state university grants last year and were eligible this year. He said CSUN distributed $2.3 million in such grants last year and he hoped the school would get at least that much when a new budget is adopted.

“I don’t know how much in state university grants I’m getting this year,” King said. “It’s all tied up in Sacramento. If there is a fee increase, then I’ll get more money. If there are more cuts, well, then that’s trouble.”