I was sitting in my Introduction to Classical Literature class (English majors unite!) around week five of Winter Quarter when one of my classmates came in and started telling her friend about an email she received. The email was from Cal Poly’s very own President Armstrong sent out to students notifying them about Governor Newsom’s proposal to reduce funding for public universities. Prepping the students, it would seem. I was intrigued and decided to do some research.
My research yielded interesting results. According to EdSource, Governor Newsom’s proposed 2025-2026 budget includes a 7.95% decrease in funding for the UCs and CSUs. For all of us in the CSU system, that equates to a $375.2 million decrease in funding. Chancellor Mildred GarcĂa expressed her concerns over what this means for the future of student services and the ability of the CSUs to equip students with the resources they need to succeed in their degrees and future careers. She told EdSource, “Larger class sizes, fewer course offerings and a reduced workforce will hinder students’ ability to graduate on time and weaken California’s ability to meet its increasing demands for a diverse and highly educated workforce.” With how difficult it already is to get into the courses we need at Cal Poly, imagine how much more challenging it would be if some of those courses were no longer even offered. Paired with Cal Poly’s plans to convert to the semester system, students’ expected graduation dates might get postponed.
However, there may be good news on the flip side. Governor Newsom’s 2024-2025 budget promised a 5% increase in funding for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. While that is not likely to happen for the 2025-2026 fiscal year anymore, it simply means that the increase will likely be deferred to 2027-2028, along with $31 million offered to the UCs to make up for the lost revenue from admitting more in-state than out-of-state students in recent undergraduate admission cycles. Therefore, we can hold out hope that the CSU budget will not only be restored but improved in future years. There may even be a sliver of hope for the 2025-2026 fiscal year as Governor Newsom has a chance to revise the budget proposal in May; if revenues improve, California’s public universities’ funding may improve, too.
So the classmate in my Classical Literature class was correct: Governor Newsom is planning on cutting funding to California’s public universities, but there are other factors that may offset that, including the chance that his May Revise will bring a more positive outlook for 2025-2026 than his current budget proposal.