Budget Summit

The Budget Summit held on September 14, 2023 provided the campus an opportunity to participate in a deeper conversation about the university’s financial resources and realities. Your engagement and consultation is important in the process of creating a financially sustainable budget model that aligns with our Strategic Plan.

• Fall 2023 Budget Summit Presentation Deck
• Financial Model Microsoft Excel Worksheet

Feedback Form

We invite you to provide feedback regarding the university’s budget. Your responses will be shared directly with Charlie Faas, Vice President for Administration and Finance and CFO. Thank you!

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ will continue to be updated with responses to questions submitted following the Budget Summit on September 21.

• Why is there a budget shortfall at SJSU right now?

  • We have had a significant structural deficit for a number of years and the administration has been well aware of the issues we face today for quite some time. The administration made the calculated decision, based in part on historical enrollment trends, to temporarily rely on one-time reserves for spending on the strategic plan in anticipation of enrollment growth that did not happen. Despite the permanent base budget reductions implemented this fall, we still have a $14.7 million structural deficit that we need to correct. There are three main reasons for this ongoing deficit: 1) Rising costs brought about by the pandemic and inflation and a rise in base salary and operations costs as well. 2) Enrollment did not meet our targets due in large part to the impact of the pandemic, which caused a decrease in our overall base budget. 3) We accelerated development and implementation of the Transformation 2030 plan, knowing it would greatly benefit the campus, faster than we were ready to support some areas financially, to the extent that we expanded our base budget by about $37M.

• How did we get here? If this is a facilities deficit, why is it being taken out of the academic side?  

  • Additional funding for the Interdisciplinary Science Building (ISB) did come from General Fund reserves and therefore limits the amount of reserves we have available to bridge the deficit in this or any other year. No other facilities projects have used general fund money. Academic Affairs has experienced a much smaller relative percentage of reductions compared to other Divisions.

• What is SJSU--and the CSU more broadly--doing to increase the level of funding provided to the CSU by the State of California?    

  • The CSU continues to lobby the State of California to increase the funding above the already-agreed-upon compact of 5% per year to allow for improved salaries and facilities at the CSU. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the System was funded only at the 5% compact level. This is important because the majority of our campus funding (about $430M) comes from two sources - enrollment dollars distributed by the System at a set full-time equivalent student rate (FTES) and student tuition. Tuition revenue will increase following the vote by the CSU Board of Trustees (6% a year over the next five years). The CSU has also committed to a redistribution of base funding across the system to those campuses that exceed current CA resident enrollment targets. Therefore, we must continue to grow enrollment to improve our budget outlook. 

• Are layoffs or furlough in the plans?

  • We appreciate the anxiety that this budget situation may be causing. We have no layoff plans at this time at SJSU. We are trying to balance the budget, instead, through attrition and organizational efforts. Our faculty and staff are critical, both to our students and to our ability as an institution to meet this challenging moment.

• Will existing positions be cut or eliminated?   

  • There will be no position cuts at this time. We have already made some budget reductions by eliminating long vacant positions across campus and anticipate that additional similar reductions will occur.

• During the 2009-10 budget crisis across the CSU, most faculty and staff ended up doing furloughs for one calendar year. Is something like this being considered again since doing something similar would likely put a significant dent in this $14.7M shortfall?

  • Furloughs are a Chancellor's Office decision, not a local one. With a structural deficit, we need to permanently reduce spending, not just for one year.

     

• Would it benefit the University to allow employees to work part time positions instead of full time? 

  • This is a manager/division decision. In some cases this makes sense for retention, salary savings, & work/life balance. Sometimes, this actually costs more money, if the two PT employees are used to replace one, and both the PT employees are receiving full benefits.

• How will the budget affect the current telecommute schedule?

  • There is no correlation between the budget and the telecommute schedule.

• What adjustments are being made to accommodate employee salary increases?

  • A couple of points of clarity in this process. Bargained compensation is negotiated at the Chancellor’s Office for the 23 campuses, not locally. The state does not provide specific funding to the CSU campuses for salary increases. Every 1% increase in compensation equates to $3.7 million in additional spending. Until we know the level of compensation increases that will be bargained, we will not know the exact impact to our budget and what adjustments may need to be made to account for them.

• How will budgetary concerns affect pay raises for faculty who were recently promoted? Can faculty anticipate any increase in base pay to accommodate for increases in cost-of-living expenses?

  • Bargained compensation happens at the Chancellor's Office, not at individual campus locations. Several unions have recently agreed to terms, though not CFA or Teamsters. The terms of recent labor agreements include salary increases at approximately 5% a year. 

• With our current budget constraints, have we halted any new construction projects? Is there the ability to pivot and redirect those funding to help with programs that need add'l funding to educate our students?

  • No. Dollars allocated by the State or donors to building projects must stay focused on those projects. Most new construction projects do not use General Fund money or reserves, with the exception of the Interdisciplinary Science Building (our first new academic building in over 30 years). 

• Will the budget of the Athletics Division also absorb cuts? Can we support student-athletes without all the costs?

  • Yes, every division participated in the base budget reductions this year.  We are also seeking ways to increase generated revenues to Athletics to offset state costs.  Generated revenues of approximately $10 million is the third component of the Athletics budget, which are used for student scholarships.

• Has SJSU considered leaving Division I athletics? Why hasn't that been considered in light of budgetary challenges that face the academic unit and the rest of the university?

  • While Division I Athletics comes at a cost, SJSU has the lowest budget among Mountain West Conference schools, significantly lower than San Diego State and Fresno State, for example. For further comparison, Sac State and Cal Poly participate at the FCS level (a lower Division I) and spend very close to SJSU's budget. SJSU is maximizing its budget while competing at a high level.

• Does the budget include club sports at all? Why are club sports overlooked regarding the budget and maintenance of the event center?

  • Club Sports and the Provident Credit Union Event Center are operated and funded by the Student Union (auxiliary), not the General Fund.  

• How does the fact that previously projected increases in enrollment and additional state funding have not materialized now impact this year's capacity to hire T/TT faculty?

  • We had an increase in state-supported enrollment this year (239 FTES), but a decline in non-resident enrollment (FTES 200). These changes basically offset any new funding going to the Division of Academic Affairs this year. Additionally, overall enrollment is still far below its height in FY 18-19. Therefore, each college is evaluating its T/TT hiring recommendations and those are being evaluated for final approval in the Office of the Provost. The decision to authorize those hires are limited this year to key areas of hiring that (a) meet an enrollment demand in a highly impacted discipline; (b) have funding sources that are tied directly to a particular hire (e.g…hires tied to our campus goal to meet the needs of AB 1460) or have non-state sources (e.g., PaCE dollars) to support that hire; and (c) meets a key accreditation or other essential campus area that affects our ability to successfully deliver our curriculum. This means that there is a reduction in the overall number of T/TT hires this year relative to the last four years, in which SJSU has hired more T/TT faculty than any other campus in the CSU.

• Will the RSCA Assigned Time program be protected? How will research time and support be protected generally?

  • The RSCA Assigned Time program, as it is currently constituted, is funded this year. The program will be evaluated this year to determine if it can continue at the current scale or if it needs to be adjusted. Various strategies for maintaining the program will be presented to the campus for discussion. The goal is to preserve a robust RSCA long-term.

• As we face budget cuts across departments, how will we ensure the continued funding and support that have continuously demonstrated a commitment to closing equity gaps?

  • SJSU remains committed to student success and closing equity gaps. The University has made investments in the student support infrastructure through its distribution of state-support and SSETF dollars to fund investments in student success in Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. Additionally, ongoing investments, supported in part by external organizations such as Adobe, are supporting faculty success, retention, and professional development to strengthen pedagogical strategies that can help students succeed. Moreover, the Campus Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, known as CCDEI, is a standing Presidential committee that identifies equity gaps and offers recommendations on ways to address systemic historical inequities at SJSU. This organization will be maintained at an appropriate financial level to support this critical work. 

• How do we prevent budget cuts from disrupting our commitment to social justice for our campus?

  • SJSU remains committed to its mission of social justice through an ongoing commitment to the work of CCDEI as well as critical investments in culture-centered student success units as well as areas such as Title IX. Moreover, SJSU’s social justice commitment remains strong in Basic Needs support, through the expansion of SJSU Cares program and offerings, as well as other critical social justice infrastructures in both Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. 

• Q. Why do we continue to hire more VP's compared to faculty?

  • There was a recent replacement hire for the VP of Advancement, but no VP positions have been added for approximately five years.

• Is there a plan/review to slow down or halt all non-essential hospitality related expenses?

  • OE&E (Operational Expense and Equipment) was recently reduced by about 10%. This includes contracts, IT, insurance, travel and is only 11% of the Campus General Fund.

• I appreciate that the investiture has been put off. What other things is the President's office going to do to reduce spending in that area?

  • Similar to all Divisions, the President's Office is also reducing spending.

• How were renovations to the football stadium funded?   

  • A $5 million commitment from alumni Larry and Deirdre Solari in 2018 kicked off the efforts to build Spartan Athletics Center. The balance of the project was funded through a loan from the Tower Foundation, which will be paid back through sponsorship and naming rights agreements for the facility.

• Is there evidence that the new Division of Research and Innovation (R&I) has substantially increased research activity?

  • The work of the Division of R&I has yielded unprecedented growth in research activity and provided significant support to student entrepreneurs over the past four years. Extramural research and creative activity funding increased from a five-year average of $50M to nearly $65M in each of the last two years – a 30% increase in financial resources for faculty-led, student-engaged research. This growth continues with the first quarter of AY2023-24 bringing in the highest quarter ever in SJSU’s history for the total extramural research awards received of $30M. Moreover, the effective facilities and administration rate on extramural grants increased from 24.5% to 26.5% over the past four years.