Cal Poly Pomona students will benefit from the passage Tuesday of Proposition 30, according to university officials.
Due to voter approval statewide of the tax hike initiative, the university will avoid an expected $12 million mid-year budget cut. As a result, the campus plans to begin rescinding the $166-per-quarter tuition fee hike that currently is in place, according to an announcement officials sent out to the university community.
The CSU Board of Trustees had a contingency plan in place to rescind the tuition fee hike from the fall 2012 term. Full-time undergraduate students will go back to paying $5,472, the rate they paid during the 2011-12 academic year. Also, enrollment will increase slightly for fall 2013 now that Proposition 30 has passed, with the admissions ofice to start reviewing applications for new students, officials said.
The Student Accounting and Cashiering Services Department on campus plans to start emailing students about the tuition rollback, which does not require a student to initiate the process. Students will either be credited, refunded the money upon request, or receive a reconfigured financial aid package reflecting the revised tuition fees.
For those who get financial aid, the fee rollback could be matched by a reduction of equal amount in the financial aid grant, in which case no refund or credit will be given, officials said. The rollback process is expected to be completed by Dec. 21.
“Passage of Proposition 30 helped us avoid another $12 million cut, and for that we are grateful. However, it’s important to remember that it does not restore state funding,” said university President Michael Ortiz. “Today, we are working with just 62 percent of the state funding we had received in 2007-2008. Our students need more support to ensure they have the classes and services that are essential for long-term success.”
The amount of money Cal Poly gets from the state has decreased by more than $56 million since the 2007-08 academic year.
As a result of the passage of Proposition 30, the 23-campus CSU system's budget will remain flat for the fiscal year. However, the system has lost $1 billion in state funding in the past several years, officials said.
"We are hopeful that the passage of Proposition 30 will be the beginning of the state's reinvestment in higher education," says CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “The long-term benefits of additional revenue can only be realized if higher education is once again a priority. The state needs to start making up for the devastating budget cuts of the past several years and focus on higher education as a driver of California’s economic future."
