CFA Opposes CSU Plans to Continue Reallocating Funding Away from Campuses

CFA members continued their vigilance and advocacy around state funding for the CSU at an Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearing on April 29.  

CSU executives told the committee about their plans to reallocate funding from campuses with lower enrollment to campuses with higher enrollment. They also explained a request for one-time funding to help with enrollment and health care workforce programs.  

For budget year 2026-27, the CSU plans to move $26 million from five campuses to 12 campuses, said CSU Assistant Vice Chancellor Mark Martin. Martin did not name the five nor 12 campuses.  

CSU management began moving funding away from campuses below their enrollment targets to campuses above their enrollment targets in 2024-2025, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). Campuses above their targets that year were Northridge, Long Beach, Sacramento, San Jose, Monterey Bay, San Diego, Fullerton, San Luis Obispo, San Marcos, and Pomona. Campuses below the target were Sonoma, Maritime Academy, Channel Islands, Humboldt, East Bay, San Francisco, Chico, San Bernardino, Dominguez Hills, Stanislaus, Los Angeles, Fresno, and Bakerfield, according to the LAO.  

CFA opposes the redistribution of funding from campuses who have fallen short of meeting enrollment goals to campuses that have surpassed their enrollment goals because this impacts the ability of underenrolled campuses to rebound. Also, the redistribution of funds does not take into account that costs per pupil will be different at each campus. 

Students for Quality Education (SQE) CSU East Bay intern Kenia Juarez urged the subcommittee to oppose the reallocation of funding because it hurts campuses’ ability to grow.  

“On my campus, there has been programs that have been cut because of the lack of enrollment, which also stops the support that students get already, which is cutting the amount of students that they accept into these programs, which only hurts our university even more because of the funding,” Juarez said. “Unlike larger CSU campuses, smaller campuses do not benefit from these economies of scale. Even modest enrollment loss causes significant campus destabilization that can include the layoff of faculty and staff.”  

CFA members will continue to keep a close eye on CSU funding before and after Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revise, which will be released by May 14.