The problem with budget cuts looms large as students try to get through another semester at California State University, Stanislaus. This is a problem reaching students, faculty, staff and administration.
Students have been seeing the effects of budget cuts for the last few years as they watch their tuition fees rise higher and higher into the coming semester.
According to the minutes from the Academic Senate’s meeting on Jan. 31, the school was asked to cut $2.05 million by the state. President Shirvani’s conversations with Russ Giambelluca (Vice President for Business and Finance) have led to a decision to use all our reserves to pay this off, using higher fees from the next semester to then refill those reserves. 
Not only are fees going up, but over-enrollment is adding to the issue as the school is fined for going beyond the three percent leniency in enrollment caps. 
“We are now at 7,217 FTES (Full Time Equivalent Students) and our target was 6,715 +3%, so we are 4.48% over the limit,” the minutes of the Jan. 31 meeting state. 
Over-enrollment means the school is penalized the 4.48% of tuition fees. Although the school did receive help paying $750 thousand of this fee, the problem found its way into the classrooms which means throughout many departments both students and faculty are struggling to fulfill their requirements. 
“We’ve had to accommodate extra students beyond our target numbers. Instead of 40 students in a class we have 55-60,” Dr. Thomas Abram (Chair of the Mathematics Department) said. 
Students fight for seats or become stuck in the system waiting for the class to be offered again. Meanwhile more classes are being cut or placed on rotation, only making the process of graduation harder. 
“Classes in my department were cut and our teachers have had to leave which means we can’t get the classes we need, especially when they are on two year rotation.” Susan Greer (senior, Music) said.  
“I had to stay another year,” Ashley Gresham (senior, Sociology) said.
This means another year of higher fees, higher loans and higher stress. With these numbers going up, teachers are seeing extra students in their class sections, which means more papers, tests and homework to grade in less time. 
Numbers show hundreds of sections enrolling beyond maximum caps. A total of 467 class sections are carrying 2,016 over-enrolled students according to the minutes from the Academic Senate meeting of Feb. 14.
“Staff hours have been cut as more students are added which means more work is loaded onto fewer faculty with fewer hours,” Dr. Scott Davis (Chair of the English Department) said. 
Faculty is doing what they can to meet the needs of students, however they are feeling the frustration of the situation as well. 
“We’re trying little fixes, seeking funding especially for field-work dependent courses,” Dr. Jennifer Helzer (Chair of the Geography Department) said. 
Throughout the campus, faculty and staff are trying to make up for what the budget leaves behind and preparing for the future. 
“We’ve dropped one production a year and replaced it with a student run show,” Dr. Mayer (Chair of the Theatre Department) said. 
Temporary positions bear some of the load, but because they only last one to two years they don’t provide long-term results. 
“More of our staff is temporary. We do have many positions, but they are grant funded and they only last as long as the money does,” Cathy Cummings (Administrative Assistant) said. 
Limited classes and cramped environments affect students and staff alike, however students, faculty and administration still hope to tough it out and are finding ways to help each other in difficult times. 
Working with publishers, the Biological Sciences Department has been able to reduce the cost of books by a quarter to a third of the cost by only keeping the texts that are vital to the curriculum, according to Chair of the Department, Dr. Mark Grobner. 
“Even though it may not seem like it,” Davis said, “we are on the students’ side and it’s really on our primary list of concerns to help them.”