Additional Recommendations and Special Reports

Baseline, Access, and Training Support (BATS) Funding Recommendation

The University's General Fund budget includes a permanent base budget allocation of $651,000 for the Baseline, Access, and Training Support (BATS) Initiative. The Resource Planning Process (RPP) Task Force conducts an annual review of the recommended spending plan and budget allocations for the upcoming fiscal year.

The RPP Task Force supports the University Information Technology Committee's (UITC) funding recommendations for FY 2005-06:

Recipient	Amount
Colleges	$384,090
Campus-wide Technology Help Desk	$ 91,140
University Library	$ 58,590
Information Technology Services	$ 45,570
Audio-Visual Services	$ 45,570
Disabled Student Services	$ 26,040
Total	$651,000

A review by the UITC of past years' allocations reflected a consistent pattern in supporting campus baseline needs. The RPP Task Force concurs with the UITC that the amounts designated to each area as recommended for FY 2005-06 should be continued in subsequent fiscal years with the caveat that should funding circumstances change at any time in the future, the RPP Task Force may request the UITC to recommend appropriate modifications.

BATS funding will remain in the University-wide category for accountability and will be distributed as annual allocations.

Common Management Systems (CMS)

The Common Management System (CMS) is a CSU system-wide initiative designed to replace disparate and outdated administrative application software with a common, integrated system. Our campus successfully completed the implementation and two upgrades for all three PeopleSoft modules —human resources, financials, and student administration.

The RPP Task Force acknowledges that although the campus is beyond the implementation phase of the CMS project, the current base budget allocation will not sufficiently address the projected cost of future upgrades and system modifications. Once better information about upgrade costs is available, the RPP Task Force can make a recommendation about the future budget requirements.

Deferred Maintenance

The RPP Task Force understands that the severity of the past three years of budget cuts required reductions in the campus' deferred maintenance budget. Even given the annual base budget of $2.2 million for deferred maintenance, it would take over 35 years to address the current $80 million backlog, and that is without considering the additional deferred maintenance that will accumulate during that timeframe. The RPP Task Force recognizes that the budget for these expenditures is underfunded and appreciates the efforts that the division of Administration and Finance is making to restore past cuts as quickly as possible. In addition, the Governor's budget provides the campus with a $116,000 augmentation to the deferred maintenance base budget.

Enrollment Services – Admission Application Processing

CSULB continues to be a high-demand campus and we are continuing to experience an annual increase in the number of applications over the previous year. For the fall 2005 semester, the campus received over 55,000 applications, including about 39,000 from freshman applicants.

Following the funding model that has been in place since the 2000-01 academic year, the RPP Task Force recommends that the campus continue to support an annual allocation to the Office of Enrollment Services to cover the additional workload due to the increases in applications being received, in order to ensure timely processing of admissions. Using the same funding model, the RPP Task Force recommends an allocation of $362,610 base and $175,990 non-base funding for 2005-06 to Enrollment Services from revenues generated from application fees.

Campus Capacity (Campus Master Plan)

In May 2003, the CSU Board of Trustees adopted a resolution that directs the presidents to review their respective campus master plans for enrollment and to consider increasing their campus enrollment ceilings. With the CSU statewide growth projection of 100,000 students over the coming decade, CSULB plans a formal request to increase its physical capacity by about 8,000 headcount or 6,000 FTES over the next 10- to 20-year period. Over that period, this change would increase our enrollment ceiling during the academic year from the current figure of 25,000 full-time equivalent students (FTES) to 31,000 FTES.

This plan was developed following extensive campus consultation. Preparations are now underway to meet the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). While the budget reductions have extended the original timetable for raising the enrollment ceiling, it is still expected that the campus will be ready to seek Board of Trustees approval for the ceiling increase before the end of 2007.