Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance

Good morning. Good morning everyone. We're going to call this meeting to order. Welcome and thank you all for being here. I am Chair David Alvarez of the Assembly Subcommitee Number 3 on Education Finance, Assembly Budget Committee. And welcome to all of you here today.

Today's hearing will focus entirely on an overview and perspectives from the leaders of our three segments of higher public higher education. We will have the Chancellor of Community College, the Chancellor of the CSU system and the President of the University of California. In addition to we'll have Department of Finance and LAO available as well.

So I'll ask all panelists to please come forward. We will give an opportunity to Members of the Committee to make any opening remarks who anyone who'd like to make some opening remarks. I definitely want to kick us off by saying first of all, thank you as the three leaders get settled. Appreciate you joining us today.

This is something we always look forward to in this Committee and I want to say thank you. First, as we get going, growth is occurring in the state of California. Demand continues to exist for higher education and that's a good thing, I think, for all of us Californians.

However, we are seeing different dynamics happen at different campuses and so we're going to get into that, I'm sure. As we move through today.

I want to highlight the consistent theme which you will hear from our discussion, which is our shared responsibility among all three systems and partnership with the Legislature to expand student access still in California to right size our campuses to reflect current and projected enrollment trends and to ensure that academic programs are intentionally aligned for California's workforce workforce needs.

The California Master Plan for Career Education provides a clear framework for all of this work. If you had a chance to read that was published last year. Sector based workforce alignment, particularly in high demand fields such as health care, education, climate, clean energy, IT and advanced manufacturing.

Seamless pathways across the systems, regional coordination, equity and access for Californians, in particular first generation students and those that have historically been unrepresented in higher education space and in the workforce. Those are certainly aligned with what has been the work of the Assembly over the last several years and I think that continues to be our focus.

I'm especially interested today in hearing from our leaders from each of the segments in what you're doing, how we're working together, not in isolation to advance the goals that I just described. Collaboration across our education system is essential. I don't think it's something that's optional these days.

It's something we have to figure out how to do and do better. This is particularly important if we're serious on improving outcomes for students and maximizing the impact of the limited public resources that we have. So I would definitely like to hear from our panelists on how collaboration is structured across your segments.

What specific metrics are being used to measure the effectiveness of that collaboration and how success is defined beyond just program participation and numbers. Student completion, transfer, workforce placement, those should be what guides the work of our segments. In particular, I want to focus on college transfer from community college.

Community colleges remained the primary gateway to higher education for millions of Californians. And we need to clearly identify what is being done to strengthen those transfer pathways which seem to still be stalled.

Reduce the excess units that require a completion of a degree, increase the number of students who are transferring to the four year institutions and ensure that those students are entering programs aligned with both their goals and clear labor market demands and how our community colleges can serve as ways for students to enter those careers as well.

The Subcommitee is committed to accountability. That's pretty much a clear indication of the work that we've been doing in the last several years. And with the leadership of our speaker that continues. We need to see alignment student centered outcomes.

I look forward to the discussion that we will be having here today on how our systems are working together to deliver on that commitment. And I'm looking forward to the testimony from the three leaders of the segments to walk us through that. So those are my opening remarks.

I'd like to see if any of the Members of the Committee like to share anything to begin. Okay, well then we are going to begin with the testimony. Give me just one second, please. Okay, we are going to be. Let's get started. We have it in order here, so I don't want to throw you guys off. We have Sonya Christian, Chancellor of California Community Colleges, to be our first witness today. Welcome.

Great. Good morning. Happy rainy morning, Chair Alvarez and Members of the Subcommitee. This is my third year as chancellor of the California Community Colleges and it's an honor to be with you this morning and a real pleasure to be here. Along with Chancellor Millie Garcia and President J.B. Milliken.

I have to say, even after three decades in California, I still feel the same awe and wonder for our higher education system that I felt 30 years ago when I arrived in Los Angeles as an immigrant and an international student. I remember stepping onto the campus and realizing that this state had built something extraordinary in its system.

3 segment system of higher education. A Full opportunity for every Californian. And that sense of possibility has never left me. There's a lot happening this week. First of all, happy Lunar New Year, the year of the Fire Horse. Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan.

So Ramzan Mubarak to all who are beginning this month of reflection, discipline and renewal. And as if that weren't enough, we are wrapping up Mardi Gras as we roll into the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday tomorrow. And I'm still debating which favorite food I will abstain from for the next 40 days of Lent.

Different traditions, different rhythms, all convening this week. It's a beautiful reminder of the richness and diversity of the communities we serve. So in terms of enrollment, enrollment growth off the charts. In 2021-22 the California community colleges dropped to 1.83 million students.

And there was a whisper that maybe this is a new normal, that given that high school enrollments were slowing down even before the pandemic. But I'm here to report to you, Members of the Subcommitee that in 2022-23 the California Community Colleges regrew 4.9%. And over that, in 23-24, we did not tiptoe. We surged another 9.6%.

And then in 24-25, another 4.6%. We are projecting for the year 25-26, another large growth of approximately 4.8%. And this is data from our MIS system.

So here comes my first ask of the Committee that although enrollments have bounced back at rates above 4.5%, if you track the growth that we have been funded for the last several years, it's been at 0.5, 0.5, 0.5 in 23-24. In 24-25, we had 2.28 and then back to 0.75.

So our ask of you is to consider providing a 3% enrollment growth for the California community colleges for this year 25-26, as well as 26-27. The governor's January proposal reflects a 1.5%. So you're asking for an additional up to 3%.

And I want to reassure the Committee that the California Community Colleges are also being very efficient with the funding. We are seriously tackling issues of repurposing our existing funding to reflect the priorities that are within Vision 2030.

In addition, even though our system has seen significant growth, there are certain districts that are in the process of right sizing. Growth is exciting, no doubt. Right sizing, not so much. This requires leadership. So I commend the leadership of presidents and chancellors across our system who have embarked on this road.

And an example of that is the Peralta District it's implementing a prune to grow plan, a proposal to reunite two colleges, Laney College and Merritt College, under the historic name Oakland City College.

The district is calling for this strategic reconfiguration in which one campus would now transition into a program hub that operates as a learning center of the main campus. I was asked to quickly give you an update.

Not an update, but to let you know that we have submitted our Title 9 report to you, so you should have that in your files. And I wanted to recognize the leadership of Assemblymember Mike Fong with AB 2048, as well as for Ellen Cesarati Monroy, who worked very closely with us on our report.

Now moving to the Governor's January budget. We are really happy with the proposed budget, particularly fully funding the student centered funding formula, as well as funding COLA at 2.41%, particularly for certain categorical programs like DSPs, Calworks, etc. Your PNs and so on. We're also pleased for the one time investments that the January budget reflects.

And I want to call out two of them because they're extremely important and I'm hoping we can hold onto it. So one is the common cloud data platform.

You know that the community colleges, we are a decentralized system with 72 districts with different platforms with vastly different capabilities, and our office receives critical student data six to eight months after the fact. So to advance our transfer agenda, for example, and to improve outcomes at scale, it's really critical to have this common data platform built out.

Implementing new technologies 72 separate times is not just inefficient and inequitable, it creates uneven capacity across districts and increases risk in an era when cybersecurity threats are increasing with sophisticated bots. And so it's a daily chore for us to keep track and being able to do it across the system would be extremely helpful.

We're also deploying smart technologies, AI technologies, and being able to deploy it once across the system would be helpful. So thank you so much last year for your $12 million for this project and the additional ask of 35 million will help us to continue to get it across the entire system from the demonstration project that we have.

So the second one time investment that I want to call out, like super happy that the January budget has an investment for credit for prior learning. And we are hoping to hang onto it through the end of this budget process. Vision 2030 makes credit for prior learning a core strategy, not a side program, not at the margins.

On the job learning and college learning are not mutually exclusive. Learning is learning, whether it happens in the classroom or on the job site, in an apprenticeship program, or through military service, it has value. And our goal is to build a learning ecosystem that formally recognizes applicable skills.

With college credit connecting veterans, working adults and apprentices directly to credentials that matter. Your investment last year at $15 million one time is already driving transformation with solid outcomes. In just the last two years, the number of Californians receiving credit for prior learning as a part of a credential pathway has grown from 30,000 to more than 95,000.

This is not incremental. This is transformational change that we can do with the smart technological tools that we have at hand. And we are wanting to build out this durable infrastructure. The additional request this year will allow us to scale statewide and our goal is 250,000 Californians.

And the formula, the ASK is based on an outcomes based funding formula. So colleges will get the allocation once the CPL has been transcripted. So after the performance. So as I wrap up my remarks this morning, I have some additional budget considerations that I hope you would seriously consider.

I made my first one, which is on the enrollment growth of 3% instead of the 1.5%. My second ask is for AI literacy. You see, community colleges are embedded within communities across the state of California.

We're asking for 10 million one time funding and 5 million ongoing from Prop 98 to be able to make AI literacy part of every Californian's daily life, including their workforce preparedness. Ask number three is 20 million one time for rebuilding LA after the Eaton and the Palisades fires. Thank you so much.

Last year you funded $5 million that went to community colleges like Pasadena City College, Santa Monica College and LA Harbor College, Louisiana Trade Tech College. And we are hoping that the additional 20 million one time would again expand the growth of construction ready workforce by expanding training capacity across LA colleges.

And lastly, super excited that the Governor's January budget has funded four new positions in our small but mighty office team. And we're hoping that you would be willing to extend that to additional positions and Fund the full list, which totals up to $5 million. And that concludes my remarks. And Chair Alvarez, you had a series of questions that I'm happy to address when it comes to the Q and A time. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Chancellor Garcia from the California State University System. Welcome.

Thank you. Good morning. Chair Alvarez and Members of the Subcommitee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I will say that I am in my role as Chancellor of the CSU two years and four months. So that means that Chancellor Christian is the senior among us.

I want to begin my remarks this morning by expressing my gratitude to Governor Newsom for taking a bold and unequivocal stand for public higher education in his 2026-27 budget proposal. This is much needed and greatly appreciated, especially given the real and potential disinvestment, legal action and threats against the CSU's core values emanating from our nation's capital.

Quite frankly, for all of us, and I would be remiss if I didn't also take the opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to this Committee and your legislative colleagues for your support to decrease the CSU's budget reduction that was initially proposed for the current year. The Governor's proposal represents a prudent investment in California's future.

As you know, especially the three of you on the Committee who are CSU alumni, the CSU is California and the nation's greatest engine of socioeconomic mobility. In fact, the CSU continues to dominate College Net's highly respected Social Mobility Index.

In addition to the number one ranked university, Cal State San Marcos, eight of the 20 and 10 of the top 25 in the 25 rankings are CSU institutions. The CSU is also the nation's largest four year higher education system. Each year, nearly 125,000 graduates walk across a Cal State commencement stage and onto California's workforce.

Remarkably, one out of every 10 employees in the state is a CSU graduate. The CSU economic impact on California is massive. A 2025 economic impact report, the most analytically robust study we've ever commissioned, finds that the CSU related spending supports over 210,000 jobs and $31.6 billion of industry activity and generates $2.3 billion of state and local taxes.

And CSU attributed income by our alumni supports another half a million California jobs and almost $115 billion of industry activity. Put more simply, for every dollar the state invests in the CSU, we generate a return of approximately $7.7 in industry activity, a figure that jumps to more than $35 when you include alumni earnings.

That's where the CSU stands today, despite the headwinds we and all of higher education continue to face. With the support outlined the Governor's proposal, the CSU can and will do more. Our priorities are clear as approved by our Board of Trustees and set forth in our new system wide strategic plan.

After meeting our mandatory funding commitments of $323 million, we will focus on growing enrollment with corresponding increases to financial aid to support these additional students. We'll provide all our world class faculty and staff which much deserve compensation increases and use the results of currently ongoing faculty and staff salary studies to specifically address deficiencies that are identified.

We will also take steps to address our massive backlog of critical facilities, maintenance and infrastructure needs and we will continue to partner with our system higher ed segments to broaden our collective impact, including working collaboratively with California's community colleges to explore the most efficiently and sustainably grow the number of California Bachelor's degree holders and we will introduce student success programs that meet students needs where they are and support them not only to and through graduation but into jobs in a career or into graduate school.

These are our priorities, but I want to emphasize today is our strategy for achieving these priorities. The CSU has recently undergone the most comprehensive and collaborative period of planning in the system's 66 year history. The resulting system wide strategic plan I alluded to a moment ago.

CSU Forward illuminates our path to serve as an even more powerful engine of economic mobility, to deliver sustainable affordability for our students and their families, to be the employer of choice in public higher education and to broaden the CSU statewide impact.

CSU Forward is supported by more granular planning frameworks, complete or near completion in student success, strategic enrollment management, information technology and human resources. Built into CSU Forward are clear performance objectives and outcome milestones to measure our progress and hold us accountable to all all our stakeholders, including all of you.

An additional accountability measure is the CSU's new fiscal health Monitoring Progress. Its purpose is to not only proactively and holistically monitor fiscal health and enrollment Trends across our 22 universities, but also to provide targeted support by identifying, sharing and scaling promising practices or to expand or adapt cost saving strategies already in place.

Examples of such efficiency initiatives include the continuing integration of Cal Poly's San Luis Obispo and Cal Maritime, the San Francisco Bay Region Network that is exploring shared resources across Sonoma State, San Francisco State and CSU East Bay, our multi university collaboration initiative that leverages economies of scale across procurement, information security and benefits Administration in our ongoing work to strategic align the CSU system wide resources with enrollment.

Demand. Chair Alvarez, I know this issue is of particular interest to you, one that was discussed in our December hearing on the CSU and and in our conversation last week.

Please know that we hear your concerns and are addressing them through our enrollment reallocation program which is shifting $89 million and more than 10,000 full time equivalent students to our most high demand campuses.

We believe this is a prudent way to support campuses that are over enrolled without doing potentially irreparable harm to campuses that are working hard to grow their enrollment and serve their regions. And please also know that we are committed to continuing to work with you on this important issue. The CSU needs are great.

We are grateful for the Governor's budget proposal and ask that you support it.

We also ask that should one time funding become available, you consider further investment in the CSU so that we can more meaningful address our more than $8 billion deferred maintenance backlog to provide our students, faculty and staff with safe and modern facilities equipped to prepare our graduates for the jobs of today and tomorrow. And as you consider your investment in the CSU, please know this.

We are prepared like never before to strategically focus the resources entrusted to us to advance priorities that have been carefully and collaboratively identified over a year long planning period with built in success metrics and milestones to measure our progress and to ensure efficiency, discipline, transparency, accountability and maximum impact.

The Governor's proposal is the right investment at the right time for the csu, for our students, who represents California's future workforce and future leaders and for our state. Again, thank you for the opportunity to address you today and I look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you, Chancellor. Next we'll have President of the University of California, President Milliken. Welcome for your first hearing here.

Thank you. Chair Alvarez and Members of the Subcommitee for the opportunity to be with you today. My first time, I've very much enjoyed over the last seven months working with my colleagues from the California Community Colleges and the California State University System. And I'm pleased to join them. And after listening to them today, I'm even more impressed.

I'm a big fan of both of them and both the systems of education they lead. I've spent 40 years working for five very different university systems across the country. But despite their differences, a fundamental belief of mine has remained constant throughout my career. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.

And higher education, particularly public higher education, is the best vehicle we know of to match that talent with opportunity. When we're successful, we achieve something truly meaningful. We become the best engine of social and economic mobility there is. We're able to change the trajectory not only of an individual, but of families and communities.

Few places are better at this than California. The work that our community colleges, CSU and UC do is changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Californians every day. But it doesn't end there.

UC improves the lives of countless people across this state, the country and the world through world leading teaching, research, patient care and public service that dramatically impacts the economy, health and quality of life. UC Health locations serve patients from 99% of California zip codes last year.

Our research generates four inventions a day, fueling California's leading industries and the University employs more than 265,000 people, contributing 82 billion to the state's economy. The breadth and depth of UC is unparalleled in higher education, and I'm honored to be a very small part of that.

I stepped into this role last summer, a few days earlier than originally planned, when the Federal Government suspended almost $600 million in research funding from UCLA. Each of our campuses and the UC system as a whole has been the subject of numerous federal investigations and enforcement actions.

These challenges have persisted during my seven months as President and required a great deal of attention from many colleagues and me, and I don't expect them to subside anytime soon.

The Federal Government continues to reduce its support of higher education and research, Federal policy changes and reductions to financial aid and student opportunity programs continue to threaten our ability to serve all Californians, and UC is affected by continuously rising operational costs impacting everything from housing to health care. Despite the declining federal support, UC's impact continues to grow.

We reached a remarkable milestone this past fall, enrolling more than 300,000 students for the first time in our history. This includes over 200,000 California resident undergraduates, also a record. We added nearly 19,000 full time California undergraduates since the Compact was signed in 2022.

These record breaking numbers reflect the state's commitment to academic excellence, access and innovation, and the value of a UC degree. They also reflect the University of California's commitment to serving the people of its state. Given these challenges and opportunities, state support has never been more important. Governor Newsom, State budget proposal acknowledges this.

We're heartened that it included a base budget increase of 7% or $350 million increase in ongoing funding and a restoration of the $130 million base budget deferral from the current fiscal year. The Compact funding is essential for UC campuses to provide instruction and student services to a growing stud.

At the same time, we hold tuition levels that make attendance one of the best values anywhere. The Governor is proposing an important step to Fund both the final year of the Compact payment and a portion of the fourth year payment. I'm hopeful we can build on this year's progress.

To receive the full compact funding proposal is a very positive first step. I'm grateful for the unwavering commitment the Governor and you, our legislative leadership have shown to the students and the university that serves so many Californians.

I look forward to our ongoing collaboration to ensure that our students have what they need to succeed at UC and beyond in the months ahead. My focus is twofold.

Preserve what has made UC an extraordinary public university, world leading research enterprise, great teaching, life changing medical care, and to continue to evolve, to innovate, and to ensure that this institution is responsive and meets the needs of a changing state.

That means leveraging technology, including AI, to make UC and higher education more accessible and affordable to more Californians. With regard to AI in particular, California is the birthplace and the center of the AI universe and its use is not optional. It is incumbent upon us to be leaders in the ethical and responsible adaptation of AI.

Others should not define this for us. I look forward to discussing these issues and more with you today and over the months ahead. I want to note that we provided the Subcommitee staff with a written statement on Title 9, as requested.

It is a privilege of a lifetime to be leading the University of California today as stewards of UC in this critical moment in history. The Board of Regents are talented faculty and staff and I plan to meet the challenges together, guided by the values that have shaped UC across generations.

I'm pleased to have the opportunity to answer any questions I'm able to today after seven months in this role. And I thank you again for the opportunity to be here and for your support of higher education in California.

Thank you, President Milliken. Appreciate it. We're going to turn to the Department of Finance, see if they have any additional comments and then we'll hear from the lao.

Good morning,.... No additional comments, but happy to take any questions at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Jennifer Pacella Legislative Analyst Office I think you have some reports. We've already done some more underway. I think this morning. We're just here if we can be of help for clarifying any answers or confusion that might arise.

Thank you. I know I have some questions for you, so appreciate you being here. Well, again, I want to start off by thanking all three of you for the work you do on behalf of California students.

As one of you, I think Chancellor Mildred mentioned, you know, we have a lot of members, the body of the Legislature, who are a proud alum of one of our three segments of higher education.

And we are, I think, all feel very proud of that, as it is clear that you do as well of the systems that you lead. But I also think in talking to colleagues, there's also a desire to bring that same hope and opportunity to a lot more Californians.

And so my questions are really not inconsistent with my previous questions to all of you, whether individually or at Committee hearings, is how are we going to achieve that goal of serving more Californians and providing that opportunity to more.

So let me start by asking some questions that are more general and then I'll ask each other one of you for specific questions.

I'd like to know if you could share with me what concrete initiatives that you are working on intersegmental that you can share with us today that you you think is of value for us to know about and potentially to help you with as you move forward.

As we're trying to educate more students, we hear a lot about wanting to collaborate and we see some examples of that. But I think certainly the moment has come, given our fiscal situation, where we need to be thinking more in that regard.

So why don't we start in reverse order this time and then we'll kind of move it around so that everybody gets a chance to go first. President Milliken

Well, you, you started at the at the low point because I am the least versed on this after. My colleagues are relatively new in the job but served much longer terms than I have and I am learning from them.

We meet monthly now, continuing a tradition that started before I arrived to talk about different things that we can collaborate on. But if that's the specific question and you're going to you're the General and you're going to get to the specific later, I'm really in trouble because, because I'm going to have to ask my colleagues.

That's fair, I guess, given the fact that we often hear about the need to collaborate. I'm just curious maybe if there is nothing that you are currently working on, some expectations you may have about cross collaboration.

So when you and I talked before, I think I agreed with you. At least, I believe that we have the best systems of higher education that exist.

And while we serve large number of people, we heard the chancellor say the largest university system in the country, we serve a large number of people, but we're also in the largest state and I think there's always more we can do to expand the high quality programs that we provide to more Californians.

So I think that we have to, this is a goal of mine, whether it's through collaboration with our sector colleagues, whether it's through the increased use of technology in delivery, which I do not think we've been a leader in, whether it is through credentialing programs for just in time credentials for re skilling and retooling throughout life and careers, whether it is for finding ways to shorten the time to degree.

I think these are all things that we need to explore that will allow us both to have more efficiency in the way that we provide education and hopefully a credential, but also to open seats for more Californians at the same time. So these are all things that I'm thinking about.

I appreciate you sharing that. Obviously, as you settle in, I think and we get to hear you. The one interesting thing I actually noticed when it was mentioned the short term of, relatively short term of all of you, the members of this body also will be here likely, you know, for the next decade.

And so this collaboration amongst you and amongst us I think is something that we're going to try to ensure continues to occur. So I heard some examples expanding the use of technology, retooling and offering certification. I'm looking forward to seeing those initiatives being rolled out and see how that can happen to, as you said, serve more students.

Chancellor Garcia, anything you'd like to share?

Chair Alvarez, yes, I have a couple of examples, but I will begin by saying that we are working collaboratively with the community colleges and now with the UC, with our new colleague on my left, we are meeting once a month. And so that's a good thing to talk about these kinds of issues.

You should know that we have 15 CSU working with 37 community colleges to provide concurrent enrollment nursing programs which allow our students to earn their ADN and BSN degree in three years. Another example is Cal State San Luis Obispo is operating a two plus two program in Business Administration and Sociology at Allen Hancock College in Santa Maria.

The CSN3 is a partnership between Cal State Monterey Bay and Hartnell College, allowing students to earn an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree in computer science in three years. And as you know, Chair Alvarez, San Diego State and San Marcos are working to provide programs in Chula Vista and there are numerous programs in that.

But you also should know is each one of our presidents has been working collaboratively with the community colleges to see how we can work together to shorten time to degree.

We also have the ADTs that we're working on and we know we have to work even more because there are many ADT students that are not going forward from the community colleges to the four year institutions. And so those are some examples that I can share with you. There are many more, but those are some that I can begin with.

Thank you. Chancellor Christian, please.

So before I get to the sort of the academic collaborations, wanted to recognize that we have partnered on housing projects which has been phenomenal both with the CSU and the UC. And most recently I visited the housing at UC Riverside and Riverside Community College District.

And it's just fantastic to have students like colocated living and learning together. We're also partnering on AI projects which has been great.

There's a tool called the Program Pathways Mapper which we're expanding through all three segments that look at transfer pathways clearly lined up so students don't need to go through tons of documents to try to figure it out. I'm really glad Chancellor Garcia brought up specific examples. Phenomenal work happening with community colleges with their local CSUs.

And for example, the nursing collaboration is fantastic. We have students who complete the ASN, complete a BSN at the CSU. Having said that, we also have private institutions that have a lot of our transfer students. In the BSN example, 78% of BSNs in the state of California come from our non public sector institutions.

Some of them are extremely expensive. $80,000, $100,000. So to the extent that we can provide more affordable options, the need is significant. So we've got to be full throttle to address these needs. The workforce needs are significant. So, from the Board of Governors and the California Community Colleges, our first goal is to meet the needs and we need to open up possibilities for all of the three segments to be able to meet these needs.

So, super excited to deepen collaborations, deepen investments on transfer pathways to go good degrees that have good jobs at the end of completing that bachelor's degree.

And I'll wrap up by saying that Vision 2030 for the California Community Colleges has baccalaureate, equitable baccalaureate attainment as one of the three strategic directions. So even this year our board of Governors toward rural communities.

If you go up to Northern California and to the eastern part like Lassen and Feather River, these are mountain communities and we were hearing from students who when it's snowing and things like that, and one student is a single parent, to drive to a degree for an opportunity is difficult.

So I think in the next few years, i'm excited through collaboration, through technology and partnership with the Legislature to come up to really push ourselves more to meet the needs of Californians. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll get to that issue in a second. And also the issue of transfers. We do need to talk about transfers. It's something that I think we universally would agree, we can do a lot better in California.

But let's start with a question that I'll just say, personally, I've begun to be more focused and I've heard it as themes from the three of you, which is very exciting to hear, but I like to know, and again, President Milliken, you might have to get back to us on this, but what work is being done on a regular basis at your campuses, within your communities to identify workforce needs so that we are aligning academic programs to serve those workforce needs.

Maybe we'll start with Chancellor Christian first and we'll go back a different direction. I'd like to know specifically what is happening on a system wide and a campus wide level to identify this.

I won't cover our existing structures like centers of excellence that try to keep track of the economic development that leads to workforce development. The biggest issue we are dealing with right now is the implication of AI on all sectors.

So whether it is AI related sectors like IT, but even in the medical sector, in agricultural, logistics, the new blue economies, so what at the system level, what we're doing even more so in the last few years is engaging with employers in a much more systematic way through MOUs that define deliverables.

We're trying to get our faculty at the R and D table. I mean, when you think research and development, you think UCs, you don't think community colleges, right?

But the reality is our community college faculty, to be able to keep up with changing curriculum to meet workforce need, they have to be at the R and D table for industry.

So that is something we are systematically, whether it is, you know, big companies like Google, for example, we're also entering to an MOU with a port of LA where there's large employers looking at what is happening so we can retool curriculum.

And my last example is partnerships with unions because to get to workers, you know, it's employer aligned, but it's worker center to get to workers.

The safe place to get to workers is through employer, through unions like the United Domestic Workers, the United Health Care Workers who are getting to the workers directly to look at how they can retool to keep up with the technology that is impacting the jobs that they do.

Thank you. Chancellor Garcia.

So, as you heard earlier, we started, we just approved the CSU forward strategic plan. In that strategic plan plan is not only graduating our students, but helping our students either get into a career or go on to graduate school, hopefully to the UC for their PhDs.

And so each university has already started that we want to strengthen by region because workforce needs for the state is really by region. What does the region need in order to provide the necessary work, the talent to go into those positions? And so each university is looking at that.

The other thing, and Chancellor Christian talked about it, AI. We have AI for all our students because we must prepare our students. Our students are already using AI, let's be clear. And what we have to make sure is that we're preparing them for the workforce, that we're making sure it's being done ethically and comprehensively.

And we have partnerships across the AI industry working with the CSU and our faculty, as a matter of fact, through the faculty themselves. Not only are we doing for back room, you know, administrative things, we're also put out an RFP to our faculty, to look at AI and how they transform their curriculum.

And we had over 400 faculty members apply for that because this way our students are prepared to go into the workforce as we prepare them. We are actually monitoring the presidents every year to come to us and say, who are you working with? What is your region's needs?

And making sure that that is happening throughout the State of California. And in three years, we're going to start looking at what is the outcome year by year. But then at the third year level of the strategic plan, how much have we moved forward in our plan?

Thank you. President Milliken.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I think it's the right question because we have seen for a few years now national polling data that reflect a concern about the relevance of degrees to launching careers. You know, for.

Since all of us have been at this a relatively short period of time, I'll say that something I found kind of fascinating is the focus of higher education and policymakers with regard to higher education over the last few decades that I've been doing this. At one point the entire focus was on access and affordability.

And that was everything. It was all about increasing Pell. It was, success was not, it wasn't even discussed that much. And I'm talking about decades ago now. It was our obligation to get the students in, and then we'll see how they do. Then success became an equal focus with access.

But it's actually, now there's a third step in this evolution, I think. Which has only been over, I would say the last decade or so, which has been the responsibility of institutions to help their successful students launch their careers, launch successful careers, get jobs, which would not have been the topic of conversation a couple of decades ago.

So I think it's, it's really important. One of the things that we're doing and that a lot of places are doing is looking at how much more we can do with experiential learning. Everything that we know about it is positive, that it increases engagement, increases the opportunity for successful launching of first jobs.

So we're piloting now at two of our campuses a program that offers additional credentialing in immediately marketable skills in addition to a baccalaureate degree, which will, we believe, prepare you for a lifetime of changing career. But combining these short term skills, marketable skills with an internship. And so students get this double impact of these valuable skills.

And we're expanding that now at these two campuses are piloting and this is something that we will, we're looking to do across the system.

The final thing I'll say I mentioned earlier, and so did my colleagues that focus on AI. This is a place where we're rapidly changing and the skills required and the kinds of employees will change as well. And so we're staying close to our industry partners on trying to understand what their needs are and how that changes.

We've just launched the first undergraduate AI degree at one of our campuses near you. And I expect that we'll see more of that adaptation as the marketplace changes.

I appreciate that. I think it's good to hear that. My General comment on this issue is that I feel like we're not responding as nimbly or we're not as nimble enough to respond to those sort of needs that come up quickly.

And so I'm interested in hearing on a going forward basis from all of you how we're going to do that, how we're going to be responding to that. President Milliken, you mentioned something that makes me think about you're doing something a little bit differently.

You're talking about upskilling and working with credentials, which is not something that UC has typically done. That makes me think about the sort of elephant in the room, the Master Plan of Higher education. Which told every segment, you're supposed to do this, you're supposed to do that, and you don't sort of get out of your lane.

It sounds like to me that innovation in order to serve student needs Is something sounds like you're looking into doing with this, because you've told me this before and I've thought about it since then and I think you got the right approach here, but it's not really entirely aligned to what our expectations of UC have been in the past.

And so I'm intrigued and interested in that even more so, and I'd like to hear from you as to how that fits into the big picture of what we do in California.

So I guess you'll get a chance to see how much impact a President can have on the priorities of a university system. Perhaps not much, not this one.

So I, I think innovation in what we do is incredibly important in terms of serving more Californians, in terms of restoring to some degree the trust confidence that people have in universities. We have to ensure that they understand the relevance of colleges and universities to a great life, but also a great career.

I know when you come someplace new, the sort of most offensive thing you can say is when I was at, I did this.

But in Texas, because of what we were seeing in the post Covid marketplace in terms of hiring and preparing our graduates for jobs, we launched what became the largest short term credentialing program in the country, partnering with, in this case Coursera and Google and were their largest partners.

And we ultimately offered every undergraduate and every alum free access to these short term credentials. But that's one example. Whether that's the right recipe for California is another question.

I mean the question really is that's not what UC does in California.

Well, say that again.

That's not what UC does in California. UC does not do that type of work.

Well, our institutions, all our institutions need to continue to evolve. We have to be more nimble, as you suggest.

And whether whether the model that we use in Texas, that's one way to approach this, whether that's the right model, you see, it's actually not the model we're using at our two pilot programs where we're creating these short term credentials in our own campuses, which may be the right thing to do and to ensure the level of quality that we want.

But just because credentials, short term credentials, certificates, et cetera, bolted on to a degree, have become popular with some employers and popular with graduates, that's not the end of the innovation. At one time the hottest credential was encoding. That's not the hottest short term credential anymore.

So we're going to have to continue to innovate and be nimble in a whole variety of dimensions.

Thank you. I asked those questions just because, as I said earlier, you and I had a conversation, and I've been thinking about, about this, and it's been, it's been very interesting to me to think more about it, and the way you've expressed it makes sense to me.

I would say, I mean, you referred to the elephant in the room, and I'm a huge fan of my, I'm honored to call him my predecessor, Clark Kerr. I think he was perhaps one of the most impactful university leaders in the 20th century.

If he were here today, I think he would be thinking about how we innovate and improve to serve the needs of a different state that has three times the population that it had when the Master Plan was created.

I would agree with you there. Let me ask about this statistic that Chancellor Christian, you mentioned, and really, maybe I just missed it before, but 78% of BSNs go on to a private institution to receive their BSN from community college?

Yeah. Last year, we had. Our office was tasked with pulling together data related to BSNs. And the data that we had last year was, we have approximately 10,000, but 9,800 BSNs in the state of California. The need is much higher.

Out of the 9,800, over 7,000 of those come from private institutions and about 2,000 from our public sectors, which would be the CSUs and the UCs.

That's an annual figure, then?

That's an annual figure. Yeah. So. And the need is still, you know, the need is still significant. And, you know, you'd asked the question about the Master Plan. I was assuming you were going to ask it if Chancellor Garcia knew as well.

Of course.

So I was preparing and kind of organizing my thoughts around it. And I kind of grew up, not grew up, I grew up in India, but got my first job at Bakersfield College. And. And in 1960, when the Master Plan was signed, it was Dorothy Donahoe was the legislator from Bakersfield who was part of, introduced that legislation.

And in Bakersfield, our local CSU, Bakersfield, started offering doctoral degrees. And I can tell you that many of the employees at Bakersfield College were able to get their doctorate degree only because the local CSU offered it. At the same time, we have partnerships with UC Merced on a lot of the STEM programming and so on.

But for me, my opinion is that at this day and age, the intent of the Master Plan was to meet the need of the Californian, that it was a human right. Higher education was a human right. For it to be a human right, it needs to be affordable.

In addition, and right now when we are looking at our transfer numbers, I know you're going to ask the question about transfer and I agree we've got to do a better job. I commit to all of you that we will continue deepening our partnership with using technology. Particularly CSUs are our largest transfer partner.

The reality is we have private institutions like ASU and others that are coming in that are picking up our students because the numbers are large. When we're looking at capacity issues, to me, we've got to open up channels for our CSUs, our UCs and the community colleges to be able to provide affordable options and meet the intent of the Master Plan with the demographics and the economics and the technologies that we have today. That's my spiel on that question. Thank you.

Appreciate your feedback. Chancellor Garcia obviously want you to provide the feedback as well. But I think let me just preface it by, by asking a question about the work that CSU does. And earlier you made a comment that you hope your students earn their degree and then go pursue a PhD at UC.

Why couldn't they go pursue a PhD at a CSU campus?

It's all about faculty. It's all really about getting the proper faculty to do the work. And quite frankly, it's a changing of the structure, because in the UC I worked at a research fund at Arizona State. Faculty teach 2211. The teaching is not the center point for us.

The center point is A, getting them a bachelor's degree and a master degree, and apply doctorates. That is why we have a Master Plan to work together. As you think about the master plan, I do agree with Chancellor Christian has to be affordable and it has to be nimble.

And I, you know, before we throw the baby out with the bathwater, how do we have a larger conversation about the Master Plan and think through what's best for the student and think about what does that look like today. And doing it piecemeal is okay because we have to work fast.

But on the other hand, we should be having a larger conversation with all of you and all of us thinking through the Master Plan and how do we work together in a student centered way in thinking what is the most nimble way for us to get every Californian that degree that they so desire.

When it comes to BSNs, just because that's been mentioned, we're not going to discuss a particular policy. But when you've got 78% of community college students not going to a CSU, why is that not happening?

Again, in order to teach a BSN. We need the placements. There are smaller classrooms. We need the labs. And so that's very important. And the faculty have to be prepared. You know, the faculty have, we do have a doctorate in nursing, but not enough.

Yeah, that's where you know my earlier question about identifying needs on the workforce front. This one's a very clear one and it's been a very clear one for many years, where I think we need to figure out how are we going to respond to those needs.

So if it's, if you're telling me you need more lab space and more infrastructure, then that's what the Legislature should be hearing when we are seeing proposals on trying to expand access to bachelors for nursing as opposed to let's just keep things the way they are.

And I think that's what this conversation is just overall about and as you said, requires an extensive conversation from all of us to do things and think a way a little bit differently. Let me go back to Chancellor Christian to ask you about an issue that you mentioned related to Oakland City College now.

You're combining a couple of campuses and this is important. Chancellor Garcia, you're going to know right away as soon as I ask the question for you because as you stated, Chancellor Christian, it's a difficult conversation to have. And I'm just curious what that process has been like.

When did it start and when do you hope to sort of have a better understanding of where you're going with this right sizing approach.

So, I mean, first I really need to commend the chancellor of Peralta and the board of trustees, because they are locally governed, in taking on this issue.

You know, looking at enrollment trends, not kind of a one off, but looking at it over the course of, you know, over a decade, looking at the demographics, you know, really studying what is happening in the community and looking at fiscal strategies as well as how to take care of redundancies.

So they came up with what they called pruning to grow approach. Where two colleges in the district, Laney and Merritt, the proposal is to have one community college rather than two called Oakland City College. This would now have one president rather than two. And so there's the administrative positions that will be less.

They're looking at getting pathways aligned. There's an accreditation component as well. So they're working closely with our accreditor to make sure that students have a plan, a teach out program so they can complete their program of study. And they're also working very closely with our office. It's a three year plan. And my comment, it's not easy.

Growth is a fun thing to be planning for. But I want to stick to their language and say pruning to grow and honor the way they've worked through their communities. This is a model and these are the difficult conversations that our CFO, you know, Chris Ferguson, who was before in finance and he's been taking this on as one of his priorities as he came to into the chancellor's office and working closely with CFOs across across the system.

This morning I was looking at some data to see, you know, which of the colleges that have not, have declined after the pandemic. And really we have only one district that hasn't bounced back after the pandemic. But some of them are not coming back with the growth that we were hoping to. So we're looking at repurposing and potential consolidation.

Thank you. Chancellor Garcia, in the case of CSU, we're seeing some similar patterns. We've seen some pretty large declines over multiple years. Certainly Covid stands out, but post Covid, the rebound has not occurred in a certain way. You mentioned the reallocation of enrollments to the tune of $89 million, 10,000 students being reallocated for growth.

Ultimately, from my standpoint, there's an issue of we've got hundreds of thousands of Californians who are applying to attend multiple state schools, CSU schools, and not all of them are accepted at some campuses, primarily the ones with growth just geographically for no other reason, just to paint a better picture. North versus South. Right?

You know that better than I do. I ran the numbers though, and the current projection for you is if I understand correctly, if a campus has less than 10% of their targeted enrollment, enroll ultimately at that campus, you will be making 5% reductions to their budget.

With the I think it's seven campuses that are double digit not meeting target over the last several years. Ran a scenario that if you did that 5% reduction, in some cases it would take up to 7 years to right size. Some cases 5 years, some could get there a little quicker.

Given that there's still demand and need for students to attend our CSU system, I'm concerned that your current reallocation formula model is not responding quickly enough to those needs. So I want to give you an opportunity to respond to that approach.

Chair Alvarez, I hear your concern and we have been looking at that very carefully, as you know. This year only three institutions have not met their enrollment targets. And so we are looking to work with those institutions to see how they are meeting the enrollment, working with them. Working. Thank you. Sorry about that.

Working with them, ensuring that they continue on the upward trajectory. On the other three, we also are going to make sure when you look at institutions like Sonoma, we just hired a new president to give that person a chance to turn it around the way that Chico State's new president did, to start turning around the enrollment.

For the others, we're looking at things very carefully, like the north with the San Francisco Bay Network, to see what we're going to do there and start it with them working together, the three presidents. As Chancellor Christian said, this is very difficult. As you know, these institutions serve a region, the region that wants them there and is supporting them.

And the faculty and staff want to work as hard as possible. We are assisting them to see. But there will come a time like we did with Maritime and SLO, that if it has to be done, it has to be done, but we have to get these institutions a chance.

And at the same time, not only did we do the 10,000 and the 89 million, we took 40 million of one time money to give to those three institutions that really raised their enrollment. We are a system, and as a system, we are serving the entire State of California. And so we're trying to balance this delicately as we move forward.

Great. I know we'll continue that conversation. President Milliken, one thing that you said that I just want to make sure I heard correctly because this is about access. 99% of zip codes in California were served, I think you said, by a medical center from the UC. I just want to sort of clarify.

You don't have a UC Medical Center throughout almost 100% of the state. These are people who go to your centers because that's where there's good quality care. Right? Thank you. Just two more. I want to give our colleagues a chance. Common course numbering. This relates to transfer success.

And I'll give you a chance to talk about transfer just generally. But it's my understanding, I know I've asked it to, I think all three of you, the last time we spoke with, I spoke with all three of you. Still not implemented now.

And I don't know how many years year, which year we're in now, but I think I would just express, in talking to some of my colleagues who may not express this themselves, the level of frustration and not being able to figure out how to number courses that are aligned doesn't make us feel warm and fuzzy about other collaboration that should be happening with the three of you.

So I'd like to get an update on where that is, and I'd like to get a commitment of when that will be completed and anything else related to transfer that you want to highlight for us that you think is working well. Love to hear that as well.

Why don't we start with Chancellor Garcia so we mix it up a little bit.

Let me start out by saying that transfer enrollment increased by 2%. And we welcomed more than 53,000 transfer students this fall. And more than 151,000 of our students started at our community colleges. We are pleased by the student centered CSU community college partnerships that are paying off. And so we are continuing to transfer success pathway.

And you should know that 92% of community college transfer applicants are admitted to at least one CSU. 69% of our transfers to the CSU earn a Bachelor's degree within three years. So we are continuing to work on that on the course numbering, as you know, that is working with our academic Senate and numbering.

And I know we are working collaboratively with the community colleges and the UC. I have asked our new Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Junius Gonzales, to work alongside them to see if we can continue to make much better progress. I agree that we should have common course numbering across the system. And you have that word that we are working on that diligently. And I will go back and find out how quickly we can do that.

Thank you. President Milliken.

Transfer is a priority the University of California and we're committed to meeting our goal in by 26-27 of admitting one resident transfer student for every two first time full time freshmen Californians. I don't have the history that you have or that my colleagues, so I can't, I can't comment on the specifics.

But I will just tell you that it's been a priority of mine throughout my career. I think, you know, at one of the systems I led, we had community colleges as well as four year baccalaureate colleges. And so it was really the first focus of my role there was in increasing the successful transfer.

Do you have an update on common course numbering? Chancellor Christian,

I will say, Chair Alvarez, that you have my commitment. I completely acknowledge the frustration with the work for the common course numbering. Personally, I will double down on it. We'll partner up. I'm even thinking maybe we can bring some smart technologies to help us with it. Kind of galvanize our faculty.

This is faculty work and sort of bring our energy to that work. So both to the transfer agenda, we CSU is our largest transfer partner. We're also UCs as well, mostly STEM pathways, but we're also got HBCU pathways, pathways to other universities like national and ASU.

But for today you've got the commitment that when we come back a year from now, we will put some energy and resources behind the common course numbering. Thank you for that question.

Thank you. I'll wrap up with three points, one for each of you for follow up another time, then turn it over to colleagues and if time permits you can respond to these three. President Milliken, something that has been of interest and issue to myself as chairs this Committee before your time.

So I want to raise it again because I am hopeful in your leadership in many regards.

But one thing that the Assembly particularly has been focused on is on California students having access to the UC and the lao, which I realized didn't give a chance to respond to a few things I had, but maybe towards the end has raised the issue of the payment for the buying out.

That's not the right term of the out of state students. In exchange of allowing California students to attend the UC, I would like to put forward to you and request that you look into the idea of, particularly at those three campuses that this refers to that I believe there, there may be some elasticity or some room for the out of state tuition to potentially grow even more in order to support more growth of California students.

We can follow up later, but essentially My understanding is that the UC system, the regents, authorized tuition for out of state students across the board, regardless of the dynamics by region or by campus.

And you know, the three campuses at which we again subsidize the California students in exchange of you accepting more with less out of state students. I think there's a possibility to, for more revenue to be generated from out of state students in order to help the growth of California students at your campuses.

So I'm just going to leave that with you. We can chat more about that. And I know your team knows exactly what I'm talking about. So for Chancellor Garcia, obviously the issue of enrollment reallocation is something we will continue to revisit. That is something that is a particular concern.

And I also you mentioned something that we haven't talked about, but we must, and that is the cost to you of the infrastructure that's deferred maintenance. That's not for this Committee. But there is obviously some conversations happening about that.

And I welcome you and your team to continue that conversation with us to provide your feedback on how to best structure support for you long term on that front.

And then for Chancellor Christian, definitely interested in learning about the growth that is occurring that is consistent with the work that we did in this Committee last year where we made sure that there was growth that's more aligned to the real growth in, in the individuals who you are serving.

And so I want to follow up with you on what those numbers really look like and what finance is presenting, which there's some back and forth as to whether there's enough growth or not. That seems to be a case every year. So let's exchange on that.

And I certainly want to continue to identify ways in which your system can serve more students that are currently, for any number of reasons, don't have a pathway to our UC and CSU for their baccalaureate degree. So I look forward to talking to you more about that.

So I'm going to stop there so I can have our colleagues have a chance to say some words and some questions. Dr. Patel,

Thank you all for being here today. We've had a robust discussion already, so I'll try not to repeat some of the questions that our esteemed chair had brought forward. The many of his thoughts I concur with, especially with the course numbering and vertical alignment articulation for our students, just to make things more streamlined and efficient.

I think it's important that we do work on this. And yes, of course, we're looking forward to a year when you have that proposal. And would Love to see that, but would also like to have updates and conversations in the meantime as well.

That Bill that was signed into law requesting this process go forth, I think it was several years ago. We haven't seen any progress. So we would love to see that in the meantime as well. What that plan looks like. A couple of specific questions based on the LAO's background that was provided to us.

Thank you for that robust background. It's always very helpful. Specifically to Department of Finance. I want to thank you for reducing the deferrals. No questions, just thanks.

And the middle class scholarships, those are very important to my community, the region of San Diego and I'm sure across California to make sure we continue to have access for all of our students into our higher education pathways.

The specific question for UC's President I saw that there is a COLA of 2.14% but the student fees or the student component is increasing by 4.4%. I just wanted to ask a question around that and I'm not sure exactly how to phrase it.

And I know some of those student cost increases are already planned out because when a student enters into a UC that is their cost for their duration of their degree. But I am concerned that the COLA that we're funding is lower than the cost that increase that students are going to experience. Do we have any thoughts around that?

Just really quickly. Alex Anaya Velasquez with the Department of Finance. The COLA is more on the P98 side for community colleges. So that statistics or that statutory COLA, it's not necessarily aligned with UC's policy.

Perfect. Thank you for clarifying that. The bigger question I have is around the Master Plan for higher education. We have AB 927 which we've discussed a lot in Policy Committee that allows. I believe that was the one that allows community colleges to consider bachelor programs in collaboration with other higher education institutions.

We have UCs that have UC extensions which look at the extension program, which again is certificates and things like that. So we have the full circle of community colleges not only doing associate's degrees and credentialing programs but but they're also doing bachelor programs.

And then we have UCs at the other end of it going back and revisiting those certificate programs. I'm wondering whether even with the revision to the Master plan in the 2000s, is it time to revisit again and have those longer, deeper conversations?

And I would like to encourage and support all of us being included in those conversations because it's clear that our students are looking for something different. The Market wants something different and it looks like you're delivering. There's also competition from the outside.

We look at ASU's being able to take care of more of our students than we're able to take care of internally. That is an opportunity lost for California and we're handing it over to another system. I would love to hear your thoughts on how we approach revisiting the Master Plan as a big picture question.

And I know you don't have to give a direct answer, a specific answer now, but just thoughts on engaging.

Right. I'm going to give you an evasive answer now and then I'll follow up with a more direct one. But the first thing I want to say is, since I didn't say this initially, I did say I'm a fan of curs. But the Master Plan is perhaps one of the best documents that I've ever seen for planning.

I mean, it is an extraordinary plan. It's universally regarded as the first and the leading plan for a modern state's higher education systems. And I think it's been remarkably successful and has a lot to do with the success that California enjoys today. So I just want to start with, with that. But it was 1960.

The state's three times the size college going rates have thankfully increased significantly during that time. So it's a, it's a different environment today. But I like what I've heard about not doing it piecemeal, having taking a look at it, keeping what is valuable.

Because as Chancellor Garcia mentioned, one of the differences, the Master Plan was in part established to look at a strategy for the entire state with different kinds of education providers.

And one of the reasons that was done and the reasons that it will still affect us today if we make significant changes are the cost structures of delivering those programs is a very different cost structure to delivering a PhD program than any other.

And so I think just we have to keep in mind the underlying reasons for it which still apply today, which we can improve on. But there are so many things that are different today. And the, the availability of technology that didn't exist in the middle of the last century is one of the most obvious.

Yeah, thank you for that. You mentioned graduate programs, PhDs. And that is another thing I'm also very concerned about with the federal changes in policy to borrowing, limiting opportunities for our students to access higher education, whether it's Master's level and PhD programs at CSUS or UCS, that this is a concern because this is frankly, our economy directly.

It's a direct hit on Our economy. Are we able to increase any financial aid programs within the state of California to help address and offset those costs? And what would that look like if we could?

We are looking at the financial aid program as, I don't know if I mentioned it today in our plan. We are looking at that anyone with a salary under 75,000 and under that the students would graduate debt free. And we are looking at financial aid.

And how do we package financial aid for those students that are most at need? Using our state university grant and then our federal grant and of course looking to see what other scholarships are there. So that is something that is ongoing at the moment for us.

Yeah, for some law degrees, medical degrees, this is way beyond the reach of what any even middle class family, even oftentimes upper middle class family can provide for their child students.

Changes in the Federal Government in financial aid for professional degree programs is one that I think you directly alluded to. The infrastructure that is provided by the grant making agencies, in particular Nih, nsf, doe, which in turn supports graduate education is something that would be, it would be impossible for UC to replace it.

I mean we're, you know it's between 5 and 6 billion a year in, in grant funded research that supports the structure for, for graduate education. I know and we all know there's a bond proposal which would address part of that.

And I think, Annie, I am heartened that the state is considering that and that policymakers are thinking about if some of the trends continue with the Federal Government. What will California do to respond to maintain its lead in higher education and in an innovation economy that leads the country?

Dr. Patel, I would say we, I don't remember the amount right now, but we have lost money in the federal grants right now, especially for msis that we're supporting our students to go through. And we are grappling with how do we make sure we continue those programs.

You know, one of the things that hurts us the most, we were talking about rural areas. For example, Chico had a program in reading preparing teachers to work in the rural communities. That grant is gone. Cal State, LA has a grant to prepare teachers at urban communities. That grant is gone.

And so here we are hurting the workforce and one of the most highest value professions in our state is teachers. And so I agree with you. We have to figure, we're trying to figure out how do we manage this across, across all the CSU as we continue to lose federal dollars.

And let me say we're very worried about that there may be a shortage of Pell dollars in 27. And how will that affect all three of our systems as we move forward?

Yeah. Thank you. I have so many more questions, but I know our time is limited, so I want to hand it over to other colleagues.

Yeah. And we are good on time and we don't get the Presidents and Chancellors of the systems more than once a year. So encourage you if you have more questions. Mr Fong

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And good morning to everyone and thank you so much to all our segmental leaders. Thank you for your leadership and to all of you for your presentations here today.

And as a proud graduate of UC System and CSU system and took a number of classes at community colleges, thank you so much for everything you do for California's students. I'll start with our community colleges first. So to Chancellor Christian, you may have touched upon your opening remarks.

Got here a little late, but with enrollment growing again, and I know the chair touched upon this in his remarks as well. In terms of adequately funding enrollment growth, any thoughts there in terms of what that could look like?

You might have touched upon it already, but I wanted to just hear some comments from you around enrollment growth. I know that when I talk to some of my local community college districts, their enrollment is up double digits, maybe 10 or 11%. So wanted to ask you that question.

Really appreciate that question. Assembly Member Fong, the January budget. We're hugely happy that the governor's January budget has enrollment growth at 1.5% for two years. And our ask is if that could be increased to 3%.

And again, our team, Chris Ferguson and team are happy to work with staff to figure out a way with Prop 98 to support that. Thank you.

Thank you, Chancellor, for that question. And we heard a number of comments from my colleagues as well around career education, around workforce education, around nimbleness, around making sure that our educational programs, instructional programs, meet the needs of for the students and for industry. So my next question touches upon strong workforce.

And I know we had robust discussions, I know we're gonna have a robust discussion on that going forward as well, but just wanted to ask that question as well in terms of the community colleges and any thoughts there in terms of the use of strong workforce funds and how that's been utilized to create short term credential programs in other areas throughout our state.

Yeah, two quick comments. You know, when I became the chancellor for this system two years ago and I was touring college campuses, one of the resources that every campus highlighted was the funding from strong workforce to be able to kind of respond to regional and local needs. And I didn't realize, you know, how impactful it was statewide.

And it's got a regional focus through the statewide program. My second comment is that our vice Chancellor for Workforce and Economic Development, working very closely with our cfo, is looking at strong workforce as a way to repurpose funding for priorities that are emerging. And it's done in a collaborative way with the regions and with the districts.

I'm proud of this work because again, it's difficult when you're thinking about shifting and moving to focus on priorities. I know you had a hearing in Southern California and we could continue to dig into it and look for ideas and creativity to best utilize this funding and investment from the state of California. Thank you for that question.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate the context there and also want to A number of my comments also align with the comments that the chair has made around common course numbering and my colleague Dr. Patel as well.

This is something that is very critical for our systems when we look at collaboration, when we look at the intent of collaboration, when we look at partnerships and everything going forward.

So your monthly meetings and all the work that you're doing here and to have you in the space here today as well to I just wanted to continue to amplify that. So thank you for that context. Chancellor Christian, I got a couple questions for Chancellor Garcia.

You touched upon this in your remarks as well, and thank you so much for your leadership as well. With a number of the campuses facing significant deficits, our chair touched upon this as well.

What are some solutions that you're looking at in terms of decreasing costs or increasing revenues or to make sure that our programs at the CSU continue to be attractive to attract potential students?

First of all, we're looking at shared resources among campuses and it's done by region. So very important. So the health benefits, for example, the back office, things that have to happen. For example, they are beginning to look at how do we offer programs together so that this way students can take programs hybrid or online.

As we move forward to in order to continue the academic programs that are so important, we are helping them as well to do the, you know, the advanced placement, making sure that we're looking at that and looking at how do we work together on the community college partnerships, we're looking credit for prior learning as well.

We're looking at three year programs that students can get within three years. So we're trying to help each campus and each region. So for example, these again, I want to say San Francisco Bay Area network where the enrollment difficulties are really intense. How do they work together? How do they offer programs together?

How do they work together to go out into the community colleges, but also to our high schools and start earlier in high schools, quite frankly, to get students interested in the campuses. Plus we're helping them with marketing.

And how do you market professionally and get it out in the way students listen to marketing, not the way we listen to marketing.

Absolutely. And thank you for those contexts and really uplifting the community college partnerships. I was very fortunate to follow, took a tour of Cal Poly Pomona and it was on the campus there and really had a chance to meet with a number of the team Members there and visit a number of the programs there.

And just having Mount San Antonio College is really close by as well. And the regional partnerships that all of you have really amplified.

And it's really the regional partnerships that really at the local level to meet the local workforce needs and career education needs and working with our workforce development boards, working with our economic development corporations, other entities is so, so critical. And I'm glad you uplifted a credit for prior learning as well.

So that's something that has been a priority of our Legislature. The next question, you might have touched upon this in your remarks as well, but I know there's negotiations going on with labor as well and wanted to hear an update on any negotiations with labor.

We, as you probably know, we are working with Teamsters union at the moment. We were not fully funded with the compact. Our contract called for full funding. We had what we got was 143 million and then $143 million loan has to be repaid.

Knowing that our staff and faculty are very important to us, we took the $143 million in order to at least give a 3% one time bonus.

And with the governor's proposal as it is now, we can go back to the table to do the compact incomplete form, which is how we had based our increases for faculty and staff.

And thank you for that context. I know as we go on with budget deliberations, we'll have a number of robust meetings. And thank you so much to the chair for setting up a number of robust meetings that going forward as well.

And so when we look at the compact, the fifth year of the compact and then the 2% of the fourth year of the compact. So I think we're gonna have a lot of discussions there. But anything we can do to continue to support our employees, our team Members at the CSU and our respective institutions is critical. So thank you for that.

May I? I just wanted to add that the board has just passed a compensation philosophy, number one, for all employees and number two, in our CSU Forward strategic plan, one of the goals is being the employer of choice.

And that incur includes paying people fair and equitable wages, depending on our budget, of course, but wanting to do that for every single employee.

And as a Legislature, we're going to continue to push and continue to push for our, our team Members and employees at all our systems of higher education. So I really appreciate that context. And then to our UC system, to President Milliken, thank you for your stewardship and leadership as well.

I know you've entered in the short time that you've been there. It's very challenging times as well for all segments of higher education. But you also started when we received a number of attacks from the federal Administration. And so I wanted to just. You kind of touched upon this in your remarks as well.

But anything you want to add there? I know you touched upon research grants and other things. Any updates on a number of those fronts, please.

Each of our 10 campuses and the UC system as a whole has been the subject of a number of investigations and enforcement actions. There are still a considerable amount in excess of a billion dollars in federal grants that are in question. We've been fortunate that some of the withholding and has been altered by the courts, but it's under appeal.

So we can't... We don't know anything with certainty. We are still responding to numerous requests for information documents from various agencies, the Department of Justice, the EEOC, the Department of Education, DOJ. I mentioned that. HHS. So if it weren't for that, it would be a fun time to run a university.

Everyone... You guys are up. Thank you for that context. We know that there's challenging times and really anything that we can do to continue to protect our institutions from attacks and really to really embrace the hopes and aspirations of our students is something that we're going to be focused on and we continue that advocate and focus on as well.

Also want to touch upon a comment made by our Chair as well in terms of it being a priority for in state residents. I know you and I have chatted about that briefly as well, but just want to put that out there as well.

With the $61 million proposal for in state residents at our most impacted campuses, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and the increase of 905 California per year. But also as we go forward, was touched upon in the report as well.

But this is something that is a priority for the Legislature, I believe, and really the working efforts to really prioritize in state Californians going forward. So any additional thoughts that you want to amplify there?

We think that the compact was a great idea. We're committed to it. We have in some cases overachieved. And we've increased, as I mentioned, 19,000 California residents in enrollment, mainly at those three campuses. So we hope that the compact will continue to be funded, and we're committed to achieving the goals that you all set.

But it really, especially for in state residents as well. And so really I just wanted to put that out there especially for our most impacted campuses.

Yeah, no, I'm only thinking of it in terms of state residents and how we're increasing the numbers of those.

Okay, but really appreciate the context there. I know this is just the beginning of our conversations on budget negotiations going forward and deliberations. We really appreciate the leadership of all of you and your respective segments and really look forward to increased collaboration and partnership among intersegmental collaboration.

I think that's gonna be critical for our students going forward. You heard a number of comments from colleagues as well, and these are robust conversations we're going to continue to have as a Legislature. So thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Hadwick? Okay. Well, I may ask some more of your questions. I have a few more. Thank you all. Because the LA, I want to make sure people know. The LAO reports are important. I read them.

And this issue that Mr. Fong was just talking about that I raised earlier, President Milliken, the LAO identifies in the analysis of the budget that in 25-26, the three campuses combined did not make net progress toward the lower cap of students.

Again, I know you're relatively short term into the gig here, so just write that down as a comment, feedback later, along with the feedback you got from Mr. Fong, Dr. Patel, and myself. I think that's something expect to hear questions for your staff that come before us when your particular budget comes before us.

Is there anything else the LAO wants to add about... Excuse me. Your recommendation actually is to pause the implementation of non-resident replacement, but again, you note specifically that the cap was not, was not achieved.

Yes. So Jennifer Pacella, LAO. It is interesting because in 25-26, the state, even though it didn't provide a very large base increase, did establish resident enrollment targets, and UC met those and exceeded those. They actually exceeded them so well, they met the budget year targets. So not just the current year but the budget year targets.

So in terms of meeting the legislature's ultimate goal of having more residents at UC, UC not only met but exceed. The non-residents that are replaced with the residents are sort of subsumed in that. So I think from one vantage point, the Legislature could view that as good news.

Now if the Legislature does provide funding for UC to replace students, presumably the Legislature wants to see that happen. So that did not happen in 25-26. Given all of your budget challenges, you can figure out if you'd like to do that in the budget year.

If you do, we just would encourage you to have strong accountability language that you get to see that swap. If the Legislature did nothing and didn't provide UC any more money for the swap, you could still provide more money for residents and you could still have more residents go to these three high demand campuses.

You could effectively have them hold their non-residents flat. They wouldn't be losing money because they're not actually reducing any, they're just growing on top of it. It is one option for you to consider because you still get resident enrollment growth. You hold the non-residents flat, but it doesn't cost you any money to do that. You have a variety of options to consider. That's one.

Thank you. All for you all to digest on this issue that I think there's some commonality and interest here, President Milliken. Chancellor Garcia, I just wanted to... You made a comment earlier about only three of the campuses did not meet the target. I have data, but it may be outdated.

So I just want to clarify from end of last calendar year that in 25-26, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 campuses did not meet the targeted. And so I'd ask you to provide us the updated data based on the information which you clearly have maybe updated data, including several campuses in, you know, 20s and 30s, and one case, 40% of not meeting the target. So.

I will get you that information. I was talking about fall 2025. The fall semester, they've gone up and so but we'll get you that data.

Okay, appreciate that. And back to the LAO. For both UC and CSU, something you wrote in your report here that I made a note on is you recommend that the Legislature fund CSU and UC enrollment growth using the marginal cost formula. Can you walk me through that a little bit more as to what that would look like?

Traditionally, the Legislature has set targets for UC and CSU. You can decide whether you want them to be resident undergraduate, resident graduates, total residents. But historically, the state has set the goals and then earmarked enrollment growth funding to support it.

It's the most transparent, accountable way you can do it because you have connected the money directly to the students. Sometimes the Legislature has included language if the target's not met, there'll be some associated repercussion. Our concern with the compact has been that the compact says we're going to give you a base increase.

You go forth and do do stuff. And then over here we have these enrollment growth expectations, and it's led to some confusion. You see, for example, we were just talking about the non-resident enrollment. They decided not to do that in 25-26, even though the language was in the Budget Act or asking them to do it.

They said they didn't get funding for it. So once the funding becomes disconnected with the target, it just again becomes much more difficult to have clear, transparent, accountable conversations about it.

Okay. I will note that for our committee, for our staff, for DOF, and with your assistance to LAO, we'd like to further analyze that approach. I think it's most prudent. It's aligned with the accountability and transparency measures that we have focused on in this, in this committee. Chancellor Christian, appreciate your reports on EOPS.

One information point that I think is missing that I'd request that you bring it forward to us is what are the targets for degree attainment and transfer rate. That is not outlined in this report. And I think, you know, in order to measure our outcomes, we need to know what we're measuring for.

And so I like to see that information that data brought forward. I also know in another report that you've put forward that I read this weekend as it relates to CTE and more specifically, the report was titled... I'm blanking at the moment and I don't have it in front of me. But you... Oh, right here.

This was on the work we did in this committee last year to push for strong workforce program streamlining efforts. There's a letter from you, actually doesn't have a date, but I think it's recent. Where you identify the challenges on streamlining. When you come before us with your budget from your segment, certainly there'll be questions around that.

So I want to make sure you're aware of that now to be able to be prepared to respond better to that. Okay. I don't see any other questions from my colleagues. I want to take the moment to once again thank all of you for the work you do for the tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands, actually families that you serve. Millions. That's right. Tens of thousands, hundreds of, millions of families combined that you serve.

As I stated at the beginning, I think the work of this committee is how do we support more students having access and how do we support that access that's focused on outcomes. And in this case, what is it leading to for all of these students that you all serve. That's what we're focused on in this committee.

We want to continue to support your work. We want to be able to provide the accountability and the transparency to Californians that the dollars that are being invested here are being invested for the right reasons. And regardless, and this was pointed out earlier by President Milliken, there may be a national trend, or at least some surveys that say something about higher education.

I think we're in a different state of affairs, no pun, with the state of California, where people still see the systems as an opportunity and they're seeking clearly. You know, over enrollment and growth. That all speaks to the desire from Californians to continue to pursue this as an opportunity for them.

And that's what we want to be able to provide for them. So in partnership with you, I look forward to doing the work. We'll have each one of your budgets come before us where we will continue to analyze and make sure that that is aligned to that vision that we share.

So once again, thank you to all of you and look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you to the Department of Finance. Thank you to the LAO. We will now be able to take up public comments. We ask members of the public to please come forward and step up to the microphone.

We ask you to identify yourself and give a one minute remark based on what you heard today. I want to just remind folks that this is on the items that were on the agenda today, which were any one of the three segments. Please keep your comments to that.

If you speak to an item not on today's agenda, I'll just remind you of when that will be an opportunity for you to share those comments and we'll welcome you back to speak at that point. I see that there are a number of folks exiting and getting to the line, so if you could please just make sure you put the microphone close to you. And if you're ready to begin, go ahead. Welcome.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair and Members. My name is Catherine Hutchinson. I'm the President of California State University Employees Union. We represent 35,000 non faculty staff and student assistance and 1,039 staff and student auxiliary workers at the CSU system.

I wish to express our support for the Governor's January budget proposal, which provides robust funding for CSU and continues to demonstrate the state's commitment for the compact. I want to thank the Governor for this proposal and encourage the subcommittee to work on ensuring the CSU is fully funded and commitments are maintained.

I know the subcommittee and the Legislature are grappling with fiscal challenges on the horizon. I submit that fully funding our higher education system is critical, a critical way to strengthen our economy and revenue in the future. Regrettably, we are not without challenges. As you know, we continue to work toward implementing full merit steps.

The Governor and Legislature must direct CSU to implement our merit salary steps completely and consistently with our collective bargaining agreement. We also encourage you to send a clear message to the CSU to establish a fair contract for the 20,000 student assistants who are bargaining currently at the CSU.

And finally, it is critical that you provide clear budgetary and statutory direction to the CSU to more robustly engage represented employees to strengthen the university.

Whether at the bargaining table, the creation of shared services, or through the development of turnaround plans, CSU continues to fall short on engaging us and respecting us as employees that help power the university. We need a funded CSU that supports every corner of the state and its employees.

The Governor's January proposal demonstrates critical funding for this issue and I look forward to working with you to ensure that CSU is funded and supports the employees and the students. Thank you.

One minute goes by quickly.

Chair and Members. Tiffany Mok with CFT, a union of educators and classified professionals. Thank you so much for this hearing. We just wanted to note our priorities for the community college segment will be to ensure fully funding the part time office hours.

Also to provide flexibility for adult education consortium funds for senior programs, financial literacy, and parenting classes, as well as finding a way to ensure that our educators who are pregnant have a way to leave.

Finally, for our UC segment, our priorities are supporting the Governor's proposal for funding the last year of the compact as well as partially funding the prior year and continued discussion about the transparency at a campus level to build trust among our segments.

As we heard, trust is an issue among our public and often there is not an understanding of the differentiation of pots and how they can be funded. And so trust would be great. Thank you.

Good morning, Chair and Members. Anna Mathews on behalf of the California Community College Independents Union. We appreciate the core funding increase and the student block grant, student support, excuse me, block grant increases for the California community colleges.

We had some extensive conversations about this in committee last year regarding Calbright. We have some concerns about the 38 million ongoing. Think that funding sources could be better served elsewhere. We hope to see our hold harmless colleges get COLA this upcoming year.

Regarding transfer, different mandates like common course numbering and the ADTs have not panned out the way that we anticipated them because we're not seeing the collaboration that we need from our other segments. So we're hoping to see more of that this upcoming year.

Again, we are in a really unique position as the California community colleges having colleges all over the state. Right. So I'm hoping especially for our place bound students whose options are really going to a community college or private loans that we can have some more collaboration there. Thank you.

Good morning. Marshall Nakatani on behalf of UAW Local 4811, representing nearly 50,000 academic workers at all 10 campuses of the UC system and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Just want to say that we appreciate the Governor's proposal for higher education.

At a time when our institutions of higher learning are under threat, we think it's critical to fully fund our state's universities. UAW is committed to fighting for a more just workplace, whether that's through pay equity or support for international scholars' rights. We strongly support ensuring that public education is fully funded and are committed to working with the Legislature through the process. So thank you.

Good morning. Theresa Montaño, California Faculty Association, professor of Chicano Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge. I also happen to sit on the Academic Senate both on campus and statewide, grappling with many of the issues that you're talking about today. But I'm going to tell you that is not what I take most pride in.

It's not the work at the statewide Academic Senate dealing with the common course numbering. It's working every day with my students to make sure that they get through their four years. Many of them are working students. They're supporting themselves and their families.

They're worried about Homeland Security, making sure that their parents are there, that their children are receiving an adequate education. I support the Governor's budget, but I implore you to make sure that that budget language ensures that the CSU funding go to instruction and not to administration. Thank you.

Thank you.

Buenos dias, Committee Chair and Committee Members. I am Michelle Ramos Pellicia. I'm faculty at the California State University San Marcos campus, and I'm Vice President of the California Faculty Association. We represent 28,000 counselors, librarians, coaches, lecturer, and tenure track faculty all over the state of California in the CSU system.

Many of my colleagues around the state have gotten layoff notices or they haven't gotten their contracts renewed. The CSU is one of the most powerful economic engines of the state. Every dollar California invests in the CSU, $7 of industry activity is created in the state. The CSU system is the largest four year public university system in the US, serving over 450,000 students across the 23 campuses.

And it is a primary pathway for students of color and students who are economically disadvantaged to graduate and be part of the creative workforce, making informed decisions of social workers. And so we hope that you support the budget and we stand at the ready to collaborate with you and to work to ensure their guardrails. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Melina Abdullah. I'm here with the California Faculty Association. I'm also a professor of Pan African Studies at Cal State LA, a mom, and an organizer, and a lifelong Californian. And so I'm here because these are urgent times. These are urgent times.

And as people try to make sense of the world around them, as people try to stave off assaults and try to figure out how do we make California and the world better, investment in public higher education is all the more urgent. So I'm here to urge you to support the Governor's budget proposal.

Here to urge you to backfill the loans. But also here to urge you to implement budget language that says that the money invested in the CSUs, the money invested in public higher education, needs to go to the classroom so we can meet the need of the moment. So thank you for having us this morning.

Good morning. My name is Andrea Terry. I'm a double alum of the CSU, a professor of communication studies at Sacramento State, and a proud member of CFA. I'm here today because we're struggling in the CSU. I know that enrollment numbers are up, but when enrollment numbers go up, support for faculty and staff should go up.

Unfortunately, that's not happening. We're seeing vice chancellors and presidents salaries go up, while in my particular area at Sac State, we are struggling with only two staff members for three departments. That means that there are a lot of very critical functions that aren't happening right now.

Faculty are trying to pick up the slack, but when we pick up the slack, that means that those positions aren't seen as urgent to get filled. And that also means that it takes us away from our mission of doing good work in teaching and research mentorship.

So I'm here today in support of the Governor's budget proposals, but also really urging you to include language that keeps CSU management accountable for putting that money where it belongs to towards instruction and direct student support. Thank you.

Hello. My name is James Carlson. I am a senior at Chico State University, a historian, a future educator, and a transfer student. I'm here because I wanted to let you know that, having grown up in Oroville, California, I've seen what underfunded schools look like, and I've seen what adequately funded schools look like, and students can tell.

I'm here to ask you to agree to the Governor's budget plan and to backfill the loan amount of 143.8 million. Like somebody was saying, every dollar that's injected in the CSU fund results in $7.69 of an increase in California's economy, totaling 1.105 billion if the Californian government and you guys approve that.

Lastly, I would mention you asked about earlier, Mr. Alvarez, you asked about transfer students and why they're not transferring to four years. I can speak for myself that price and... Sorry, price and the, and wanting credential programs or something like that that are not offered at CSUs, at least anecdotally for me and my friends. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Alvarez, Members of the Committee. Mario Guerrero, Government Relations Director for the California Faculty Association, as well as I teach at Sacramento State in the Political Science Department. As you all know, a good education like the one offered at CSU is a primary pathway for economically disadvantaged students to graduate into well paying jobs.

That wasn't just true for me. I would imagine that's true for many legislators as well as all of California's youth. To give the youth the same opportunity, we are urging your support for the Governor's proposed budget funding proposal for CSU, backfilling the loan, and also to ensure that the new funding is not spent on administration. Thank you for your time.

Good morning, Chair and Members. Jason Henderson on behalf of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. We appreciate the legislature's continued support for California community colleges and for the faculty and staff who advance student success across the system.

We are pleased to see the Governor's proposed one time investments to address increased student centered funding formula costs and to repay SCFF deferrals, as well as funding for student service block grant and the deferred maintenance. These steps are critical to restoring fiscal stability after years of uncertainty.

However, we strongly oppose proposed withholdings COLAs for colleges not funded under the SCFF. COLAs are not discretionary bonuses. They are essential to maintaining purchasing power. We also urge comprehensive overhaul of the SCFF. Given ongoing fiscal uncertainty, we oppose additional funding for Calbright and Common Cloud Data Platform.

We believe these investments should prioritize currently enrolled students and the workforce that serves them. Finally, we were grateful to participate in the Title IX work group, but these reforms cannot succeed without dedicated ongoing funding. Without clear appropriations for staffing, training, and infrastructure, colleges will struggle to comply. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Kat Anderson and I'm a student at CSU Chico in the Wildland Management Master's Program. Thank you for your commitment to higher education. We've seen that without adequate funding, the CSU turns to private investments and bonds. When the CSU takes on debt, it's the students who pay for it through rising tuition costs and student loans.

I urge you to support the Governor's January budget funding proposal for the CSU and to please adopt budget language with accountability measures that ensure the funding is allocated responsibly by CSU management to increase access to and quality of education as opposed to executive raises and other administrative bloat. Thank you again.

Good morning. My name is Adin White, and I'm a graduate student and Academic Senator. Since transferring to from Butte College in 2023, I've been lucky to receive exemplary support from faculty, staff, and administrators at Chico State. However, I've become increasingly concerned with the way that faculty and staff layoffs are affecting the availability of that support.

The reduced availability of essential courses and the thinning of resources across the board has made it harder for students to receive the kind of opportunities that I was fortunate to. Many of these opportunities came at the cost of considerable investments of time and attention from faculty and staff at my university.

And this is time and attention which now seems much harder to justify and provide. To that end, I ask that you adopt budget language directing the CSU to provide funding for instruction, supporting Governor Newsom's January budget proposal for the CSU, and that you backfill the 3% state loan from the 2025-2026 budget. Thank you so much for your time.

Hello. Thanks for having us here today. My name is Luna Lund, and I'm a student organizing coordinator with California Faculty Association. I work with students across the CSU system, and I have witnessed the hardships that increase layoffs of faculty and staff have had not only on faculty and staff, but also students.

When there are fewer faculty and staff, there are fewer courses offered, as well as fewer resources available to students. More limited course offerings mean students have to push out their graduation dates because it is harder to get the classes they need, which leads to further financial burden when many students are already balancing two to three jobs on top of a full course load.

As such, I urge you to support the Governor's January budget funding proposal for the CSU, and with that, adopt budget language that ensures the new CSU funding is spent on instruction and not on administration. I also urge you to backfill a 3% state loan provided to the CSU from the 2025-26 budget. Thank you.

Good morning. Eric Paredes, Legislative Director with the California Faculty Association. Just want to thank you for your leadership in last year's budget and, you know, urge you to support the funding proposal in the Governor's budget this year for the CSU, like my colleagues have stated already.

Also urge you to backfill the 3% loan from last year. But really want to stress on the part for adopting language that ensures funding is not spent on management. Today you heard from three CSU students. Over 10 years ago, I was also a student advocate like them. We advocated for ongoing investment. We got it.

But we, you know, similar like to what we're seeing today we saw administration get that money, and we didn't see that money come down to students. So just want to stress on that part because that part is really important. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the room like to provide public testimony? Right. Seeing none. Thank you all. We will have each of the segments come before this committee in the in the coming weeks and welcome you back, certainly for all the specifics.

Appreciate the level of specificity several of you today presented on what you're asking us. That's always helpful. So thank you. With that, we are adjourning today's meeting. We'll see you at the next one. Thank you.