Dear Campus Community,

 The Budget Office would like to take an opportunity to share important 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal updates from the state and California State University (CSU) which impact our campus community.  

Cal Poly Humboldt’s 2024-25 Operating Fund Budget is available on the University’s public facing budget dashboard, OpenBook. The 2024-25 Operating Fund Budget reflects 12% growth at $178.1 million, largely due to compensation commitment funding and the infusion of polytechnic funding received. Additionally, we want to thank the University Resources & Planning Committee (URPC) for their thoughtful and forward-thinking budget recommendation.  

The final budget aligns closely with the recommendation, with some adjustments due to changing financial conditions (see the detailed response to URPC Recommendation). We would  also like to thank the broader campus for diligently working through the $8.3 million reductions necessary to balance our operating budget. The careful consideration to minimize impacts to students and colleagues is to be commended.

As we shift our focus to what lies ahead, uncertainty and financial challenges remain. At a state level, the State of California’s budget deficit has grown to $46.8 billion. At the system level, the CSU is facing a possible $397 million reduction to the state appropriation beginning in 2025-26 coupled with a deferral of the multi-year compact funding as indicated in the Governor’s final budget. During the September CSU Board of Trustees meeting, the Chancellor’s Office presented a budget request which can be found here. In addition, our budget team has created a summary of the CSU 2025-26 budget update you can review here.   At a campus level, with the impact of the $397 million CSU reductions and deferral of compact funding, we project our share of these reduced resources will be approximately $8.4 million.

The outcome of collective bargaining, which is taking place at the CSU system level, represents a significant unknown financial impact. Employee compensation will likely require realigning existing resources to support unmet funding needs. Concurrently, student enrollment growth is more modest than initially anticipated in our planning and we are still about 26% below our system-funded enrollment target of 7,375 annual resident full-time equivalent students (rFTES). While growth is anticipated, we are considered overfunded until we meet and exceed our annual rFTES target. Enrollment recalibration is expected to continue in 2025-26, and the CSU will pull back 5% of our enrollment target and associated state appropriation, reducing campus funding by close to $3.5 million.

While challenges still lie ahead, there are opportunities for continued engagement, collaboration, and implementation of strategies for the short and long-term financial resiliency of the University. The University budget team is working on planning scenarios that will be reviewed by the University leadership team and URPC. In addition, our office has refined our annual budget process and a communication is forthcoming to kick that off for the entire campus community. Last but not least, we will be presenting in collaboration with URPC at budget forums throughout the year to educate and engage with the campus community.  

We appreciate you taking the time to stay informed about the campus budget and for your continuing dedication to deliver a quality education for our students.

Please direct any questions related to budget to vpaf@humboldt.edu or  budget@humboldt.edu.