Dear Campus Community, 

This year marks a significant and positive turning point for HSU’s Operating Fund Budget. Through proactive planning and a collective campus commitment to align spending with available resources over the past several years, HSU’s Operating Fund Budget is balanced for the first time in more than a decade.

I want to recognize the challenges the campus community has faced during the last several years of budget reductions and also take a moment to acknowledge this achievement. We balanced the budget. While it has not been easy, we now have a financially stable foundation as we embark on our exciting polytechnic transformation. I am optimistic that the continuous reduction cycles of the past are now behind us and with continued proactive planning, we can begin to rebuild toward a sustainable future.

While there is significant reason for optimism, our enrollment has yet to rebound, currently down 11% this fall, and close to 35% below our system funded enrollment target of 7,603 annual resident full-time equivalent students (FTES). In addition, several of our service areas are still struggling with the financial impacts of the pandemic, with areas such as Housing and Student Health & Wellbeing Services continuing to experience significant budget shortfalls. This year, we are investing considerable one time resources to bolster recruitment efforts, stabilize operations, and enhance the student experience as we return to campus. Paired with ambitious campus initiatives and polytechnic planning efforts, we have reasons to be confident that we will begin to experience enrollment growth in the near future.

2021-22 Operating Fund Revenue Budget

HSU’s 2021-22 Operating Fund Revenue Budget is $133.6 million, reflecting an increase of $4.9 million from the prior year due to additional funding from the state, partially offset by decreased enrollment. In the final CSU Budget Memo, HSU’s state appropriation increased by $4.9 million, including earmarked allocations of $2.2 million for Graduation Initiative 2025 and $533,000 to support implementation of the AB 1460 Ethnic Studies requirement.  In addition, miscellaneous revenue and cost recovery increased by almost $1 million over the prior year, providing additional dedicated resources to departments across campus. Given the conservative budgeting approach taken last year at the onset of the pandemic, our budgeted tuition decrease is only $910,000 this year despite an anticipated 14% drop in enrollment from prior year actual enrollment.

2021-22 Operating Fund Expenditure Budget

HSU’s 2021-22 Operating Fund Expenditure Budget is $132.7 million. The majority of HSU’s budget continues to be salary and benefit costs at almost $102 million combined, 77% of the budget. Financial Aid is the next highest budgeted cost at $12.1 million, 9% of the budget. All other budgeted activities, such as utilities, insurance, equipment, information technology costs, miscellaneous operating expenses, and pending allocations due to timing (GI 2025, Ethnic Studies support, etc.) comprise the remaining 14% of the budget.

OpenBook Budget Dashboards

Detailed information about the University’s Operating Fund and all other budgeted funds is available on the Budget website on OpenBook (HSU’s public facing budget dashboards). The dashboards provide different views of budget information, with the ability to drill into additional detail. For example, the University Operating Fund Expenditure Budget dashboard provides several different views of the expenditure budget, including by type of spending, by organizational structure, and by functional classification.

I encourage everyone to review the OpenBook dashboards to learn more about our budget. For reference, this OpenBook Overview document provides an overview of OpenBook and available views by dashboard.

State Funding for Polytech ($25 million ongoing, $433 million one-time for capital projects)

As for funding from the state for our polytechnic transformation, note that this is not part of our 2021-22 Operating Fund Budget. The funding is being held at the Chancellor’s Office (CO) and we will need to submit requests to the CO to access these funds. While we have developed initial plans reflected in the Self-Study Prospectus and are actively working on a Year 1 request to the CO to begin leveraging a small portion of this funding, significant campus planning work remains to refine estimates to ensure planned investments are reflective of the unique nature of our new academic programs and related services. We will keep you informed on progress and planning efforts throughout the year.

I look forward to a great year ahead and hope this marks the first of many years of positive budget news to come. Thank you for all of your collective efforts to get us to this place and for your successful planning and advocacy in positioning us for an exciting future.

Sincerely,

Amber Blakeslee
University Budget Director

Resources:
URPC Website
OpenBook