Sacramento — The California State University (CSU) system will receive a badly needed funding increase under the state’s new budget pact.

According to documentation provided by the joint Legislative Budget Conference Committee, which is to take up the plan today, the CSU system will receive $199 million to backfill previous cuts. The plan also includes funding for enrollment growth, which may be a $60.6 million increase. This is in addition to $106 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding allocated to the CSU by the federal government last week.­­In total, this budget support equates roughly to the $365 million augmentation proposed by the Governor earlier this year.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cited the need to fund public higher education in his initial budget proposal in January.

The Governor later said that he would not sign a budget that did not include budgetary support for the CSU and UC.

These pronouncements came on the heel­of campus protests and demonstrations at California’s colleges and universities that captured the imagination of the public and illustrated the growing need to fund higher education.

Despite this additional proposed funding, the CSU’s level of state funded support remains far below that of previous years.­­Since 2007/08, the CSU has seen a reduction of $625 million in state support.

This lack of funding has resulted in harmful cost-cutting measures including massive student fee hikes, cuts to enrollment and the furloughs and layoffs of thousands of faculty and other employees.

For more information contact: Lisa Cohen at 310-395-2544 or­Alice Sunshine at 510-384-1967