President Whitmore’s Fall Welcome Address

I also offer my thanks to all our students, who are unfortunately shouldering an annual fee increase of over $900 in order to help San José State weather this budget storm. This rapid increase in student fees has resulted in a fundamental change in the balance of how education is funded across the CSU. For the first time in history, funding received from student fees — and other such  revenue sources — exceeds funding received from the State of California. This is unprecedented.

Here is a slide that shows the dramatic shift that has occurred over the past few years.

This increase in fees is a shameful shifting of responsibility for paying for public higher education from the state’s historic responsibility to San José State’s parents and students. This is not right. This is not what any of us wants. This act clearly breaks the promise of California’s higher education master plan. This promise created a system of higher education for the public good that now more and more is shifting to a personal/private responsibility. The master plan is so far out of whack that it is broken. This saddens me beyond belief, and I suspect it saddens all of you as well.

Our historic pride in access to all qualified citizens is now threatened. Our historic pride in serving a diverse population is now threatened. And our historic pride in continuous growth to serve the needs of a growing California is now threatened. So how will San José State deal with these threats going forward? That’s the question. How do we make the best of these challenging circumstances?

See full video and transcript here