Cal State Long Beach Trimming Faculty, Staff to Relieve Fiscal Crunch : Education: Six tenured positions are spared, as are the engineering and nursing programs. Tuition could increase 40%.

Cal State Long Beach President Curtis L. McCray has approved sweeping cuts in an effort to balance the university’s budget for the new school year, but rejected proposals to lay off six tenured faculty members.

McCray also spared the school’s engineering and nursing programs, which had been targeted for elimination, and delayed axing other departments pending a review.

The university, along with others in the Cal State system, also is expected to reduce the number of students who will be admitted, cut the number of classes offered and charge 40% more for tuition.

The president also warned that more drastic cuts may be necessary if the Legislature decides to cut the Cal State system budget by more than 8%, but said his funding priority will remain with academic programs and with tenured staff.

“I had to make a tough choice for this coming year,” McCray said. “We have to honor the university’s commitment to tenured faculty. Unfortunately, something has to be cut, and some part-timers have to go. It is a shame.”

About 100 part-time faculty--mostly young educators teaching lower-division classes--and 100 non-faculty employees would be laid off under McCray’s budget recommendations.

As the entire CSU system braces for massive reductions in state funds, Cal State Long Beach plans to cut $10 million from its $108-million operating budget for the 1992-93 academic year. The university estimates that it will receive about $8 million from the 40% fee increase for students but will lose about $2 million because of an 8% cut in enrollment, according to figures released by the division of administration and finance.

Students will pay $1,308 a year in tuition, up from $936 last year, and the layoff of part-time faculty members will reduce the number of class sections available. After last year’s budget cuts, 440 classes were eliminated, and administrators expect a similar cut spread through all departments this fall.

In addition, about 2,500 fewer students will be allowed to enroll next year. Last fall, 30,926 students took classes on campus.

The president described all the cuts as estimates and cautioned that they could change with the adoption of the state budget, more than a week overdue.

McCray’s reprieve for the tenured faculty and the targeted programs means that the university’s academic affairs office must find other ways to trim $1.6 million from the university’s academic budget.

“His response came as quite a jolt to me,” Karl Anatol, provost for academic affairs, said after reviewing the president’s memo. “We thought we had nailed down reasonable cuts. But now it’s back to the drawing board.”

The provost said he had “no idea at this point” where he would look for alternative cuts, but has scheduled department meetings.

Anatol was among 10 members on a university advisory panel that recommended the budget cuts to McCray in June. While rejecting most of the cuts proposed in academics, McCray embraced many of the remaining cuts, including a 30% reduction in the campus maintenance crew, 10% cuts in student services and athletics, and an 18.9% reduction in academic support services.

Campus radio station KLON will lose about $60,000 in state funding, but, because the university provided only 6% of the station’s $2.8-million operating budget, there will be little effect in programming, said General Manager Rick Lewis.

“We’ve seen it coming for a long time,” Lewis said. The station now relies on membership fees, fund-raisers, such as the Long Beach Blues Festival, and contributions from foundations and corporations.

The whole university will be looking for more private funding, said McCray, who pointed to the 170,000 Cal State Long Beach alumni as a “mighty source of support for the university.”

Since McCray arrived at Cal State Long Beach four years ago, fund-raising efforts have increased. In 1988, the university raised $3 million from private sources. Last year, it raised more than $13 million. By the end of the decade, McCray said he hopes to raise $20 million.