Funding is a perpetual problem at all universities, but the various academic colleges at California State University, Long Beach are sharing the burden equally.
Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs David Dowell said via email that the budget allotted to colleges is heavily dependent on how many students enroll in each department.
“We work hard to distribute funds equitably,” Dowell said.
According to the university web site, CSULB split a total of $103.9 million between its colleges in 2010-2011 and $98.8 million in 2011-2012, showing that the university absorbed some of its losses in other areas after the state imposed severe budget cuts.
During the 2014-2015 fiscal year, which runs from July to the following June, CSULB divvied up $102.5 million between eight colleges on campus. The College of Liberal Arts received the most money at $28.4 million, and the College of Continuing and Professional Education received the least at less than $811, 0000.
Dowell said that CCPE is a larger organization than its budget suggests, and that it received less money because CCPE gets most of it is funding from “self-support revenue.”
Ryan Weitzman, the co-director of CSULB institutional research and assessment, said that across the board the university looks at six years to complete an undergraduate degree as the norm regardless of the college.
“Four years is that magical number that we’re working toward, but we’re still getting there,” Weitzman said.
According to the latest department reports available from the CSULB IRA, anthropology and linguistics are the leading programs in terms of graduation rates with 100 percent of first-time freshmen completing their degrees within six years.
The chemistry and biochemistry department had the worst graduation rates, with only 34 percent first-time-freshmen finishing within six years – less than half the proportion of students from previous years. Weitzman defined first-time freshmen as students enrolled in any university or junior college for the first time, disregarding AP credit.
