SDSU budget allocation called into question

by Catlan Nguyen EDITOR IN CHIEF

“It’s putting lipstick on a pig is what it is,” Biology Professor and Chair Scott Kelley said, regarding his opinions on San Diego State spending in the last academic year.

Debates over university budget allocation, changing COVID-19 mandates and more were discussed at the university senate meeting on April 5.

During the last fiscal year, SDSU was budgeted to collect an additional $180.7 million from net student tuition and fees and $67.7 million from revenue-based fees (including the Student Success fee) during the last fiscal year, according to the university’s 2019-2020 Budget Book. Net student tuition and revenue-based fees

Part of SDSU’s budget was allocated to the newly designed logo.

Photo by Catlan Nguyen

made up more than half of the university’s total Operational Fund budget of $475.3 million during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

Kelley chimed in with this metaphor after Academic Coordinator Amanda Fuller gave an update on the university senate budget request of an additional $42,000 to support the operational budget needs of the University Senate.

The University Senate is expected to have closer to $60,000 in unspent funds from the current fiscal year 2021- 2022. So, it was discussed that these carry-forward savings can instead be used to cover the $42,000 requested for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, according to SDSU.

“I would like to clarify that as the Senate has enough carry forward savings from the last two years of low COVID spending (e.g. no in-person meetings, no travel), we ...

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