By Portia Bode

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Cal State Fullerton received a one-time $1.65 million federal fund in order to offer up to 264 additional courses and secure positions for lecturers for spring 2010.

With a $564 million cut to both the Cal State University and University of California systems during the fall, this money will directly benefit California colleges.

“Both the CSU system and the UC system are on the record of having said, ‘We don’t have enough funds to do the job that we want to do to provide high quality education to as many students who qualify,” said Paula Selleck, senior communications officer at CSUF.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site, the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund program, a new one-time appropriation of $53.6 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will grant governors money to advance education. California will be provided with $3.2 billion for the first phase, 67 percent of California’s total $4.9 billion allocation to help mitigate the effects of budget reductions to education in May, stated a press release issued by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office.

The ARRA allows states facing extreme budget difficulties to apply for 90 percent of funding for the first phase, with the remainder coming during the second phase. Schwarzenegger petitioned for 90 percent of the state’s total SFSF allocation on Aug. 27, and the Department of Education granted the amount, stated the press release.

Schwarzeneger announced on Sept. 15 that $1.3 billion of the expedited SFSF would be available for California’s school districts, colleges and universities this year.

Once these expedited funds are transferred into the state treasury, the Office of Planning and Research will allocate the funds to the California Department of Education, the community colleges and the UC and CSU systems, stated the press release.

When added to the funds allocated in May, higher education will receive a total of $1.5 billion back to fill budget reductions.

The CSU received a one-time $25 million allocation for its 23 campuses. These university funds are available thanks to an additional $77.5 million one-time federal allocation that will help CSU to meet its payroll. In turn, CSU will be able to use funds from state support and student fee revenues previously set aside for payroll to add course sections, stated a press release from the CSU’s chancellor’s office.

“The CSU will reserve the remainder of the funds against what continues to be uncertainty about the state’s fiscal condition. The use of the remaining funds will be determined using the same criteria to serve as many students as possible and preserving as many jobs as possible while maintaining academic quality and fiscal balance,” said Erik Fallis, CSU chancellor’s office public affairs spokesman.

For CSUF, the administration plans to follow the direction of the chancellor’s office.

“These funds will enable us to retain lecturers to teach these course, which is consistent with our mission to provide the best possible education to our students and enhance their ability to graduate in a timely manner,” said CSUF President Milton Gordon in a letter to the university.

“What the stimulus money has allowed us to do is to offer about 81 sections. As a result, what we have been able to do is lower the student-faculty ratio so that the classes are not over (its capacity) as they were in the fall,” said Angela Della Volpe, acting dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. “We have been able to off-set the fact that some of the classes couldn’t be offered by raising the capacity of some of the classes that we could offer; this created large classes.”

The eight colleges received the same percentage of course sections. However, since Business and Humanities and Social Sciences are larger colleges, they get more sections. This allocation was based on how many total full-time equivalent students are generated by the college, said Ephraim P. Smith, vice president for Academic Affairs.

“What’s great about this federal fund is that it’s allowed us to restore some of the classes that we were cutting,” said Paula Selleck, senior communications officer for CSUF.