Thanks to some big bucks from Sacramento, Cal State Northridge is going on a hiring spree. And it couldn’t come soon enough. The school has a staff-to-student ratio that is less than desirable as more local residents go there for an affordable public education. In fact, CSUN was fined $2 million in 2012 by the Cal State system for exceeding its enrollment limit by more than 2,000 students. Administrators estimate the campus will receive $17 million out of $142 million in extra funding that was allocated to the Cal State system when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the budget last week. The school plans to hire 74 more tenure-track professors by fall 2015 to handle an estimated 40,000 plus students. “We haven’t hired this significantly since 2008,” said Harry Hellenbrand, provost and vice president for academic affairs at CSUN. “We’ve been relying on a lot of part-time faculty the last few years.” During the last school year, CSUN employed 840 tenured and tenure-track professors and 1,101 part-time lecturers. And while the number of part-timers has remained mostly flat in the last decade, the number of tenure-track professors has decreased from 913 ten years ago – despite an explosion in student population. CSUN had 33,426 students enrolled in 2003-04, but that number jumped to 38,310 this past year. More students and fewer professors has resulted in larger class sizes, a reduction in the number of classes being offered and students having trouble graduating on time. The administration would actually like to hire a total of 200 more full-time faculty members over the next two years. “It’s an ongoing process. Now that we’ve gotten out of the recession, colleges are looking to rebuild their programs,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, Cal State’s director of public affairs. Last year, Cal State Trustees asked the state for $237 million in additional funding, but only received the $142 million. The trustees estimate CSUs are forced to turn away between 20,000 and 25,000 applicants every year due to being underfunded. Brown’s four year financial plan for the cal state system includes incentives for colleges to get students graduated in four years, which could certainly help the local business community. “This will definitely help grow the local economy,” said Kenn Philips, vice president of business and workforce development at the Valley Economic Alliance in Sherman Oaks. “We’re more and more of a service economy and we need more degrees. This is a big deal.” – Jonathan Nelson
