Cal Poly Pomona will avoid a $12 million mid-year budget cut after voters' approval of Proposition 30. The campus will start the process of rescinding the $166-per-quarter tuition fee increase already in place.

The CSU Board of Trustees had previously approved a contingency plan to rescind the tuition fee increase that took effect for the fall 2012 term. Annual tuition fees for full-time undergraduate students will now revert to $5,472 - the same rate as in the 2011-2012 academic year. In addition, enrollment will see a slight increase for fall 2013, and the admissions office will begin to review applications for new students. That review process had been delayed pending the voters' decision.

The Student Accounting & Cashiering Services department at Cal Poly Pomona will email students information detailing the tuition rollback, which does not require the student to initiate the process. Students will either be credited, refunded upon request, or receive a reconfigured financial aid package to account for the revised tuition fee rates. For students receiving financial aid, the fee rollback may be matched by an equal reduction in a financial aid grant, in which case no credit or refund will be issued. The rollback process should be completed no later than Dec. 21.

"Passage of Proposition 30 helped us avoid another $12 million cut, and for that we are grateful. However, it's important to remember that it does not restore state funding," says university President Michael Ortiz. "Today, we are working with just 62 percent of the state funding we had received in 2007-2008. Our students need more support to ensure they have the classes and services that are essential for long-term success."

Cal Poly Pomona's state budget allocation has been reduced by more than $56 million since the 2007-2008 academic year.

For the CSU, passage of Proposition 30 means that the 23-campus system's budget will be essentially flat for the remainder of the fiscal year; however, state funding remains about $1 billion less than it was several years ago.

"We are hopeful that the passage of Proposition 30 will be the beginning of the state's reinvestment in higher education," says CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "The long-term benefits of additional revenue can only be realized if higher education is once again a priority. The state needs to start making up for the devastating budget cuts of the past several years and focus on higher education as a driver of California's economic future."