Proposed College Based Fee Increase - Letter from the Dean

Dear CLA Majors,

The College of Liberal Arts (CLA) has proposed bringing its College Based Fee (CBF) to the same level as that in the other five colleges. Equalizing our CBF rates with those in other colleges entails a per-quarter increase of $112 for full-time students and $56 for part-time students in our college. I cannot emphasize too strongly that 100% of revenues derived from the CBF is dedicated to our majors.

Although the amount of the increase is modest, we are sensitive to the cost of a Cal Poly education shouldered by you and/or your family. We would not propose an increase unless we thought it necessary. Our highest priority is to provide you with the best possible education, one that will serve as a strong foundation for your lifelong personal and professional success. We want to ensure that the quality of your education as a CLA major will prepare you for the challenges ahead and will not lag behind that received by students in other colleges at Cal Poly. 

Beyond the exceptional achievements and quality of our students and faculty, the margin of excellence in a Cal Poly education rests on our ability to provide relatively small classes taught by personally engaged faculty; meaningful Learn by Doing activities; up to date instructional equipment for students; travel support for student competitions, field trips, and presentations at conferences; inspiring guest artists and speakers to augment classroom activities; co-curricular and study abroad possibilities; and opportunities to collaborate with faculty on research and creative projects. In addition, we strive to translate some Learn by Doing activities into Earn by Doing ones through paid student assistantships, internships, and co-ops. We are also always looking for ways to offer more sections of “bottleneck” courses for our majors.

Our ability to provide such enhancements to learning has diminished substantially with the recession and associated budget cuts of the previous five years. Despite our best efforts, it is clear that we cannot maintain parity with the other colleges in providing important learning enhancements and course access without parity in the CBF.  Although the cost to each student is modest, the collective increase in opportunities will be great. By voting in favor of this increase, you are providing the college with the additional funds it needs to sustain excellence in your education. Please also remember that allocation of this additional revenue will be reviewed each year by a student advisory committee charged with ensuring that CLA majors receive the greatest possible benefit. As I noted earlier, all of the money collected from the CBF is exclusively dedicated to improving the education for CLA majors.

I strongly encourage you to support the proposed CBF increase for CLA students, bringing the cost for our students to the same level as that paid by all other Cal Poly students. This investment in the CLA is an investment in your own success and the success of your fellow CLA students. 

I also invite you to join me at one of the open forum meetings to learn more about the proposal and its potential benefits, ask questions, and discuss the proposal with other students. The dates, times, and locations for these meetings are listed on the last of those slides.   

Sincerely, 

Doug Epperson, Dean

College of Liberal Arts