University planners expect to complete the delayed fall 2008 class schedule by April 21, with expected cuts to the school’s budget, meaning fewer classes and potentially higher fees, according to University Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs John Gemello.

The continuing legislative debate over the uncertain state budget has made the already complicated scheduling process more difficult. Gemello’s office has had to estimate next semester’s academic resources so deans can decide what classes they can afford to offer.

“We couldn’t wait until the May [revised budget],” Gemello said of the state legislators. “It takes a long time to build a schedule.”

Using a computer program, the office of the provost determines if the rooms are available to house the classes that faculty leaders decide to run under each department’s budget. The sooner deans know the budgets for the various colleges, the sooner they can submit their classes for the often complex processing, Gemello said.

In the original projected budget, the conservative estimates of the provost’s office turned out to be too little money for the deans to flesh out their programs, Gemello said. However, when the state legislative analyst came out with a more favorable possibility for the budget, the provost raised the estimation only partially.

“We didn’t want to be too optimistic,” Gemello said. “It’s better to make adjustments so you can add classes.”

The provost joined University President Robert A. Corrigan in encouraging students to take classes this summer, before the new budget takes effect. Both have said the current budget crisis is worse than the ones seen in 1993 and 2004.

“If you are close to graduation, I strongly advise you to take as full a class schedule as you can manage this spring and summer,” Corrigan wrote in a Jan. 29 e-mail to students. “We cannot predict what next year’s budget will be and whether it will force us to cut back on sections.”

Various lobbying days are planned in late April, beginning with the California State Student Association’s event scheduled for April 21. The following week, on April 28, CSU alumni and the faculty association will hold a “lobby day” in Sacramento. Both rallies are intended to show lawmakers that “the CSU is the solution” to California’s continued budget woes. With educated workers coming out of the CSU system, the revenue they generate will lift the California economy and improve the state’s budget problems, students and faculty argue.

Rather than protest individual schools within the CSU for the budget cuts and potential fee hikes, SF State administrators said more focus is being directed toward Sacramento, a departure from previous years.

“For the first time, students aren’t focusing on the institution, saying, ‘Why are you increasing my fees?’” Corrigan told the [X]press. “They’re looking at where these problems are coming from.”