On most campuses administrative costs and overhead for self-support programs are determined by campus guidelines or intra-campus agreements. Individual programs might have special features, most often determined by the relevant faculty or department, as well as by the needs of the constituency for whom the program is designed. Costs might include guest lecturers, special equipment, and the like. In keeping with campus guidelines and CSU policies, budgets are typically developed by the self-support unit and the department or college with the academic responsibility for the program. Once all costs are agreed upon, a minimum and maximum enrollment for the program is set, in keeping with the program’s academic character and standards. The tuition is set to allow the program to break even at minimum enrollment and to provide a reinvestment funds at maximum enrollment.

To comply with CSU policies and approval requirements, and to prevent any possible shortfalls impacting the campus’s General Fund dollars, the reinvestment funds produced by any given program and by the total portfolio of self-support programs offered by a campus is set aside. It is used primarily as an operating reserve for the campus’s self-support unit but may also be placed in program investment accounts (whether with the campus overall or with the campus’s participating colleges and departments) or in building or building-maintenance accounts.

These reinvestment accounts are key to a campus’s ability to develop new programs and to move its self-support capacity in new directions. The use of reinvestment funds must be integral to campus and college or department planning—both on a year-to-year basis and in three- to five-year plans.

Many campuses use their self-support capacity strategically to serve external constituencies and post-baccalaureate working adults. By so doing, and by thus attracting further state funding, a campus can better serve on-site students seeking a first baccalaureate.