Current CSU Lecturer here, working for one of our largest campuses. Since I started 10 years ago, my department (CS) has seen more than double the amount of enrollment. Projections for us are to double again in the next 4 years or so.
The decline in student population might be a thing system-wide, but not for certain areas like STEM.
Edit: Also, we have lost quite a few faculty due to our poor pay, which makes our overall class sizes huge. When I started, class size was capped at 35. Now I have two lecture-hall size classes at ~100 students per class.
> The decline in student population might be a thing system-wide, but not for certain areas like STEM
I remember applying to UCs and CSUs for CS/CE barely 10-15 years ago and it looks like the amount of seats available and faculty in Engineering has remained consistent despite the massive growth in popularity of Engineering majors system wide.
Hopefully it doesn't tip over and collapse due to underfunding, but having seen the state of facilities at Cal recently, it doesn't seem to be going the right way.
The decline in student population might be a thing system-wide, but not for certain areas like STEM.
Edit: Also, we have lost quite a few faculty due to our poor pay, which makes our overall class sizes huge. When I started, class size was capped at 35. Now I have two lecture-hall size classes at ~100 students per class.