CSUN University News Clippings

UC to curtail enrollment in 2009

(January 7, 2009)

By Matt Krupnick

The University of California is preparing to limit the number of freshmen it admits this year, a step brought on by the state budget crisis.

The UC Board of Regents will meet Jan. 14 to discuss the best way to cut enrollment, university system officials said Tuesday. The 10-campus, 220,000-student system follows the California State University system in limiting admissions for the fall 2009 term.

University leaders did not discuss details of the plan Tuesday, but a UC spokesman said it would likely involve students being denied entrance to the campus of their choice and instead referred to UC Merced, which has more space than other campuses.

Administrators expect that plan would lead some applicants to choose other universities, thereby reducing systemwide enrollment. Such strategies have worked in the past, said Steve Boilard, higher-education chief in the state Legislative Analyst’s Office.

The regents’ chairman, Richard Blum, called the state an “unreliable partner” and said the governor’s plan to cut UC funding was forcing the university to take drastic action.

“One day it was going to happen,” Blum said. “We’re supposed to be getting $10,000 for each additional student, and we’re not getting it.”

The university had long warned it might be forced to turn away qualified students for the first time, especially because the state did not cover the cost of the university’s enrollment increase this year. UC had asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pay back that money in 2009-10.

But Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget neither pays back UC for last year nor provides for enrollment growth this year. A Schwarzenegger representative could not be reached comment late Tuesday.

Even with the governor’s proposed cuts, his budget assumes sharp fee increases at both state universities — averaging 9.3 percent at UC and 10 percent at Cal State.

Both UC and Cal State leaders have said students turned away from the universities could spend their first two years at community colleges, many of which already are having trouble handling booming enrollment.

“If we can’t pick up these kids, hopefully the community colleges can,” Blum said. “At the end of the day, you still get a UC diploma.”

Publication: Contra Costa Times