CSUN University News Clippings

Cal State to ’super seniors’: Graduate, already

(August 13, 2009)

By Matt Krupnick
Published: 8/12/09

California State University plans to make one last request this year for its longest-term students: Please leave.

As part of its strategy to deal with hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts, the 23-campus university system will urge so-called “super seniors” to forgo that baseball history class and instead just graduate already. The plan is part of a larger proposal to trim enrollment by 40,000 at the 440,000-student system, and it also includes stricter registration deadlines and less tolerance for academically troubled students.

The university has thousands of super seniors — students who have more than 200 credit units. Students who have completed their required courses can graduate once they have 180 units.

Some students have more than 270 units and are taking up much-needed seats in increasingly crowded classes, said Greg Smith, an associate vice president at Cal State East Bay, in Hayward, which has more than 1,000 super seniors, or about 7 percent of its enrollment. Some of those people have just one or two required courses remaining.

“We were maybe a little more flexible in the past than we’ll be able to be this year,” he said. “Before, we could maybe cut them a little slack if they were headed in the right direction.”

With a lousy economy keeping some students in school, some are questioning the university’s timing. And college is the only place people can learn about subjects such as world music and
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folklore, one student leader said.

“College isn’t really to be pushed out of,” said Thomas Candelario, a Cal State East Bay graduate student. “College is a time to grow as a person.”

Candelario and university leaders acknowledge that the budget crunch has led to extremely difficult decisions. Campuses also plan to crack down on students struggling academically, said Jim Blackburn, the system’s enrollment-management director.

The university will expect students to work closely with counselors and advisers to progress steadily toward their degrees, Blackburn said. Combined with tighter admissions for the spring and fall terms in 2010, Cal State leaders hope the strategies alleviate some pressure on their campuses.

“We’re working in terms of input, throughput and output,” he said.

One potential problem with that plan is that students on the crowded Cal State campuses are having more problems than ever getting the classes they need to graduate, Candelario said.

“The classes that you need to take are often full,” he said.

Some campuses, including Cal State East Bay, also plan to adhere more closely to deadlines. That means the university will show little sympathy for students who turn in paperwork late, starting with Saturday’s deadline for incoming Cal State East Bay students to send the university transcripts and other required documents.

Missed deadlines will lead to harsh realities.

“That is going to cause us to rescind admission to some students, there’s no question,” Smith, the Cal State East Bay administrator, said.

The University of California, also facing steep budget cuts, has not yet decided whether to limit enrollment over the next year, UC spokesman Ricardo Vazquez said. Super seniors are “not a significant issue for us,” he said.

Publication: Contra Costa Times