Cal States Plan To Freeze Enrollment At Most Campuses In 2013
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The California State University system is planning on closing spring admissions at most campuses next year and more enrollment cuts could be added if voters reject Governor Jerry Brown's measure to raise taxes, officials said Monday.
Eight of the 23 Cal State campuses will admit students for the spring 2013 semester, but enrollment will be limited to several hundred community transfer students. CSU admitted nearly 16,000 students last spring. If voters reject Brown's November tax measure, total enrollment could be reduced by as many as 25,000 students, or roughly 6 percent, during the 2013-2014 academic year, he said.
The system, which currently has 417,000 undergraduate and graduate students, is decreasing spring enrollment next year after the state reduced funding by $750 million, or 27 percent, this year. If voters approve Brown's tax measure, CSU funding would remain at $2 billion under the governor's budget plan in 2012-2013; however, if voters reject it, the system would lose $200 million in the middle of the academic year.
"It's going to be even more harder, even with tuition rises, so it's more hurdles for us to get over to get to the Cal State universities," Long Beach City College sophomore Niko Simmons told CBS2's Dave Bryan.
Campuses do not need the board's approval for enrollment decisions, but university administrators will present the plan to the CSU Board of Trustees in Long Beach on Tuesday for review. Campuses admitting spring 2013 applicants are Channel Islands, Chico, East Bay, Fullerton, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Sonoma. The other 15 schools will be reducing their enrollment. Spring admissions will be limited to community college students who have completed newly created associate degrees that allow them to transfer to CSU as juniors.
The enrollment reduction will probably allow CSU campuses to save money by reducing the number of staff, administrators, and instructors. Failure of Brown's tax plan would reduce state funding of CSU to $1.8 billion, down from nearly $3 billion four years ago. The CSU system previously closed spring admissions in 2010 and reduced enrollment by 10 percent from 450,000 to 410,000 in response to state budget cuts.
