Despite the passage of Proposition 57, the Cal State and UC university systems are still restricting admissions this spring and fall.
On Jan. 9, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s state budget proposal, for the 2004-05 fiscal years, brought many setbacks to the education system of California. The proposal included many cuts including in the Cal State and UC systems.
The governor proposed to cut $240 million from the Cal State system and $377 million from the UC system. Both systems were expected to cut a certain percentage of entries from both freshman and prospective transfer students due to the proposal.
On March 2, new propositions passed including Proposition 57. The proposition will allow the state to sell $15 billion in bonds to help balance the state budget. It is also supposed to help avoid huge cuts in education including the college and university levels.
According to the Glendale College transfer center there is still no change in admitting more students because of the budget crises for these universities. Following the proposed budget, schools are expected cut up to ten percent of their enrollment students for the following year.
“The universities I have contacted recently say there is no change in their policies,” said Sarkis Ghazarian, a Glendale College counselor.
Due to most universities not accepting students this fall, both freshman and transfer students, were expecting to transfer in the spring but this might not be the case.
Some Cal State’s will not be accepting students this coming spring, according to their university Web sites. The UC system has never accepted in the spring, so therefore will not be accepting new students until fall ’05.
Some wonder where students will go now that universities are closing their doors this year. The governor has thought of a program to “redirect high school students, that were eligible to the university level, to community colleges for the first two years,” said Ghazarian. After the two years it is promised that they will be let into the university that they had been originally accepted into.
Students that are accepted into this program will have priority registration. “This will also mean that students will be competing for classes at community colleges that have already been cut because of the budget deficit,” said Ghazarian.
As of now students can only wait. “No one will know specific numbers or answers until the state budget is signed on June 30,” said Ghazarian. Schools are waiting to see the state legislative decisions on June 30 to see what programs will be funded and if money will go to universities.
The only advice Ghazarian gives students is: if the state legislative decides to accept the governor’s state budget proposal, they should “contact their elective state officials if they feel strongly about this issue.”
He added, “Students represent one million voters [in California] and they should take action when things are affecting their education.”