This spring semester brought good news for students as more sections were added despite the budget cuts expected for next year.  “What the state has told us is that even though there are some huge budget cuts coming for next year, in the current year there is money for growth, so that means a little bit of additional money,” Arvid Spor, dean of enrollment services, said.Enrollment increased four percent over last spring,        Lovell Alford, academic affairs analyst, said. “It increased partly because we added a few more sections this spring semester than we had the prior year,” Spor said.Classrooms are now at a 100 percent fill rate, he added.The total budget for EC, this year is approximately half a billion dollars, while only a little more than $106 million make up the general unrestricted budget, which is slightly less than last year’s amount, Spor said.However, due to growth funding provided by the state, an estimated 30 sections were added to what was originally planned for spring 2011, Alford said.Although the amount of sections added was small, students were able to notice a change when registering for classes.“It seems like it was a bit than easier last semester, I wasn’t on the waitlist for classes,”Aaron Deering, 24, English major said. “Pretty much all the sections that I tried to add, I could not get into. This semester I’ve got all my classes, I think it seems like it’s been easier for everyone.”Other students like Nicole Lee, 30, Art major said getting classes was still hard, especially math classes and this may be a result of a small increase in the amount of students who enrolled for classes this semester.But this is not a good model for what’s going to happen in the future.Enrolling for classes next semester will only become more difficult as budget cuts will continue to impact the college.Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a plan that would bring a 6.8 percent budget reduction for the upcoming fiscal year.“For next year, the best case scenario is we would have to cut about $7 million, and this is the best case scenario; in the worst case it can be almost $18 million,” Spor said.If budget cuts stay within $7 million an estimate of 195 sections would be cut and if budget cuts reach the $18 million a total of 681 sections could be cut during the course of a year, Spor said.This will make it harder for students to get the classes they need and it could eventually force students to delay their transfer process.The new proposal could increase the fees students pay per unit to $36 or even $66 dollars a unit.Students currently pay $26 per unit, a fee increase from the previously $20 per unit students paid before the Fall 2009 semester.“I don’t know about all the factors involved in raising the price, I mean I know it’s tough but it’s still a pretty decent education for the amount that we’re paying,” Deering said.EC has currently one of the cheapest fee rates per unit among community colleges in the nation. This may change if the budget stays the same, EC may see another tuition increase.“We’re trying to do the best we can given the budget situation and that’s why we’re very helpful that things will get resolved Spor said. “Budget cuts won’t be as severe but we really don’t know until they work that out at Sacramento.”