With EC not having priority admissions to a local California State University (CSU) and students trying to transfer paying the cost, the Academic Senate is preparing to take action.

Chris Wells, vice president of legislative action of the Academic Senate, is putting up a fight to defend the EC students on their future to transfer into the CSU’s programs.

Currently Golden West College, Long Beach City College, and Orange Coast College all have priority admissions to CSU Fullerton and CSU Long Beach.

EC has none. CSU Dominguez Hill’s local admission area is the state of Calif., therefore they are no more relevant than any other CSU that has the state of Calif. as a local admission area.

“I believe that we need to take the most aggressive stance possible,” Wells said. “Yes it’s excellent for the students who have the priority admissions, but what about our students?”

The policy of  “free flow” was adopted by the legislature in 1987, which permits students to enroll in any community college in the state, regardless of the district they reside in.

Wells believes that if students are now choosing which community college they need to attend to guarantee admissions then it is no longer “free flow” and they are choosing community colleges based on what CSU it will get them, and not the students needs.

CSULB has given priority admissions to community colleges that are geographically further from them than ECC.

“The system is totally inappropriate and unfair,” Wells said.

According to a graph put together by EC’s Institutional Research, in the fall of 2007 64.3 percent of students were admitted to CSULB. In fall 2010, just 26.1 percent of students were admitted, a large decrease.

Wells said that students from community colleges with priority admissions, such as LBCC, only need a 2.0 GPA to get in to their local CSU while EC students need about a 3.2 GPA.

This is also affecting EC because it hurts the ability to attract students, Wells said.

“If you work hard then you should be able to get into the school that you want,” Laura Torres, 20, communications major said. “It’s not fair for us to be left behind, especially when we can commute to these schools.”

Some students are getting into the University of California universities just fine, but it’s the CSU system that is the biggest problem.

“I got accepted into the UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara right away but I haven’t heard back from CSU Long Beach yet,” Mariela Villalobos, 21, international relations major said.

“I really didn’t want to move away from home, because it saves me a lot of money to stay local, but with how everything is playing out, it seems like I am going to have to move.” Villalobos said.

For fall 2010, 1,039 students from Long Beach City College applied to CSULB with 406 students being admitted whereas EC had 1,095 applicants with only 286 being admitted.

“This is a systematic problem and the state is being negatively affected by this,” Wells said. “My goal is to connect with the local colleges in similar situations because this is becoming a civil right issue. I want to file a complaint to the Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Education.”