Shortly after announcing a 10 percent pay hike to incoming California State University presidents, Cal State officials announced that they will not be admitting new students for the spring 2013 semester.
Only eight of the 23 CSU’s campuses will be accepting a few hundred students, denying the remaining applicants access to the state’s largest public university system.
The freeze on enrollment is an effort to recover from a $750 million cut in funding made during the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
“It will dramatically affect our students at EC because a lot of students in their educational plan already have it planned out to transfer in the spring 2013 semester,” Sue Oda-Omori, Transfer Center coordinator said. “They’ve done all the preparation and they were counting on it and now they are going to be shut out.”
The fall 2013 semester could suffer the same fate pending the outcome of the proposed new tax measures on the upcoming November ballot.
While CSU students face cutbacks, the Fullerton and East Bay campus presidents were granted 10 percent pay increases. The CSU board of trustees said the increases are necessary to attract and obtain top executives of talent.
“It was a certain amount or percentage over what their last salary was. I think there was legislation that went into it and those two new presidents did get a pretty substantial raise,” Oda-Omori said.
In the meantime students may have to extend their time at EC pending voter turnout of the tax measure.
Irene Graff, director of Institutional Research, says we don’t know yet if students are maybe considering in private or other destinations, or remaining another semester.“All of us are trying to become better people by going to school and getting an education to better ourselves one day.” Nima Ahmadi, 20, biology major said. “It sucks that you can’t go to your full capabilities because you are being held back by these budget cuts.
“Students will possibly stay and for those reasons it could be beneficial because they can complete more classes to try and raise their GPA,” Oda-Omori said. “For students who don’t have more classes to take they can try to take the time off to work and save money for the fall term.”
Graft said she is optimistic that the proposed tax measures will make all the difference.
“Students should write their legislators, hang in there, and be persistent,” she added.
Oda-Omori advises students to look at the other options in the transfer center.
“This week, we have Historically Black College fair, and we have the workshop on the transfer admission guarantee agreements that we have with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Oda-Omori said.
Although there may be options for transferring in light of this news, students are upset over the announcement.
Katie Bucci, 18, American history major, thinks it is unfair for students who have been attending community colleges to have to wait to attend a university.
“It’s (enrollment freeze) really not giving people the chance to get an education,” Bucci said. People are struggling to make more money it’s tough as it is with class and budget cuts.”
