Hundreds of students on campus ask themselves, “Why can’t I ever find a parking spot?” Little do they know, the reason stretches further than they can imagine.

In the first week of the 2009 spring semester, many noticed the classes were fuller, add/drop lines were longer and more feet tread the walkways of El Camino College.

In fact, a Xerox-like copy of the campus can be found at most community colleges in California.

Junior Colleges all over California are swarming with eager and energetic hopefuls that are just trying to get an education.

Chancellor Charles B. Reed, said “California State University will cut off applications to most of the system’s 23 campuses and reduce its enrollment by 10,000 students next fall unless lawmakers can provide extra money for the system.”

This makes university cuts and enrollment caps possible and forcing 460,000 new students in on ever-growing community college campuses if state funds aren’t provided for the 2009-2010 school year, Reed said.

In order to continue accepting students into universities, their need for money must be met to support incoming students.

The chancellor of the 110-campus community college network, Diane Woodruff, said if we face more cuts this year, the system may have to turn more than 250,000 students away.

At this point, lawmakers have cut $246 million from the Cal State’s 2009-2010 Budget. An additional $66 million cut has been proposed by Arnold Schwarzenegger

As the budget is facing downward, “the folks in Sacramento have to face up to problems in front of them”, William Hauck, a CSU Board Trustee said.
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Unfortunately, enrollment cuts will mostly effect campuses with a high percentage of poor, minority students, a Cal State Dominguez Hills professor said.

Consequently, admission security at CSU campus is only available for a few qualified hopefuls that fit the tight criteria.

Consideration for admission consists of living within a particular area of the students’ desired campus, transfer students with 60 transferable units with at least a 2.0 GPA, and special consideration for those that are involved in music of theater, Mr. Reed said.

However, first time, out-of-state and foreign applicants will most likely be denied admission for reasons, such as the campus being out of their region.

In a nutshell, a domino effect of many statewide cuts has taken a place in the wold of knotty academics.

The California budget caused university cut, which caused enrollment caps, then that caused students to be denied admission to universities, which made community colleges overcrowded, leaving new students with few options for courses and parking spots.

In this world where there is almost always a loophole, there seems to be none here. ‘There are really no workarounds left”, Hauck said.