The $105.3 billion state budget approved Wednesday by the state
Assembly will allow the University of California to fulfill its
Master Plan promise to accept every qualified high school student
in the state.
After several weeks of negotiations, the budget, which is
expected to be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by Saturday,
will give the UC $12 million to enroll about 1,600 students who
were previously to be deferred to community colleges for two years
before transferring to a UC campus.
This turn of events comes less than a month before several UC
campuses will begin the academic year, leaving many students
anxious and uncertain about their impending freshman year. Many of
these students already have made specific arrangements based on the
original transfer option.
Due to the lingering state budget crisis, Schwarzenegger asked
the UC in May to reduce its freshman enrollment by 10 percent as a
cost-cutting measure. Rather than reject qualified applicants, the
UC opted to give 7,600 students the option to enroll in a community
college with a guaranteed transfer to a UC campus after two
years.
The number was later reduced to 5,800 after the Davis and Santa
Cruz campuses were able to accept more students, said Hanan
Eisenman, a spokesman for the UC Office of the President. About
1,300 of these students accepted the option, he added.
The plan, known as the Guaranteed Transfer Option, was subject
to much scrutiny for rejecting qualified applicants from the
UC.
The university system now expects about 1,600 students accepted
under the GTO to accept enrollment in the UC, Eisenman said. The
students will be accepted in the fall, winter or spring term,
depending on how quickly each campus can accommodate them, he
added.
“We’re going to do our best to make the process as smooth
as possible for these students,” Eisenman said.
Assembly Speaker Fábian Núñez, D-Los Angeles,
made it a priority to ensure every qualified student would be able
to go to a UC, said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for
Núñez.
Velasquez added Núñez “fought long and hard to
restore funding” for UC admissions.
The UC also had $29 million restored to its outreach programs –
equal to last year’s budget – and received $20 million to fund the
September opening of the new Merced campus.
But despite this week’s victories, the UC still faces a slew of
cuts in the budget.
“There are still significant cuts in other areas like
research and administration,” Eisenman said.
In May, Schwarzenegger entered into a compact with the UC in
which the university agreed to absorb $372 million in cuts with the
promise of increases in state funding to the university in
2005-06.
To offset these cuts, the UC Board of Regents increased in-state
undergraduate student fees by 14 percent and graduate student fees
by 20 percent.
Coming 28 days into the fiscal year, the approval of this budget
ended an impasse marked by partisan rancor and infused with
childish name-calling ““ and kept Democratic lawmakers away
from the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
The budget avoids significant new cuts and does not introduce
new taxes, but it calls for heavy borrowing Republican leaders warn
eventually will lead to higher taxes.
With reports from Natalie Banach, Bruin senior
staff.bv