Citing severe budget cuts and over-enrollment during the past year, the UC Board of Regents reluctantly voted in favor of limiting freshman enrollment by 2,300 students.
The plan comes at a time when the university is struggling to cope with steep budget cuts from the state, leaving little room to accommodate for any over-enrollment.
For UCLA and UC Berkeley, which traditionally experience a higher number of applicants, freshman enrollment will remain stable while the other six campuses will be given lower enrollment target rates.
Over-enrollment has become a greater issue in recent years due in part to the large graduating high-school classes across the state. The class of 2008, which graduated in June, was the largest in the state’s history. In addition to this growth, the state provided no new funding to cover the increased costs for these students.
Over-enrollment, coupled with a lack of state funding, has placed the UC in a tough position as it struggles to recruit new faculty and pay for services for the new students.
The UC currently enrolls roughly 11,000 California students without the necessary state funds to support their education, according to documents on the Regents’ Web site. However, as a result of the budget cuts from the state, the university is operating without the normal state enrollment funding for these students, which would total $121.8 million in funding.
UC President Mark G. Yudof spoke frankly of the university’s difficult situation. He said that the decision was a reasonable step toward helping alleviate the financial woes the university faces.
“We’re not trying to do it overnight,” he said of the decision to only curtail enrollment growth by 2,300 students.
Yudof also said that the enrollment targets for the UCs would include an increase of 500 transfer students. The changes, he said, would be a cost-effective way to help address the recent large graduating high-school classes.
Richard Blum, chairman of the UC Regents, showed his strong support for Yudof’s proposal, saying that the public should understand that ultimately the legislature is responsible for the state budget.
He placed some blame on the Republican legislators, whom he said are opposed to tax increases.
“For those who want to yell, go yell at Sacramento,” Blum said.
In recent years, budget cuts and over-enrollment have resulted in an increase in the student-faculty ratio, said Mary Croughan, chair of the Academic Senate and advisory member on the UC Regents’ Committee on Finance.
Croughan said that while she would rather the cuts not be made, given the circumstances, the plan was a reasonable one.
Only two members opposed the proposal: Regent Eddie Island and Student Regent D’Artagnan Scorza. Island expressed concerns over the significant impact the enrollment cuts would have on students from low-income households and underrepresented students ““ particularly blacks.
“We ought to find another path, and I’m not sure we’ve looked at other paths,” Island said.
Scorza echoed Island’s concerns and said that the university should use its influence to push back on the legislature.
“I also think it’s important that we stop saying that we’re over-enrolled and start saying we’re underfunded ““ because we are meeting the promise of access for the state, and we’re not over-enrolled. We’re just underfunded,” Scorza said.
Yudof said he recognized that options were limited but that a decision still had to be made.
“You’re on a collision course, and you need to make a decision,” he said. “You ask for sacrifice at various levels.”