UCLA nursing program survives
By Gil Hopenstand
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA remains the only UC school with an undergraduate nursing
major.
UCLA Nursing School faculty decided to admit another
undergraduate class in 1995-96 by a vote of 19 to 2 with one
abstention, school officials announced Wednesday. The new class
will only have 32 students, compared to the 45 students per class
now enrolled.
The class would have been cut as a means to distribute a 30
percent budget cut across the school, which will be phased in over
three years. The cut is part of Chancellor Charles Young’s plan to
restructure five graduate schools’ administration, budget and
curriculum. The cuts are aimed at saving UCLA $8 million
annually.
In a related vote, the faculty agreed to temporarily suspend
undergraduate admissions for the 1996-97 year due to a lack of
funding.
"We will try to get the word out to the community that there may
not be a nursing program after 1996. This is not a decision that
the majority of faculty want to make, but with the 30 percent cut,
we’ve had to make some hard decisions," said Diane Cooper,
associate dean of nursing.
The decision to call off the 1995-96 class would have come less
than a month before the school began accepting admissions
applications on Nov. 1, possibly leaving many students confused at
the last moment.
"It was a responsible vote on behalf of the faculty in that they
saw the obligation to the students who are currently sophomores,"
said Ada Lindsey, dean of the nursing school, adding that the
smaller 1995-96 class will make it harder for students to be
admitted to UCLA’s already competitive program.
Beginning nursing students enter UCLA as pre-nursing majors and
then reapply to the undergraduate program after two years. Many
students who expect to apply to the nursing program in 1996 may
find that it will not exist.
"We will have to help them look at what their options are
outside UCLA. Cal State L.A., which used to admit 50 students twice
a year, now admits only 30 students once a year. And they already
have a pool of 200 of their own students," Cooper said.
"The difficulty is going to be in counseling pre-nursing
students because at least for the short term, most will not be able
to enroll at UCLA," Lindsey agreed.
USC and Mount St. Mary’s College  two other local schools
admitting undergraduate nursing students  are far more
expensive than UCLA and are admitting fewer students next year.
While UCLA charges about $100 per unit, USC fees cost $580 per
unit and Mount St. Mary fees cost $475 per unit.
Nursing officials said they have not given up hope that the
school will survive its budget crisis.
The school’s goal now is to find additional money so that the
undergraduate program could be continued in the future, Lindsey
said.