Community colleges are supposed to be the institutions where
anyone can get a higher education. But as enrollment cuts funnel
more students to community colleges, the colleges will have to turn
more of them away.
For the first time since the inception of the 1960 Master Plan
for Higher Education, budget cuts have forced the University of
California and the California State universities to turn away 10
percent of eligible students. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to
redirect these students to community colleges, but the
already-saturated system may not be able to support them.
The governor’s office argues that transferring eligible
students to community colleges will preserve access to higher
education in a time of fiscal crisis. But educators say community
colleges are underfunded and cannot adequately serve more
students.
An estimated 3,200 students who are eligible for the UC and
4,200 CSU-eligible students will be affected. To accommodate these
students, Schwarzenegger proposed a Guaranteed Transfer Option
which would redirect these students to community colleges.
Students who are offered a GTO will be asked to attend a
community college free of charge for their lower division courses,
with the assurance that they will later have a spot in the system
for which they were deemed eligible.
In the past, if UC-eligible students were rejected by the UC
campuses to which they applied, they would be offered admission to
either UC Santa Cruz or UC Riverside.
But this year Riverside will accept only a minimal amount of
students who were rejected elsewhere, and Santa Cruz will not be
taking any overflow, which means most UC-eligible students who are
rejected will be offered GTOs.
The problem with this program is that community colleges are
already overcrowded and underfunded.
California community colleges had to turn away nearly 175,000
students this fall and winter quarters because of reduced
funding.
Community colleges also had to lay off some part-time faculty
and staff.
This means community colleges have had to reduce the number of
courses they offer, as well as the amount of students they can
accommodate, said Cheryl Fong, spokeswoman for the California
community college chancellor’s office.
The governor’s budget proposal included a 3 percent
increase in funding for community colleges to facilitate enrollment
growth, but Fong says this is not enough to accommodate the
additional students.
“Three percent approximates normal enrollment
growth,” Fong said. “(Three percent) doesn’t take
into account the growth from the UC and CSU, doesn’t take
into consideration the rising costs of operating our community
colleges “¦ doesn’t take into account the proposed
waiver of fees,” she said.
Fong also said neither the governor’s office nor the UC
consulted the community colleges about the GTO or the fee waiver
before they were announced.
At the current cost of $18 per unit, the fee waivers for the
7,400 students eligible for the UC and CSU will cost the community
colleges about $3.2 million per year. If the cost goes up to $26
per unit, as Schwarzenegger has proposed, the total could be as
much as $4.6 million per year.
“We are serving as many students as we can, and we need to
be part of the discussion in higher education, so we can talk
realistically,” Fong said.
H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Department of Finance, said
though he is not sure if the community colleges were consulted
before the budget announcement, a dialogue is currently
ongoing.
“We believe we have put together a budget for the
community colleges which is an increase over this fiscal year and
will accommodate the projected growth in enrollment next
year,” Palmer said.
Palmer said the total funding increase for community colleges is
close to 7.6 percent. This number includes a 34 percent increase in
student fees, which would increase normal fees to $26 per unit, and
fees for those who already hold a bachelor’s degree to $50
per unit, and a $265.5 million increase from the state’s
general fund.
Palmer downplayed any of the fee waivers’ possible
negative impacts, saying more than one million students at
community colleges will have their fees waived next year.
The GTO program also allows students up to four years to
complete lower division coursework, which could provide a cushion
for students who cannot get into the classes they need at community
colleges.
But many, like Ann Shadwick, higher education director for the
California Teachers Association, are not convinced.
“We already know that community colleges are filled to the
gills. We do not have the facilities to bring in thousands and
thousands more students,” she said.
Shadwick said taking students who were deferred from the UC and
CSU might mean community colleges would be less accessible to some
of the communities they traditionally serve, like adults and
students who are not eligible for other higher education.
And though community colleges are not selective ““
admission is first come, first served ““ space is still
limited.
Shadwick said community college has always been a place where
people “can get a second and third chance at higher
education, to turn their lives around,” and she worries that
the GTO could be detrimental to this open access, especially if
students who are deferred from the UC and CSU are given priority in
community colleges.
Shadwick’s concerns are not unique in the education
community.
“We’re concerned about having to provide additional
services without additional funding,” said David Baime, vice
president for government relations for the American Association of
Community Colleges.
Baime said fees only account for 5 to 10 percent of funding in
community colleges, so the proposed fee waivers might not be
severely detrimental to the community colleges. But he qualified
his remark by saying the state has not provided the infrastructure
funding necessary to support additional students.
GTO offers will not be sent out until April 15, but anxiety is
already beginning to mount in California high schools.
Elena Turner, a college counselor at El Camino Real High School
in the San Fernando Valley, said the news that UC Santa Cruz will
no longer be taking the overflow of eligible students has caused
considerable worry.
She said she has been “begging” seniors to apply to
Pierce ““ the local community college ““ so they will
have a space in community college classes there if they do not get
into a UC.
Turner said Pierce ““ which is only funded for 20,000
students ““ has already had to close classes.
“It’s very difficult and very scary,” said
Cindy Moghanian, a senior at El Camino Real.
“You have to be above average or spectacular (to get into
a UC).”
And it will be even more difficult to get into UCLA.
This year, UCLA admitted 800 fewer students than it did last
year, said Vu Tran, director of UCLA admissions.
This action lowered UCLA’s number of admits to 9,800.
About 43,500 people applied to UCLA this year, and 18,791 of them
had GPAs of 4.0 or higher.
“It’s very tough to turn away more and more
qualified students, but we really don’t have much of a
choice,” Tran said.
The increasing selectiveness of UCLA and other UCs will mean
some of the students who are offered GTOs could be strong UC
applicants.
Such competitive students might be offered a GTO because
students will go into the GTO pool for simply being rejected by the
UC. This means if a student only applied to selective schools
““ primarily UCLA and UC Berkeley ““ and was not
admitted, that student might be offered a GTO.
In 1996 the UC enrolled more than the 12.5 percent of graduating
high school students mandated by the California Master Plan, so if
this trend continues, the UC may still meet its Master Plan goal,
in spite of this year’s 10 percent enrollment cut.
But the CSU will not have the same luxury.
Clara Potes-Fellow, spokeswoman for the CSU chancellor’s
office, said the 10 percent enrollment cut to the CSU will put it
below its goal of enrolling the top 33 percent of graduating high
school students.
But amid concerns about access to the UC and CSU, there are
some, like UC Regent Velma Montoya, who see a positive side to the
GTO program.
“Where you start is not important, it’s where you
finish that matters,” Montoya said.
“I think that sometimes it is beneficial for a student to
try out college at a good community college,” she said. She
added that the personal attention available in community colleges
may help some students be better prepared to enter universities and
that it could increase their chances to graduate.