SACRAMENTO — The budget reductions and student fee increases that Gov. Pete Wilson is seeking for California community colleges next year would result in an enrollment drop of more than 200,000 in the two-year college system, college officials said Thursday.
Joseph Newmyer, statewide vice chancellor for fiscal policy, told the Assembly Higher Education Committee that the governor's new spending plan amounts to a 7% reduction in state support for community colleges, instead of the 10% increase Wilson proposed in his original 1992-93 budget in January.
The governor's plan would make up much of that gap by raising general student fees from $6 to $20 per unit and by charging up to $112 per unit for students with 90 units or more.
"We believe this combination (of lower budgets and higher fees) would be a total disaster for students," Newmyer said.
He noted that some community college programs, especially in fields such as nursing,require more than 90 units to earn an associate of arts degree.
If fees were increased from $6 to $112 per unit, the charges would be higher than those in the University of California or the California State University systems, Newmyer said, predicting that 95% of community college students asked to pay those fees would drop out instead.
The fee increases, combined with the system's reduced budget, would lower enrollment from an anticipated 1.5 million students to 1.3 million, Newmyer said.
Newmyer also criticized a new Administration plan to set admissions priorities for the 107 community colleges by offering preference to students who are preparing to transfer to a four-year college over those who are pursuing vocational education goals.
Newmyer told the committee that the college system's Board of Governors and administration want to develop their own admissions priorities, working with local campuses. "We feel we're better equipped to do that" than the governor or the Legislature, he said.
Jim Locke, president of the community colleges' Academic Senate, said, "some students are going to be locked out of the system unless they learn to tell the right lie."
By that, Locke meant that students, no matter what courses they are taking, will claim to be interested in transferring to a four-year institution to be assured of admission.
