University of California officials on Friday proposed reducing freshman enrollment for next fall by 2,300 students, or about 6%, to cope with what they said is insufficient state funding.
Enrollment would not be cut at UCLA and UC Berkeley, the most popular campuses, and expansion would continue at UC Merced, the newest school, according to the plan that is to be reviewed by the UC regents next week. The other six undergraduate campuses would have some freshman reductions, while overall slots for transfer students would rise.
"I don't like cutting out opportunities at all," UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a telephone interview from his Oakland office. But given expected steep state budget cuts, he said he reluctantly recommended the actions to protect UC's academic quality.
"These are very hard, difficult economic times. There will be sacrifices all around," Yudof said, adding that he has worked in recent weeks to minimize the enrollment reductions.
UC leaders say the effect may be softened by a demographic shift, as the number of high school graduates starts to decline this year. However, other experts predict that the economic crisis will push more students to UC campuses and away from more expensive private schools. UC freshman applications are running about 3% higher than last year.
Yudof emphasized that students whose high school grades and test scores meet UC eligibility standards would not be completely shut out of the system, although more would be denied a spot at their first-choice campus. As a result, enough students are expected to turn down a UC campus they never really wanted and instead attend a non-UC school.
Under the proposal, the number of students who transfer as juniors to UC from community colleges would increase by about 500, or about 3%. Yudof said that during the economic downturn, "we need to keep open cost-effective paths to UC, such as the community college transfer route." The rolls of graduate students would not change.
UC's total enrollment is about 226,000, and the state has not kept up with enrollment growth, leaving the system short of state funding for about 11,000 students, officials contend. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent budget proposal again fails to provide enough money for growth and calls for significant cuts in other UC funding, they said. The state is facing a $41.6-billion deficit by mid-2010, and the governor has indicated that education is not exempt from sharing the burden of hard times.
