UC's last attempt to reduce enrollment led to widespread confusion. Amid state budget problems in 2004, UC told about 5,800 eligible students in the spring that it could not admit them as freshmen but that they would be guaranteed transfers from community colleges when they were juniors. Then in the summer, the Legislature provided extra money to reverse that decision. By that point, many of those students had made other college plans.
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University of California officials urge 6% cut in freshmen for fall
The 2,300-student reduction would not affect UCLA, UC Berkeley or UC Merced. The number of applicants denied their first-choice campus would rise, but transfer slots would increase.
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In other budget news, California's higher education systems were coping this week with a 90-day suspension in state financing for public works as a result of the state's inability to sell the bonds it uses to keep cash flowing.
Cal State projects affected include a performing arts center at Cal State Northridge and a business administration building at Cal Poly Pomona, officials said.
UC is seeking an exemption from the financing freeze for its stalled projects, including engineering, humanities and arts facilities at UC Irvine. Community colleges are soldiering on with construction projects in the hope the state will reimburse them.
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larry.gordon@latimes.com
Times staff writer Gale Holland contributed to this report.
