Saying they could not avoid a painful decision, University of California regents voted Wednesday to trim freshman enrollment for next fall by 2,300 students, or about 6%, as a response to reduced state funding during the worsening budget crisis.
"None of us likes this," regents Chairman Richard Blum said of the student cut. But he placed responsibility for the action on state legislators, particularly Republicans opposed to tax increases. "For those who want to yell, go yell at Sacramento," Blum said.
Under the plan, six of UC's nine undergraduate campuses will see significant cuts to their ranks of California freshmen in the fall. UC Irvine and UC San Diego, the hardest hit, are slated for reductions of about 12%, or 550 and 520 slots respectively, because they enrolled more than their targeted number of students in recent years, officials said. At four other campuses, the cuts range from about 10% at UC Riverside to 6.6% at UC Santa Barbara.
The campuses that attract the most applications, UCLA and UC Berkeley, will stay close to current levels, with Berkeley growing by 80 freshmen, or about 1.7%, and UCLA declining 35 spots, or less than 1%. UC Merced, the newest and smallest school, will grow by 155 freshmen, a 17% rise.
While making freshman admissions a bit tougher, the regents encouraged more students to transfer as juniors to UC from California community colleges. They boosted the number of such transfers by 500, or about 4%, for the fall. No change was made to graduate student numbers, or to the percentage of out-of-state undergraduates, which runs about 6%.
The governing board voted 19 to 2 for the enrollment changes during a meeting held by teleconference. Regent Eddie Island and student regent D'Artagnan Scorza voted against the changes.
The regents also unanimously approved a salary freeze for 285 top UC administrators and an end to bonuses for those and other employees. Most of those affected by the salary freeze earn more than $200,000 a year, and some twice that.
Island, in a passionate statement, said the enrollment cut would damage public support for UC and disproportionately hurt African Americans. He questioned whether the $20 million in projected savings is "a big enough number to justify the harm that is going to result from this reduction."
