CSU Shuts Door on Spring Enrollment

Nanette Asminov, San Francisco Chronicle

Friday, July 10, 2009

(07-09) 20:09 PDT -- For the first time, the California State University will accept no new students for its spring semester, CSU announced Thursday.

About 35,000 students enroll each spring. But CSU needs to cut $584 million from its budget and has slammed that door shut.

"When you limit access, (it) goes against what the mission of the CSU has been," acknowledged CSU spokeswoman Claudia Keith.

Typically, she said, nearly all 23 CSU campuses begin accepting applications for the spring on Aug. 1 and continue until all spaces are filled.

Winter enrollment is also closed at seven campuses on a quarterly calendar, including Cal State East Bay.

Reducing enrollment is part of a budget-cutting strategy that will probably include faculty layoffs and employee furloughs, Chancellor Charles Reed told trustees earlier this week.

CSU also will find ways to reduce enrollment by another 9 percent over the next two years, Keith said. One approach will be to shorten application deadlines.

For example, the deadline to apply to San Francisco State for fall 2010 will likely be Nov. 30, said John Pliska, director of undergraduate admissions. Last year, applicants had until mid-December. The year before that, they had until January.

"What's happening now is terrible," said Steve Dixon, an economics student at Humboldt State, and president of the California State Student Association. "It's a straight-up denial of access."