Cal State Long Beach saw an increase in the number of students this fall, but the university is taking measures to curb enrollment due to anticipated budget cuts.
The university seeks to maximize its use of space and avoid overextending the budget with the decision to turn away new applicants for spring 2009, with the exception of prospective engineering and nursing majors.
“This is a consequence in large part of a state budget that does not prioritize new enrollment,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander. “Unlike the last two years, growth enrollment funds have decreased and we’ve been told to figure out how to educate an increasing demand on our own.”
The number of CSULB applicants has increased about 10 percent every year since the early 2000s, with CSULB receiving the third largest number of applicants nationally this fall, according to David Dowell, vice provost and director of strategic planning for CSULB.
The yield from admission — the percent of students that accept admission offers after applying to CSULB — rose 3 percent this fall.
Alexander said he expects the total student headcount for fall 2008 to amount to about 37,400, a 532-student increase from fall 2007 enrollment.
While state funding has helped maintain campus growth and student accessibility over the years, officials expect California’s budget crisis to greatly affect the opportunities for current and prospective students.
Campus officials projected in March that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget cuts in January would decrease CSULB funding by $16 million. This projection prompted CSULB to prepare for the worst, scaling back where it could.
Officials expect cutting off acceptance of applications for spring 2009, along with raising admission standards and reducing the number of admission offers extended to freshman and transfer students, will result in a 4 percent to 5 percent decrease in total number of students from fall 2008 to spring 2009. Campus officials say the decrease for this period is typically in the 3 percent to 4 percent range.
The steady increase of university enrollment coupled with the peaking numbers of high school graduates nationally has caused a domino effect throughout the country — particularly in California — pushing many students to their second or third choice schools.
According to Dowell, CSULB expected to admit about 3,900 freshmen for fall, but final freshman admittance came to about 4,600, exceeding initial expectations by 700.
“The three CSUs that are generally perceived to be the hottest campuses are San Diego [State University], Long Beach and San Luis Obispo [California Polytechnic State University],” Dowell said.
Dowell added that San Diego State University, considered one of CSULB’s competitors, raised their admission criteria a little more than CSULB this semester, which he believes affected CSULB’s large student population.
“We think that a significant number of students either didn’t get into San Diego because they jacked up their criteria a little bit higher than ours, or for financial reasons, decided to stay home in the LA area and commute rather than incur those extra expenses,” Dowell said.
As for transfer students, the university plans to cut acceptance numbers by 200.
In spring 2008, the university cut enrollment from 1,800 to 1,100 students for summer classes in order to save funding for fall classes. Dowell said the results of this move met their projected $2.2 million in savings.
“It would be a whole lot worse for students to arrive in the fall and not have classes than it would have been to reduce the size of summer a little bit,” Dowell said.
However, even with the cuts to summer programs, there have been complaints of a shortage in classes being offered, especially in the College of Business Administration, according to Dowell. Alexander said the university is working with department heads in the hopes of adding new classes to the current fall semester.
In May the CSU Board of Trustees approved a revision to the CSULB campus master plan after projections of the budget cuts shrank. The revision included the construction of new buildings, parking structures and dormitories. These additions are projected to raise CSULB’s maximum full time equivalent — the maximum number of full-time students in the fall semester — from 25,000 to 31,000.
This is the first time CSULB increased the student enrollment cap since 1972, when the university was established as part of the CSU system.
After adding graduate and part-time students, the new full-time equivalent cap would translate roughly to a 40,000 total student headcount.
“We are at 38,000 [total student headcount] now in the fall,” Dowell said. “So it would be another 4,000 to 5,000 students probably would be the peak because hopefully we won’t get much closer than that until we get these buildings built. We really need them.”
The master plan for the CSU system was designed in the 1960s to provide universal access and a greater amount of state funding nationally, said Dowell.
“The question for us has been, ‘How long will California hang on to this philosophy of trying to maintain all of this financial aid and access?’ But its great thing while its still here,” Dowell said.