Cal State Long Beach students should expect some new faces, and some new class offerings, as enrollment for spring 2011 has re-opened, even though the budget is still in limbo.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have both agreed on a $305 million restoration of funds and an additional $60.6 million for enrollment growth. Even though the budget hasn’t been signed, the Cal State University system has gone ahead with its plan of re-opening spring enrollment. The CSU system intends to add more than 30,000 new students for the winter/spring 2011 semester, according to the press release.
Vice provost David Dowell said CSULB will add “perhaps 1,200-1,600” new students of the nearly 3,300 that applied for spring 2011.
The added bonus to these incoming students is that “there might be as many as 200 sections opened,” Dowell said. And current students are the ones who are going to be able to apply for these new sections first, because fall semester enrolled students get first priority over spring transfer students.
What enables CSULB, and many other CSUs, is the federal stimulus funds that total $106 million for the entire CSU system. CSULB has also received additional money from the chancellor’s office, according to Dowell, who expects to spend an additional $1.3 million for new enrollment growth.
Even if the budget isn’t adopted, prospective students won’t be opening their mail to find their acceptance rescinded. Erik Fallis, media relations specialist for the CSU system, is also confident that the budget will go through as proposed, as the Legislature has adopted what Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed.
Even though there is a hopeful hundreds of millions of dollars being restored, the CSU budget is still much less than it was in the 2007-2008 year, when there was $2.97 billion in the state’s general allocation fund for the CSU system. For the 2010-2011 year, there is only an expected $2.72 billion.
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