Six campuses in the Cal State University system are losing state funding after not meeting enrollment targets.
Each school in the CSU system is given a number at the beginning of every year stating how many students should be in enrolled. This is called the full-time equivalent (FTE) number, and it helps decide the amount of money the state gives each school.
There is a 3 percent cushion, in which the university can go over or under. Cal State Long Beach has managed to stay within its enrollment target and will continue to receive its full budget.
“Every student over the enrollment target takes away from other students,” said Erik Fallis, a spokesman for the CSU.
Fallis also said that the fees are not meant to be a punishment, but rather an incentive meant to help campuses avoid over-enrollment and receive full funding. The target is necessary because the CSU system lost $650 million in funding last year.
“There are two choices when it comes to funding,” Fallis said. “The first is spreading out the budget to a larger amount of students, which means fee increases or limit the amount of students allowed to enroll.”
In fall 2011, a combination of the two went into action.
Fees increased and enrollment targets decreased. Most schools, including CSULB, stayed within the target rate.
According to Rick Gloady, director of media relations, and the Chancellor’s Office, CSULB’s annualized target FTE for the 2011 academic year is 27,968 and the actual FTE number is about 28,033, which is only 2 percent more.
This leaves CSULB with access to full tuition and state funding.
This success can be attributed to admissions strategic planning.
With 25,124 students admitted in fall 2011, only 8,920 enrolled. Using statistics and generating a plan for the admissions process is how the admissions office succeeded with meeting this target.
“Admissions is not a science, it’s an art,” Fallis said.
The school admissions office cannot know how many students will enroll after they have been accepted.
Marie Alford, director of admissions, said that, in order to not go too far over or under the target, the university “employs a lot of data and look to past numbers.” This data helps the school estimate how many students will enroll each semester and keeps CSULB within target.
However, some CSU campuses did not do as well.
Six campuses in the CSU system are facing fines that will take back the tuition money made from the over-enrolled students and put it into the CSU budget. According to Fallis, these campuses are: Bakersfield, Dominguez Hills, San Jose, San Marcos, Stanislaus and Northridge.
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