Cal State Campuses Curb Rolls; Few Openings at CSUF : Education: Because of a budget crunch, many schools in the system have cut off further applications by new undergraduates for spring. The Long Beach facility won’t accept any new freshmen then.

Reacting dramatically to a continuing budget crunch, Cal State Long Beach will not enroll any new freshmen or lower-division transfers next spring.

The move could shut out about 800 students, based on projections from last year, officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, seven other Cal State campuses have cut off any further applications for spring enrollment by new undergraduates in most majors. The moves could affect thousands of students statewide.

At Cal State Fullerton, the spring deadline for all but five programs ended last Friday, Jack Bedell, acting associate vice president for academic affairs, said.

He estimated that Fullerton will be able to accept only about 1,000 new admissions in the spring of 1992.

“Usually we accept about 3,000 to 3,500 new admissions in the spring,” Bedell said. “We already have more than enough applications to fill the openings.”

The programs that are still taking applications are geology, physics, nursing, and mechanical and electrical engineering.

Because of the budget cuts, Bedell said, the Fullerton campus is offering about 200 fewer classes in the spring then are normally available in the fall.

At Cal State Long Beach, spokesman Toni Beron said, “We are trying to serve more students than we can accommodate and we need to get that number down, especially with the budget crisis.” Last spring, the Long Beach campus enrolled 33,092 students, including 188 first-time freshmen and 610 transfer students who were less than halfway toward earning a bachelor’s degree.

Imposing earlier application deadlines for spring enrollment is nothing new for popular campuses like San Diego State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But, the 1991-92 state budget produced massive faculty layoffs and eliminations of course offerings at many Cal State campuses. So, more campuses are tightening application periods to limit enrollment, said Stephen J. MacCarthy, spokesman for the 375,000-student system.

Last year, the San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Chico campuses closed spring applications by Sept. 1 and Northridge, Sacramento and San Francisco did the same by Oct. 1. As of Tuesday, Fullerton, Long Beach, Pomona, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo and Sonoma cut off spring 1992 applications for most majors.

Long Beach appears to be the only campus so far to totally cut out new freshman and lower-division transfers this spring. But, in effect, thousands of students who may want to enroll at other campuses in the spring and were slow in completing applications could be affected. MacCarthy said it was too soon to estimate how many students could be locked out systemwide.

Scott Bowlen, editor-in-chief of the Daily Forty-Niner, a student newspaper at Cal State Long Beach, said some students may be pleased about the enrollment restrictions because that will make it slightly easier to register for required courses.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, criticized the application restrictions, calling them “the start of the downsizing of California higher education.” At a Sacramento press conference Tuesday, Hayden called on Cal State officials to use lottery funds to reopen closed classes.