Fees, Cutbacks Prompt Drop in SDSU Students

Higher student fees and major class cutbacks have brought enrollment at San Diego State University down 8% from last spring, to its lowest point in eight years.

As a result, one semester after thousands of SDSU students found themselves unable to fill their class schedules, competition for class spots has eased considerably. Students now are able to take the same number of total units as before the 20% state budget cuts were forced on the California State University system last fall.

In addition, applications for the fall 1992 freshman class are running 14% below last year’s numbers. Freshman applications are still being accepted at the school, which traditionally shuts off applications after November of the preceding year.

That means the university is well on its way toward balancing the number of students with the money available to offer a quality education, SDSU President Tom Day said Thursday.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed that, if the Legislature gives us enough support for the next couple of years, this campus will be able to be in balance, as an institution about 10% smaller than it has been,” Day said.

The university reported Thursday that spring semester enrollment is 31,201 students, down 8% from 34,242 in spring, 1991. The high point in numbers came in 1988, with 35,379 students, and current enrollment is lower than any year since spring, 1984, when there were 30,929 students.

Although close to 700 classes were cut from course schedules this year, the average class load this spring is 11.1 units, almost unchanged from 11.2 units last spring. (A typical course is three units.)

But Rick Moore, head of SDSU’s public information office, was quick to note that students aren’t necessarily getting the classes they want.

“There are a lot of people who aren’t happy with their schedules, and maybe they are taking some courses they would not have considered taking if other classes had been available,” Moore said. In particular, many required English and Spanish courses were canceled because the university laid off all of its several hundred part-time instructors.

But he said that, even before the layoffs and class cuts, the university was over-enrolled by 5% in the number of courses available. “It was not nirvana before, although there was more flexibility in terms of times and days that many courses were offered,” Moore said.

The worst could be over, assuming the Legislature provides the money requested by the Cal State system in its proposed 1992-93 budget, Day said Thursday. That either requires a 40% increase in student fees, a move vigorously opposed by student organizations statewide, or some corresponding increase in state general fund money that state financial planners say can’t be done. Fees were increased 20% this past fall.

“If we can get the budget approved, then San Diego State will not have to take any further hits because we took the hits this year in terms of downsizing” the institution, Day said. “And we have recovered some of the ground that we lost because we have gone down in students.”

But Day said the university needs “a year or two” to get course offerings and other readjustments in place. “This year, we just ripped out things wherever we could find them” to cut costs, he said.

The fewer applicants for this fall, due both to the increased fees and a fear of fewer classes, also is a welcome phenomenon, Day said.

“Applications for next fall will be down just enough so that we can let in all qualified students and still be on a downward trajectory,” Day said.

The numbers are off about 14% from last year, and Day said the 1992-93 freshman enrollment also will probably end up about 14% less. “As far as I’m concerned, that is good on this campus, to be able to honor all qualified students and get back in balance without having to say no.” Transfer requests from community colleges are running at about the same level as last year, and San Diego State will be able to admit those who are qualified as well.

Not that everything is peachy, by any means, Day added. Last year, the school had an average of 18 students for each faculty member; now it has 20.

The ratio might improve somewhat next fall because the university will graduate an abnormally high number of seniors in June, who will be followed by a smaller 1992-93 senior class, Day said.

Day said the university would have to lay off some tenured professors and eliminate certain academic majors without enough money from the Legislature.

A recent Academic Senate report recommended that, if SDSU receives less money next year, Day should not make further across-the-board cuts as he did last year, but rather decide which academic departments should go and which should stay.

Should the funding fall short of what is needed to keep the existing level of service, Day said, the state will have to face up to the fact that it cannot guarantee a Cal State education to the top one-third of the high school graduating classes.

“I think that policy has worked well in California, and I’m in favor of keeping it; but, if we can’t keep that policy, we should be honest and go on record in saying so.”