Hot Subject at Colleges: Subtraction : Education: As number of classes drops due to budget cuts, students are beseeching professors and department chiefs to waive enrollment limits so they can take courses they need.

Marshall Cates, chairman of the mathematics and computer science department at Cal State Los Angeles, is steeling himself for this unhappy season of appeals.

Students shut out of needed courses during advance registrations traditionally beseech professors and department heads to waive enrollment limits and allow them into crowded sections. But with cutbacks in classes throughout the Cal State system and community colleges this fall, such appeals have become more frequent and more desperate, professors and students report.

That squeezes people like Cates into tough spots as the new academic year begins. To preserve the quality of instruction and ensure individual attention, Cates is limiting most class sizes in his department to 29 students, four more than allowed during the 1990-91 school year. “If you go to 35, you are not solving any social dilemma. It doesn’t help anybody. It hurts everybody in the class,” he explained.

Meanwhile, at Cal State Long Beach, business major Mike Allen needs just one class in collective bargaining to graduate in December. But that course was among hundreds canceled this semester.

“Now I am going to have to come back here in the spring and pay for tuition all over again, just for one class,” he said while leafing through a fall class schedule outside the university’s business administration building. “It’s frustrating.”

The agonizing budget debate in Sacramento may be over, but its impact on faculty and students in public higher education throughout Southern California is now being felt. The effects are sure to last well past the next few rounds of orientations and final exams, eroding the California dream of a low-cost, high-quality college education for all.

Fees are up 24% at UC and 40% at Cal State campuses, and costs at community colleges are set to rise, in most cases, from $6 to $10 per credit in January. In the 20-campus Cal State system, about 1,500 full- and part-time instructors have been laid off or not rehired, and about 2,000 class sections have been dropped statewide, officials said. Figures are not available yet for community colleges, but administrators estimate several thousand class were canceled in the state.

As a result, students are sitting on floors of crowded classrooms even as overall enrollments have declined. Graduations are being delayed. There also is some evidence that more California students are trying to transfer to out-of-state schools.

“I think it’s a sad day for California’s system of higher education,” said Tom Harris, chancellor of the North Orange County Community College District. His district includes Fullerton Community College, where 99% of all fall classes are filled, and Cypress Community College, where 90% of courses are booked solid.

Some crowding is attributed to trickle-down. More than ever, Cal Staters who can’t obtain lower-division general education classes are concurrently enrolling at community colleges.

“Classes are nearly impossible to get,” said Erica Hauck, who is studying justice administration at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys and is the student representative on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees.

Gordon Newman, dean of admissions at Santa Monica College, said a good percentage of students trying to get into classes are “reverse transfer students” from four-year universities. “We have students all over the campus trying to fit into every nook and cranny, and the professors are trying to be obliging, but you have to worry about the educational quality,” Newman explained.

At the same time, community college students are finding it more difficult to complete their associate degrees before transferring to four-year schools. For example, Tabitha Ziegler, a third-year student at Ventura College, said her transfer plans have been delayed a semester because she couldn’t get the classes she needs.

“I had to beg one professor to let me into a class, and I had to scrounge around for other classes because even the alternates for my other classes were closed,” said Ziegler, who plans to transfer to San Diego State or Cal State Fullerton. “It seems like the whole system is falling apart.”

At Los Angeles City College, many courses have waiting lists, ranging from 25 for algebra to about 100 for some English classes. One English professor had 40 on a list, including three Cal State Los Angeles students who could not get into a required course at their home campus.

University of California students so far have been spared the worst of the cuts. But the 24% fee increase brings average fees for UC undergraduates from California to $3,036, not including room and board. Because of the 11% decline in state support, UC officials warn about yet another surcharge this year, and enrollment cuts and faculty layoffs next year. UC depends on state funds much less than do Cal State and community college campuses.

At many Cal State schools, enrollments are down from last year: 4% at the Northridge and Fullerton campuses; a projected 5% at Los Angeles, and 7% at Long Beach. The most dramatic decline is the 8.3% reported at San Diego State, where proposed department closures soured the semester, although the plans were put on hold. Cal State Dominguez Hills and the new San Marcos campuses report growth; community colleges show mixed pictures.

Officials say enrollment drops are natural responses to higher fees and fewer classes. (Including the 40% increase, basic Cal State student fees will average $1,308 for the current school year.) But administrators also fear some students have been scared away unnecessarily.

“There are campuses where there is room, and certainly San Diego State is a prime example of that,” said Stephen J. MacCarthy, a Cal State system spokesman. “Given the fact the overall budget picture was publicized as much as it was, it’s certainly logical to assume there were people who were discouraged from pursuing their degree.”

Although there are no solid figures, students and teachers say they know some students have transferred or are trying to transfer to colleges in Oregon, Washington or Arizona. The more costly independent colleges in California are using the budget mess as a recruiting tool.

But public college enrollments haven’t dipped enough to relieve the pressures on class sizes. At Cal State Los Angeles, for example, about 330 of the 3,500 sections offered last fall are gone this year; at Cal State Fullerton, 800 of the 4,500 classes have been dropped.

“We keep trying to do more with less, so that means we are crowding our classes,” said Donald Schweitzer, Fullerton’s vice president of academic affairs. “We are right on the edge--some people would say over the edge--of having an impact on the quality of instruction we provide.”

In a room designed for 50 students, 64 are enrolled in one of instructor Richard Way’s classes on “Leisure in Contemporary Society” at Cal State Long Beach. Way allowed the extra 14 students in after the registration computer rejected them; he figures he turned away another 20.

“I can say no at 50, but most of the people out here realize the problems students have and are trying to help them as much as we can,” he explained. He fears that the larger classes mean some personal touch will be lost, “but not enough to damage the course.”

On top of the extra term papers and exams he will have to grade for no extra pay, Way has to worry about surviving more layoffs next year. He is director of intramural sports but does not have tenure. “Being a lecturer is never safe,” he said.

In laboratory sections with limited work stations and microscopes, adding 10 or so students is not possible, said Cal State Los Angeles microbiology professor Rosemarie Marshall. Furthermore, she declared, “it would be immoral and unethical of me to do so.”

“We are being put in a position that is very difficult to handle,” said Marshall, who is president of the campus faculty union. She tries to help students find similar lab classes at other campuses but also gives them this advice: “Write to legislators.”

Opinion is divided about the effect of high unemployment on colleges.

Pasadena City College is offering 2,579 courses this fall, 44 fewer than last year, but enrollment is expected to be up 1,000 to about 24,000, spokesman Mark Wallace said. He conjectured that the tight job market keeps people in school and sends others back for retraining.

On the other hand, Barry Garron, information officer for the three-college San Diego Community College District, believes potential students are holding on to jobs and postponing education. Enrollment at San Diego community colleges has dipped this fall 1.2%, to 39,496.

Campuses have taken some unusual steps to ease budget pain. For example, a dozen Cal State Northridge professors volunteered to teach extra classes for free before they retire this year. Cal State Long Beach is asking local businesses to sponsor a course at a cost of about $5,000 each; donors include Magnavox Electronic Systems Co. in Torrance for an electrical engineering course and the Italian Cultural Institute for an Italian language class.

Students themselves are struggling to adapt.

“Since they cut classes,” said Elissa Osby, a Cal State Dominguez Hills student who lives on campus, “I can’t get morning classes. I have to come in the afternoon, which means I had to change my work schedule.” She now works nights, instead of afternoons, in the photo developing lab at the Price Club in Inglewood.

At Cal State Los Angeles, mathematics and computer science chairman Cates said he is particularly worried about the many older and returning students whose schedules are not flexible because of families and work. Last minute restoration of some classes eased the pain a bit this fall, but such reprieves appear unlikely for subsequent quarters this year.

“I’m deathly afraid of winter and spring,” Cates explained.

Contributing to this report were staff writers Michele Fuetsch in the South Bay, Jonathan Gaw in San Diego, Jill Gottesman in Long Beach, Peggy Y. Lee in Ventura, Jean Merl in Los Angeles, Jodi Wilgoren in Orange County and correspondent Kathleen Kelleher on the Westside. Gordon reported from Los Angeles.