CSUCI to Turn Away Many

An enrollment cap at California State University campuses is expected to severely restrict access to Ventura County’s budding four-year public university -- a move its officials fear could stall efforts to build academic programs and push forward with development projects.

Less than 20% of those who have applied to Cal State Channel Islands for the 2004-05 school year are expected to gain entry as a result of an enrollment freeze ordered last month by the Legislature at all 23 Cal State campuses.

Incoming freshmen will likely be hardest hit. Although they make up more than 75% of the 3,886 students who applied for admission next fall, fewer than 220 are expected to be accepted. This fall, Channel Islands enrolled about a quarter of the 3,024 students who applied, 234 of them freshmen.

“We don’t want to alienate any potential students, but the Legislature has tied our hands,” said university President Richard Rush, noting that the enrollment target for next year was scaled back again last week.

“The action of the Legislature means that we must reduce access to public, four-year higher education in this area,” Rush said. “This is not something we want to do; this is something we are directed to do.”

It’s the same story at every Cal State campus.

University officials have said that the legislative mandate will force them to cap enrollment at this year’s total of about 409,000 students.

The action will force the Cal State system to turn away at least 15,000 academically qualified applicants next school year. It will be the first systemwide enrollment cap in the university’s 42-year history and a departure from its mission since the 1960s to provide room for the top one-third of the state’s high school graduates.

Moreover, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration has proposed a $23.8-million midyear cut to the Cal State system, which, if approved by the Legislature, could scale back enrollment even further.

While campuses throughout the system scramble to absorb the cuts, the squeeze could be hardest on developing universities like Channel Islands.

Opened last fall after a 30-year campaign to end the county’s standing as the most populous in the state without a four-year public university, Channel Islands was planning to build enrollment over the next quarter century to serve local educational needs.

The university currently serves the equivalent of 1,670 full-time students. By the time this year’s freshman class graduates in 2007, more than 4,000 full-time students were expected to have enrolled.

By 2025, enrollment was expected to have reached capacity, at more than 15,000 full-time students. The enrollment cap will delay those targets, denying access to many qualified students.

The cuts spill into other areas as well. With a mandate to serve no more students next year than they are serving this year, officials do not intend to hire new faculty, add majors or expand academic programs.

Campus development also could be affected. Freshmen were expected to fill a 350-bed student dormitory under construction on a corner of the 670-acre campus, but restricted enrollment will force university officials to open the facility to all comers.

And construction of a 900-unit housing project, being built largely to accommodate Channel Islands faculty and staff, also could experience delays if hiring does not continue apace.

“It’s going to be felt across the face of the entire university,” said Ted Lucas, the university’s vice president for academic affairs. “This goes against the mission of the CSU. And it goes against our own mission and desire to serve Ventura County and the region.”

In coming weeks, officials will begin sifting through applications received by the Nov. 30 deadline to determine who will be offered spots.

In keeping with the university’s commitment to the local community, 90% of the available spaces will be reserved for students residing in Ventura County, southern Santa Barbara County and northern Los Angeles County.

In the meantime, Rush and others intend to focus efforts on strengthening the existing academic program and continuing to lay the groundwork for the time when the enrollment cap is lifted.

“This isn’t something that any of us are happy about,” Rush said of the restrictions, “but we will do what we can to serve students and keep the dream of a four-year higher education not only alive, but vibrant.”