UC-eligible students face transferred reality
By Joyce Tang
May 23, 2004 9:00 p.m.
In a stable economy, Stacey Ganz would have had a better shot at
attending UCLA.
Instead, the Chatsworth High School senior who was accepted to
University of California campuses at San Diego, Santa Cruz and
Santa Barbara, received a Guaranteed Transfer Option, a form of
delayed admission from UCLA.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent budget compact with
the UC confirmed a 10 percent enrollment cut to the university for
next year.
The agreement also proposes incremented increases to enrollment
funding at the UC starting in 2005, leaving this year’s high
school graduating class out of luck.
State legislators who are currently examining
Schwarzenegger’s revised budget proposal voiced opposition to
the compact because it cuts out this year’s high school
seniors.
Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, the Assembly majority whip,
said no eligible students should be cut out this year, and called
the compact a breach in contract with the UC’s previous deal
with the state, the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education. The
Master Plan promises all eligible residents access to a UC or
California State University campus.
“The high school seniors this year are sacrificed ““
the 11,000 students who received (GTO) letters,” Chan
said.
Ganz is one of the 7,600 UC-eligible high school students in
California who received a guaranteed transfer offer ““ a
compromise that buffers the cut to enrollment by guaranteeing
transfer admission after completion of directed coursework at a
community college.
The CSU system expects to send out about 3,600 GTO letters.
“I think in a way it is unfair, especially for people who
worked so hard. It’s just kind of discouraging because
you’re wondering what you’re working so hard
for,” Ganz said.
Ganz said she would have gone to UCLA had she been accepted. As
is, she will likely attend UC San Diego.
Helene Kunkel, college adviser at Palisades Charter High School,
sees the budget problems trickle down to the college-bound seniors.
At Palisades, there was a 50 percent drop in the number of students
admitted to UCLA this year, Kunkel said.
“It was quite a shock ““ the drop,” Kunkel
said, saying that though UC enrollment numbers usually remain
stable and constant, “our feeling is that this year in
particular was a bad year to be a senior.”
Hanan Eisenman, spokesman for the UC Office of the President,
said the compact is a solution intended to ease the UC
system’s recovery, and said there are hopes that the
enrollment crunch is temporary.
Eisenman cited the transfer option as a means of softening the
blow of the enrollment cuts by granting a UC education, albeit
delayed, to qualified students.
“We understand that they may be disappointed by this
year’s outcome. Â It was deeply distressing for the
university to turn students away,” Eisenman said.
Jan Livingston, the college adviser at Chatsworth High School,
said affected students are frustrated.
“They had to redirect their efforts and they’re
very, very upset that they did all that work for the UC and
didn’t get into the UC,” Livingston said.
Assemblywoman Chan protests what she called the clandestine
nature of the compact.
“A lot of negotiations were done behind closed doors.
“¦ I feel objectively that his proposal will lock out a lot of
students who are otherwise eligible out of the UC and CSU,”
Chan said.
Since the college admissions calendar precedes the state budget
calendar, the UC had to input Schwarzenegger’s preliminary
suggestions of cutting back 10 percent of enrollment when making
its admissions decisions.
“Because there were no firm alternatives to the
governor’s plan, we had to go under assumptions and make
those decisions,” Eisenman said.
By next year, the UC hopes to be able to admit all eligible
California residents, Eisenman said.
Livingston said she worries that this year’s seniors will
face further delays as the state makes cuts not just to the UC and
CSU systems, but also at the community college level.
“The community colleges are cutting back too. It’s
the domino effect but students have nowhere to go ““ they just
have to shuffle with it,” Livingston said.
The transfer option provides students with Internet resources
specific to their designated UC campus. But transfer candidates are
not offered priority enrollment at community colleges.
“Many community colleges don’t have open slots;
they’re over-enrolled. It’s not possible how they can,
but they have to be able to offer the right resources; they
weren’t given the time for this,” Chan said.
Fees at community colleges are expected to increase from $18 to
$26 per unit this year. Schwarzenegger proposed waiving community
college fees for guaranteed transfer students, a measure that is
pending approval under the budget plan.
The state Legislature is currently examining the proposed
budget. The budget has to be approved by the Legislature and sent
to the governor on or before June 30.
Schwarzenegger can blue-pencil the Legislature’s revised
budget ““ meaning he can take out revisions but cannot add new
ones.
“We’re going to give a very strong try to change
this. Students will be denied admission even though they are
qualified. We’re hoping to get the GTO notices rescinded and
restore funding for the full freshman class,” said
Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, chairwoman of the
State Assembly Committee on Education.
Still, the Legislature’s efforts may be too late, as most
college-bound seniors have already turned in their statements of
intent to register.
