College students feel the crunch in cancelled classes
Like many California college students, Victoria Guzman received
an e-mail a few weeks ago that stopped her in her tracks. Guzman,
18, received an e-mail that one of the five classes she is enrolled
in for Fall 2009 had been cancelled.
After the approval of the California state budget, which called
for $584 million in cuts to the 23-campus CSU system as well as a
multitude of cuts to the 110 community colleges and the University
of California system, many college students received similar
notices.
College students feel the crunch in cancelled classes
Like many California college students, Victoria Guzman received an e-mail a few weeks ago that stopped her in her tracks. Guzman, 18, received an e-mail that one of the five classes she is enrolled in for Fall 2009 had been cancelled.
After the approval of the California state budget, which called for $584 million in cuts to the 23-campus CSU system as well as a multitude of cuts to the 110 community colleges and the University of California system, many college students received similar notices.
“I felt like my heart dropped,” Guzman said. “I had totally forgotten how many credits I had to have [to be full time.] I was looking all over the Internet to see what I needed – to see if I was okay. It was a really scary, a very scary hour of my life.”
Originally enrolled in 16 units, Guzman is still above the 12 units required to be a full-time student at the school, even with one fewer class. Aside from the issue of taking longer to graduate, if a student falls to part-time status, they can also lose campus housing, financial aid and even health coverage.
“If I lost my housing, I wouldn’t be able to go to San Francisco because there would be no way to get off-campus housing,” she said. “My parents don’t have a lot of money so I would basically have to stay here and go to [Gavilan]. We would have lost all the deposits I made toward school. There was a lot on the line there.”
With 13 units, Guzman’s housing is safe. Other students had more of a scare, including a friend who had three of five classes cancelled.
“A lot of my friends got four or three classes cancelled and had to enroll all over again on their own,” she said. “It’s just a really stressing thing for them. I was lucky enough not to have to do that.”
SFSU staff encouraged students to register for other classes, as did Gavilan College staff when it cut 20 percent of its summer classes and 10 percent of its fall classes.
Guzman said her friends were able to find enough new classes to stay full time, but ended up with a tough load for their first semester.
Guzman decided not to replace her “Values in American Life” humanities class, which was cancelled, because all the classes that would fit into her schedule were three-hour long seminar classes late at night.
“It’s super late at night and it’s in San Francisco, and I didn’t really want to do that,” she said.
Guzman is still looking forward to heading off to college where she will move into the dorms on Aug. 19 and start classes Aug. 25, but the recent events have made the state budget crisis personal for her.
“I heard about it in the news and my parents talk about it,” she said. “I hear other adults, but I never really saw it affecting me until that happened. In high school, they talk about cutting teachers and cutting classes, but it never really affected me personally.”
The recent cuts are unprecedented, according to a press release from CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed.
“We have never before seen such a devastating cut in a single year,” he said. “I am really concerned because the CSU system has a national reputation for access, quality and diversity.”
To meet the budget gap, the trustees voted to use a mix of employee furloughs, enrollment reduction and student fee increases.
“This is going to be a terrible situation for California and for this board,” said Jeffrey Bleich, the CSU board chair, in a press release. “We all need to understand what we’re dealing with and the timing and tools that we have available to address the budget situation.”
The schools will not be accepting applications – either transfer students or incoming freshman – for the spring 2010 semester. They also cut off the application deadline for the 2010 winter session on July 6. The board has plans to reduce enrollment by 32,000 students system-wide for the 2010-11 school year.
The schools currently serve 450,000 students a year and graduate 90,000 annually.
The community college system faces $581 million in direct cuts, plus unreimbursed property tax shortfalls and a reduction in student services programs.
The University of California, which includes 10 campuses, had its budget reduced by $813 million for the fiscal years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.
“Everyone in the UC community is being asked to share the pain of our short-term solution, which is just one step toward finding the best ways to ensure long-term excellence and access for students and everyone we serve,” said Mark G. Yudof, the UC president, in a press statement July 28.
The board of regents approved a furlough program to close some of the budget gap, but was still short $335 million. The regents created a Commission on the Future of the UC July 15 that will talk to experts inside and outside the system to “reexamine the university’s mission, redefine goals and refine services, looking for approaches that will preserve excellence in a time of diminishing state resources.”
As for Guzman, she said she worries about getting the classes she needs in future semesters.
“If I have a class canceled [again], am I going to fall behind?” she said. “What if I don’t have enough credits to graduate, or what if I don’t have enough credits in four years?”
