Budget cuts and enrollment growth come at bad time
Corinne Speckert
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: News
Enrollment Services attributes this application spike to its new communication strategy, which encourages students to apply early by moving the application deadline from February to Nov. 30.
"Moving up the deadline is the most effective means we have at our disposal at this time," Lopes Harris said. "In the past, the CSU system has tried hard to find a place for every student meeting CSU requirements, but the chancellor is saying to the governor that we can't do it anymore. We're out of money, so we need to reduce enrollment because we don't want to compromise quality."
Although one of the intentions of this communication strategy was to decrease enrollment by eliminating non-serious students, with this application spike, SJSU now has to consider other strategies to decrease enrollment.
Lopes Harris said that changing admission criteria for some student groups and making it harder for non-local students to attend SJSU are among the strategies to decrease enrollment.
Deanna Gonzales, interim director of undergraduate and graduate admissions, said the CSU system is further considering restricting students from non-local areas from attending SJSU.
"(Restricting non-local areas), that's one of the things they're considering, but I'm not committing to that," she said. "(The applicant numbers) we've received so far, compared to last year, were slightly up, but no one can tell if we'll get a flood of students at the end of November."
The number of freshman and transfer applicants SJSU will have to deny is still unknown.
"Our top commitment is to college transfers (because) they have nowhere to go," Lopes Harris said. "It's a historical commitment; the upper division students, we need to take them. But I don't know how that trickles down to the freshman class."
Lopes Harris said that for SJSU to accommodate its growth, budget cuts need to be eliminated.
"The chancellor is trying to send a clear message to the governor and legislature saying that the CSU is not being adequately funded," she said. "That we're seeing budget cuts at the same time we're seeing growth, and in order to accommodate growth, we can't have budget cuts."
"Moving up the deadline is the most effective means we have at our disposal at this time," Lopes Harris said. "In the past, the CSU system has tried hard to find a place for every student meeting CSU requirements, but the chancellor is saying to the governor that we can't do it anymore. We're out of money, so we need to reduce enrollment because we don't want to compromise quality."
Although one of the intentions of this communication strategy was to decrease enrollment by eliminating non-serious students, with this application spike, SJSU now has to consider other strategies to decrease enrollment.
Lopes Harris said that changing admission criteria for some student groups and making it harder for non-local students to attend SJSU are among the strategies to decrease enrollment.
Deanna Gonzales, interim director of undergraduate and graduate admissions, said the CSU system is further considering restricting students from non-local areas from attending SJSU.
"(Restricting non-local areas), that's one of the things they're considering, but I'm not committing to that," she said. "(The applicant numbers) we've received so far, compared to last year, were slightly up, but no one can tell if we'll get a flood of students at the end of November."
The number of freshman and transfer applicants SJSU will have to deny is still unknown.
"Our top commitment is to college transfers (because) they have nowhere to go," Lopes Harris said. "It's a historical commitment; the upper division students, we need to take them. But I don't know how that trickles down to the freshman class."
Lopes Harris said that for SJSU to accommodate its growth, budget cuts need to be eliminated.
"The chancellor is trying to send a clear message to the governor and legislature saying that the CSU is not being adequately funded," she said. "That we're seeing budget cuts at the same time we're seeing growth, and in order to accommodate growth, we can't have budget cuts."
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