In the nation’s current financial crisis, the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) college systems have found themselves at the short end of the stick. A $48 million cut in state funding will result in a drop of 10,000 students in enrollment for the next fall’s school year.

The state funding per student has fallen nearly 40 percent since 1990. In addition to the $48 million decrease for the current fiscal year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed another $65.5 million in mid-year cuts for UC campuses and $66.3 million for the CSU system, both of which are yet to be approved.

“Because the state is unable to provide resources needed to fully fund demand, we are forced to make this difficult decision,” CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said, according to the California State University Web site.

The 23 CSU and UC campuses will cap admissions at about 450,000, turning away as many as 10,000 students. “I think it’s already competitive enough,” senior Kanika Khanna said. “I’m just scared I may have to go to one of my backups instead of the schools I really want.”

Next fall will be the first time CSU has not been able to offer a place for everyone who meets the admission requirements. “Hopefully this doesn’t affect what schools I get into,” senior Ahmad Fayad said.

The demand to attend a CSU has risen almost 20 percent from last year. “We know that students turn to higher education when the economy is in a downturn, but the CSU is experiencing unprecedented admissions demand while having to reduce our enrollment,” Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Academic Affairs Allison Jones said in the Turlock Journal. Administrators must make sure to not become overwhelmed by students they do not have the resources to teach. They are being forced to set academic priorities such as cutbacks on faculty hiring, prioritizing course offerings, expansion of class sizes, extended limits on student services and eliminating courses with low enrollment—all of which are factors that could potentially disrupt students’ progress to a timely graduation and will impede the growth of the schools.

“I’m worried about opportunities that I might lose,” senior Tyler Knapp said. “But in the end I don’t feel like it will affect it so drastically that it will keep me from a good education.”

Maintaining a balance between offering a quality education and offering it to as many students as possible is important to the school systems, especially in this time of financial turmoil. “We need to preserve access and affordability to the greatest extent possible,” UC President Mark G. Yudof said on the University of California Web site. “We also need to ensure that we’re providing students access to an education of high quality they expect of a UC.”

The UC and CSU systems’ regents’ finance committees have approved operating budget requests for additional funding from the government for the 2009-10 fiscal year. UC has made a request for $815 million more than the current core operating funds of $5.4 billion. CSU trustees have approved a $5.1 billion request consisting of $3.5 billion in state funding and $1.6 billion in student fee revenue. Both plans leave the door open for student fee increases.

The cost to attend a UC is about $25,000 per year, while a CSU costs on average $15000 including the main fee and campus fees, however this number could potentially increase about 10 percent, if these budget requests are not fulfilled.

“I believe students, who more or less would have chosen to attend private colleges, or universities are going to end up going to their UC or CSU backups based off of the fact that those privates are not going to reduce or cut their fees,” College and Career Information Specialist Leighton Lang said. Lang predicts the deeper effect of the budget cuts will be UC and CSUs who in the past would keep enrollment open if it was not highly impacted will be sticking to their established application deadlines. Many Gunn students are in a better position to enter UCs and CSUs than out of state students. “I truly believe the budget cuts aren’t going to hurt our school,” Lang said. “In the bigger picture they will hurt students who don’t submit their applications on-time to meet the enrollment deadlines.”

Students who are not happy with the outcome should make an appointment to see their counselor. “We often have ideas that are worth considering. [National Association for College Admission Counseling] also publishes places that have openings so that students can consider a late application, but they may not be in California,” counselor Linda Kirsch said. This is also true for students who become wait listed to a place they have a strong interest in attending.

“We’re fairly lean in the way we operate and the way we provide this remarkable educational product to students in California,” University of California Los Angeles Chancellor Gene Block said on the University of California Today Web site, “but that’s being challenged right now.”