Fees go up. Faculty get no raises. And now the California State University system is turning away students. CSU's will accept student applications at only 10 campuses for the spring 2012 semester, the system announced yesterday.
Even those 10 campuses will limit new applications mostly to students who are transferring from California community colleges with associate degrees.
For the spring 2013 application period only Channel Islands, Chico, Fullerton, East Bay, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco and Sonoma will take applications from new students.
CSU Chief Academic Officer Ephraim Smith blamed the new policy on budget cuts. "Ongoing reductions in state funding are forcing campuses to reduce enrollment to match the level of available funds," he said.
The university has no plans to increase enrollment or reduce tuition, even if a proposition to raise state taxes passes on the November ballot, because the CSU system will only be able to maintain its current funding with that revenue.