Brenda Cochrane has 45 students in her "Women and Work" class; Elizabeth Prinz teaches 45 students in her "American Sign Language" class; Austin Long-Scott has 79 students enrolled in his "Ethical Issues in Journalism" class and Eugene Handler oversees 12 segments of "Human Anatomy" consisting of 240 students -- this after having to turn away 120 students for lack of space.
These are the beginning signs of a university caught between a rising tide of student enrollment and lack of space to accommodate it.
Without any plans to create new universities, the three California public higher education systems will experience an enrollment explosion over the next 10 years, according to projections by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
University of California, California State University and California Community College enrollment projections over the next 10 years are expected to rise by 399,000 to 488,000 students.
"Looking at the high school statistics, the information we have is that in 10 years we'll have about 399,000 more students than we have spaces for (in California's higher education systems)," said SF State Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services Ed Apodaca.
The CPEC projects undergraduate growth for the three segments at 488,000 by fall of 2005. CPEC's estimates show that CSU enrollment will increase by 74,000; UC enrollment by 29,000; and community college enrollment by a staggering 385,000.
There are now 324,882 students in the CSU system, a 1.7 percent increase over last year. Full-time equivalent enrollments increased from 245,000 in 1994 to 250,000 in 1995, according to the CSU Chancellor's Office.
"Our enrollment is just about the same level it was five years ago," Apodaca said. "Our campus has been exceeding its FTEs (full-time equivalent) the last three or four years."
SF State received more than 500 students this year, bringing the campus' total enrollment to 26,000. In fall 1994, SF State had 26,260, and in 1993, 25,713. Full-time equivalents increased from 19,058 in fall 1994 to 19,739 this fall.
"Our enrollment is just about the same level it was five years ago," Apodaca said. "Our campus has been exceeding its FTEs the last three or four years."
Reasons for the sharp increases center around Tidal Wave II, comparable in the growth of numbers to Tidal Wave I, the baby boom years from 1965 to 1975. During those years, the CSU system saw an increase from 70,000 students in 1960 to 227,000 students in 1975; the UC system from 48,000 to 121,000; and the community colleges from 109,000 to 600,000, according to the Higher Education Policy Center.
To offset the increase in Tidal Wave I, the California educational system underwent a massive expansion during the 1960s, and an educational master plan was created. UC Riverside was transformed from a fix-it center into a campus; UC Santa Barbara was a teachers' college before becoming a university; and UCs Irvine and Santa Cruz were created.
In 1960 the California Higher Education Master Plan was created, stipulating that UC campuses must give consideration to the top 12.5 percent of high school graduates, the CSU system the top one-third, and that community college campuses must admit anyone with a high school or general education diploma. There are nine campuses in the UC system, 20 in the CSU system, and 107 community colleges in California.
With the exception of the new CSU campus at Monterey, made possible by the defense conversion of Fort Ord, there are no plans to create new campuses in the higher-education system.
Other contributions in increased enrollment are the return of students who have been away from school and the increase in minority enrollment, according to Apodaca.
In 1985, 62 percent of high school graduates were white, 18.6 percent Hispanic, and 7.4 Asian. By 2004 Asians will account for 12 percent of all high school graduates; Hispanics 35.8 percent; and whites 38.7 percent, according to the California Department of Finance.
"Enrollment was going up considerably up until 1989, at which time there was a budget crisis," Apodaca said. "Then with the budget crisis and fee increases, enrollment dropped considerably."
Between 1990 and 1994 CSU's enrollment dropped 12 percent, while UC and community colleges' enrollment dropped 2 and 9 percent, respectively.
"You had less money for improving, less money for all kinds of services. You had less spaces, less courses were offered, and of course the students were left with paying more money," Apodaca said. "A lot of the students were graduating from high school and deciding they could not pay the high fees. There were a lot of stories about the budget crisis and how it would take 6 to 7 years to graduate. A lot of students were deciding to go to private schools offering graduation in four years, or going out of state."
Since 1990, tuition has increased 89.5 percent at CSUs. UCs and community colleges also saw sharp rises in their tuition -- 124.9 percent and 290 percent, respectively. SF State students paid $839 for tuition in 1990. Today they pay $1,590, and the CSU Board of Trustees has recommended raising the fees by 10 percent next year.
"You had less money for improving, less money for all kinds of services. You had less spaces, less courses were offered, and of course the students were left with paying more money," Apodaca said, using the fact that 25 percent of enrollment services budget was cut as an example.
But in the past year, with the rising economic costs of attending other institutions and the desire to obtain a college degree, enrollment began increasing, according to Apodaca.
"You go to UC or a private institution, you pay a bunch. People started to think that coming here was a good buy," Apodaca said. "More students are coming in with the idea of going directly into graduate programs, that a BA by itself no longer guarantees employment.
"The problem now is we don't have the space. The UC doesn't have any space, they've been full for quite a while. Cal State has a little room, but not that much.
"The only other spaces are community colleges. They have about 100,000 students less than they had five years ago," Apodaca said. "They took budget cuts of 30 percent. They let go of some of the more remedial type of courses."
When budget cuts were imposed, faculty lecturers were let go, classes were cut and university improvements were streamlined at all three higher education systems.
"Then, of course, with the golden handshake there have been a lot of tenured faculty that have retired early. We have less faculty than we had five years ago," Apodaca said of state college professors. There are 200 fewer faculty members today than in 1989, according to SF State Academic Resources.
With losses in revenue, reduced services and faculty cutbacks, coupled with enrollment increases, California's colleges and universities have had to begin restructuring qualifications for admittance in order to find new ways of curbing the wave of new applicants.
First by increasing fees. Now, an effort to require competency in English and math without the aid of remedial services has been pushed by the CSU Board of Trustees. Currently more than 60 percent of incoming freshmen require some form of remedial help.
Other changes slowly being phased in as needed are the establishment of tougher application deadlines, higher GPA minimums and more prerequisite qualifications.
"When you don't have enough students you find all kinds of ways of making students eligible. When you have more students than you can serve, then all of a sudden, you find different ways of putting the burden on the student," he said.
"At Cal State we say we'll accept the top one-third. Right now, at the rate we're going we'll soon have to start a selection process," Apodaca said. "Because we (CSU) still have open space, we admit students all the way until the first day of classes.
"As we start getting impacted, we will probably start closing (enrollment time frames) earlier and earlier, until we come down to that one month open period," he said.
[ Golden Gater Online December 5, 1995 ]
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