University of California officials have announced that they will continue admitting all eligible student applicants, even with the potential effects of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state budget cuts on university resources in the upcoming 2008-2009 school year.
The UC detailed the potential effects of the budget cut on the UC student admissions process in a press release sent out Feb. 28.
The UC Board of Regents was given a presentation in January about potential options the university could absorb in order to deal with the budget cuts, said Ricardo Vazquez, a UC spokesman.
“No decisions have been made on fees or any other budget issue but this particular one. We don’t expect the regents to make a decision on fee levels in their upcoming meeting in March,” Vazquez added.
But in order to continue providing university resources, the university will need to look closer at budget reductions in other areas as well as student fees.
Prospective students in the undergraduate and graduate level will be the first to face the effects of the budget cuts on the admissions process.
Added pressure of the budget crisis onto the admissions process was created in response to the 7 percent increase in students applying for admissions for the 2008-2009 year.
In the UC press release, Provost Wyatt Hume said, “We feel it is our obligation to California to continue meeting our commitments under the Master Plan for Higher Education and expand our enrollment capacity as necessary.”
The issue of budget cuts on admissions also brings UC’s practice of offering a place for all undergraduate applicants who meet the university’s eligibility requirements into question.
“Taking students without further state funding is not a sustainable, long-term (plan). We cannot commit at this time to accommodate any more student growth unless the enrollment growth is funded by the state,” Vazquez said.
But the issue of the budget cuts on admissions on the graduate level may not be as major as those on the undergraduate level.
“We expect graduate admissions to be similar like in recent years,” Vazquez added.
Aside from admissions, the university may also have to decrease some of its other campus resources, all the while increasing student fees in order to reduce the effects of the budget cuts on other areas of the university.
To some students, like Arthur Lechtholz-Zey, Chief Executive Officer of LOGIC, budget cuts may be beneficial for the university.
“The more the government gets into education, the worse it gets,” Lechtholz-Zey said. “The more the UC operates like a private institution ““ that is, its operation depends on the tuition people choose to pay ““ the more responsible it will be for (the) quality of education, because it’s not just getting guaranteed tax dollars.”
With reports from Sarah Jo, Bruin contributor