Although the proposed California State University enrollment freeze has raised fears about the future of colleges, the impact of the decision on Pierce students will not be as large as students in CSUs.
For Pierce students planning on transferring to CSUs, the decision will likely force them to either rethink their college plan or postpone their college education until they make it into their desired CSU.
The rest of the student population will see increased competition for classes as displaced students who were planning to attend CSUs overflow into community colleges to continue their education.
This consequence is not as bad for Pierce students as for the estimated 90,000 students that will be required to review the next step in their education if the proposed plan is put into action, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Students choose to attend CSUs for several reasons, but the most common are for prestige that community colleges don’t have, and for the wide array of courses available at CSUs.
It is logical to assume that practically none of the students attending CSUs for prestige would even consider going to a community college because their pride would be injured.
That means those attending CSUs for classes are practically the only ones who would take courses at Pierce, and out of that only those who are able to fulfill requirements for their major at a community college would do so.
Even though Pierce is preparing for a shortfall of almost $1.5 million, Pierce will likely not have to do anything as drastic as CSU’s as winter and summer sessions are still able to be cut.
If Pierce cuts the summer 2012 intersession, the money will probably be applied to adding more courses during fall 2012, just like what happened with the winter 2012 intersession.
While colleges throughout California, public and private, are being forced to make cuts and adjustments to their budgets, it doesn’t help that a panel of CSU trustees voted to give a 10 percent raise to two incoming presidents.
A better system would focus on helping the students, the foundation of CSU’s, by preventing such a drastic proposal from becoming necessary rather than show more concern for contradictory pay increases.
The best system of all would be one where budget isn’t an issue at all, but that won’t happen until hell freezes over and pigs fly.
CSU’s budgetary problems will affect the other colleges throughout California, but the impact of it on Pierce will be minimal for the time being.
Links:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-calstate-csu-applicants-20120321,0,3417081.story
