Nailah Edmondson
City Times
Plan on transferring to San Diego State University for spring 2009? Many City College students aren’t aware of this, but SDSU received more than 61,000 applications for fall 2008 from freshman and transfer students. Yet SDSU was limited by its’ 2008 budget cuts to only accept 7,000 students.
As of this year SDSU is saying they will not be accepting spring 2009 applicants, due to state budget cuts, which have ultimately led to an impacted campus.
The San Diego Community College District will also face budget cuts for the upcoming school year, which will be in effect as soon as fall 2008. This means possible cuts of courses and even faculty and other SDCCD employees. Since community college students only pay $20 per unit, funds must be supplemented from other sources. These budgets cuts are currently under review.
This all stems from California’s $16 billion deficit, which the current housing crisis is playing a tremendous part in. The governor’s proposed budget not only affects the department of education, but all general departments including transportation and justice, decreasing all budgets by 10 percent.
Sara Bartkoski, from SDSU’s admissions office said, “The budget cuts from the governor have caused SDSU to have a zero enrollment growth for spring 2009.”
Many are wondering when this all came into play. Mesa College transfer center employee Monica Ramero said, “the community colleges were informed in late January, but SDSU danced in circles with ‘I don’t knows’.”
According to Ramero, they still have yet to confirm an official answer. This is because SDSU is unsure of official budget cuts for 2009. Ramero, Marilyn Harvey from City College transfer center and SDSU admissions employee Janice Doyle recommend that students call SDSU in June and July to get official confirmation, but at the same time plan for the worst.
Mesa College will be offering seminars and events in the upcoming spring semester to community college students who weren’t accepted for fall 2008 and who planned to transfer spring 2009. The events will help inform students about other options such as open-university classes at SDSU, which mimic the crashing process used at Mesa and City College. This option allows people to take courses without being a student at any institute. Another option would be cross enrollment. This is made possible by taking at least six units at a community college, which will then allow enrollment in a maximum of one SDSU course per semester.
Of course there is always the option of looking into other institutions (there are over 10 in San Diego County itself).
For new students who are thinking about transferring, Marilyn Harvey, from the transfer center, recommends choosing and researching more than just one school and meeting with a counselor least once a semester.
