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news
CSULB becoming
more exclusive
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
With enrollment
at Cal State Long Beach currently at the maximum of 25,000,
things might not get better, but they will not be getting
any worse.
At Wednesday's
Associated Students Inc. meeting, Alan Nishio, associate vice
president of Student Services, presented the Enrollment Management
Plan, which will go into effect for the Fall 2002 semester
in an effort to curtail freshman admissions.
"Last year
we had 25,000 freshman applications applying for 3,300 spots,"
Nishio said.
Under Tidal Wave
II, enrollment at California State University schools is expected
to increase by almost 100,000 students by 2010.
Beginning three
years ago, the window for first-time freshman applications
was limited to October and November. The plan worked, but
only for the first two years.
Students realized
that to go to CSULB, they just had to turn in their application
earlier.
In addition to
keeping the two-month window for freshman applications, the
plan calls for an eligibility index with three different categories;
local area students, other in-state students, and out-of-state
students.
A sub-category
within the other in-state student category is high schools
with which CSULB has joint programs. Though they do not fall
in the local area, students from these schools will have requirements
lower than those from California, but not as low as local
students.
Transfer students
also add to the influx every year, and the rules applying
to transfers will be slightly tweaked. Lower division transfers
were already excluded, and the upper division transfer deadline
will be moved to Feb. 15.
The list of impacted
majors will increase by one in the fall semester.
Business administration
will join graphic design/applied art, radiation therapy, kinesiology/physical
Education (select options), nursing, psychology, film and
electronic arts and social work as the most sought-after majors.
Under the new plan,
students will no longer be able to come to CSULB and choose
a regular major and then change to an impacted major. Instead,
they must meet the increased admission requirements of the
majors to switch.
One of the goals
of the plan is to avoid a repeat of the overcrowding situation
that occurred in the early '90s.
"We had hundreds
of students who were admitted but were unable to get into
any classes," Nishio said. "A school's reputation
goes down quickly when that happens."
Nishio does not
expect the plan to affect the diversity of the campus. While
the total number of minority students will drop with the smaller
freshman class, the percentages are expected to remain the
same.
In other matters
before the Senate, A.S.I. Executive Director Richard Haller
outlined the schedule for the upcoming budget.
Departmental proposals
begin this week, followed next week by student organization
grant reviews. The A.S.I. Board of Control will present its
recommendations to the Senate on April 3, followed by two
weeks of appeals before the final approval on April 24.
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