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Sixteen
students hold their breath in hopes of landing
a spot in a Global News Media course as
Assistant Professor Raul Reis chooses lucky
winners in the course lottery. Out of the
16, six students were admitted. Tracey Roman/Online
Forty-Niner
Full
classes send students packing
By
L'Oreal Battistelli
Online Forty-Niner
City Editor
The
first week of the semester is bringing frustration
to students that are attempting to enroll
in classes required for their designated
majors. Most specifically affected by the
cuts are upper division students who are
attempting to stay on track to graduate.
The
average time spent in college is five and
a half years. Currently, students can expect
to take approximately six years to complete
a bachelor's degree program.
In
an online editorial written by David Dowell,
Vice Provost and Director of Strategic Planning
on Aug. 20, 2004, " 650 additional
freshmen and transfer students" were
admitted into Cal State Long Beach because
of restored funding by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Nethan
Su, 21, a transfer student, majoring in
industrial design, has been frantically
crashing classes in a last ditch effort
to enroll. Because he was not available
to attend the SOAR program,
Su is enrolled in only one class as the
second week of school quickly approaches.
Enrolled in a lower division class, he was
told by professors that they "can't
do anything about it."
In
years past, when faced with enrollment limitations,
students sought out similar classes at local
junior colleges as "visiting students"
and transferred completed units back to
CSULB. Now, because of the statewide financial
pressures, class availability is limited
throughout the other colleges as well and
accessibility is no longer an option in
many colleges.
"I
refer students to Dominguez Hills, and I
refer students to Fullerton," said
Lee Brown, a professor in the department
of journalism. "If they can find the
right classes to substitute, they can transfer
them back here. I was told this morning,
that Fullerton is no longer accepting visiting
students. They're overcrowded too. It's
a serious, perplexing and grievous problem
and there's nothing that can be done that
I'm aware of."
There
is still room at some of the colleges for
students desperate to complete their education
and less discriminating in their requisite
future alma mater. California State Humboldt
is not full.
So
what is the big picture overall?
"Don't
know," Brown says. "As far as
I know, from what I hear, it's about the
same everywhere."
"Certain
sections will not fill, and you can't have
classes with low enrollment, so you have
to limit the number of classes offered based
on pressure points and based on enrollment,"
Tor Hovind, Design Department Chair, said.
"We really try hard to take a look
at the pressure points and try to find the
funding to alleviate them."
There
are no simple resolutions to the current
problem, administrators say.
"Be
persistent, have patience and don't give
up hope," Brown said.
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