College classes fill while campuses wait for state money
| Friday, Aug 27 2010 06:17 PM
Last Updated Friday, Aug 27 2010 07:24 PM
BY JORGE BARRIENTOS
California's public colleges -- including Cal Sate Bakersfield and Bakersfield College -- are overcrowded this year, students are on wait lists by the thousands and fewer courses are available because of budget delays and cuts to higher education, college heads said Friday in a teleconference.
The leaders of the three California college systems -- California Community Colleges, California State University and University of California -- discussed on the 58th day of the state's budget impasse budget cut and delay impacts.
Because of the delay, payments to community colleges of $116 million from July and $277 million from August are on the back burner, college officials said. One of the largest payments of the year from the state to community colleges is scheduled for Sept. 28 -- $450 million. College officials have their fingers crossed they'll see it.
In the meantime, campuses are seeing more students squeezing into classes, and still others are on wait lists.
"You know things are bad when there are more students on our wait lists than sitting in many of our classrooms," said California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott.
Statistics from Bakersfield College paint the grim picture:
* Enrollment this year is up 5.8 percent (to 18,347) from last year. Active classes are up 1.7 percent (1,630). Wait list enrollment -- 12,903 -- is up 13.1 percent from last year.
* Classes are at a 95 percent fill rate, meaning at any given time on campus, 95 percent of seats are taken. Online and satellite instruction locations are 96 percent to 100 percent filled. The wait-listed students are waiting for courses that are 100 percent filled.
* Classes at Arvin and Lamont branches are also filled and wait-listed even though the areas have added more sections.
Colleges, including BC, have had to dip into reserves not only to keep courses alive but to pay for student grants, said Amber Chiang, college spokeswoman. So far, BC has paid out $530,451 in Cal Grants.
The college, she said, is not taking loans to make payroll or maintain operations.
Meanwhile, incoming freshmen applications at Cal State Bakersfield as of last week were at an all-time high of 1,111, said Rob Meszaros, CSUB spokesman. Classes start Sept. 13.
General education courses are already 95 percent full even as CSUB is offering 18 more class sections than last year.
"Without an approved state budget, there is still a lot of uncertainty on how many students we will be able to serve," Meszaros said in an e-mail.
The university is taking applications for the spring quarter, but is not admitting students until the budget picture becomes clearer, Meszaros wrote.
"We have not had to turn students away as of yet due to the budget, but if a favorable budget is not passed soon, some students who want to come to CSUB in the spring may have to wait until next fall," he wrote.
The California college heads said, however, they believe that once the budget is passed, higher education institution will get their share.
"The glass is half full," Chancellor Scott said.
