These days, getting money from the state seems as hard as finding a good party on campus as , so the UC Board of Regents deserve kudos for extracting an extra $12 million from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s initial budget plan. The University of California will put the money toward offering four-year enrollment to students who had accepted a “guaranteed transfer option” at UC campuses.
Those students were previously told that they were qualified to be in the UC system, but were unable to receive funding due to budget shortages, and would be granted enrollment after spending two years at a community college.
With a little extra money to spend, the university is making a commendable choice in allowing more students to attend a UC campus and benefit from a higher quality of education for their first two years of college. Students undoubtedly benefit from attending the top research universities in the world, with better facilities, more classrooms and top professors.
Yet even with the unexpected funding, the university was unable to offer enrollment to all students originally offered the GTO; the regents chose to grant freshman enrollment only to students who accepted the GTO.
Opponents of the university’s decision, including Assemblyman Joe Simitan (D-Palo Alto), contend that the UC system slighted students who did not originally accept the GTO offer.
“I’m disappointed that UC is not fully honoring its declared commitment to the legislature and to these students,” Simitian said. “These kids were told they would have been accepted but for a lack of funds. The funds have been restored and the kids are still being denied admissions to [overcrowded campuses].”
Simitian has called for state hearings this month to further scrutinize the issue, but the reality of the situation is that despite the extra money, the university is still underfunded.
With the stark reductions to the university’s state funding, it’s unrealistic to expect that all 5,000 students originally offered the GTO could be sufficiently funded; there had to be some sort of line to draw as far as who can receive funding. The students who originally expressed interest by accepting the GTO are as good a place to start as any.
At UCSD, 1,700 students were offered the GTO, 149 of whom accepted the offer. In August, they were given the option to enroll as freshmen instead of transferring in with junior standing. and 78 students accepted the four years of enrollment. Granted, 78 is a small number of students — virtually insignificant, really, weighed against the thousands who currently attend UCSD — but regardless, the concept behind the admission of those 78 is a good one: The UC system is doing what it can, with what it has, to offer enrollment.
It’s true that it is rather unfair that students who turned down the GTO offer because they wanted to spend four years at a university miss out on a chance they could have had; no doubt there are qualified applicants who would have accepted admissions as freshman but weren’t interested in transferring as juniors.
However, the unexpected extra funding isn’t enough to provide four years of enrollment for all 5,000 applicants offered the GTO, so the university is doing the right thing by offering those four years to the students it can. Better late than never, and better some than none.
