Budget cuts at Cal State Universities Kick in

Parents Forum
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<p>A couple of sobering items in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning about the first day of school at San Francisco State University. </p>

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"Nearly 80 students packed into a basic accounting class at San Francisco State University on Tuesday, the first day of the fall semester, while dozens more spilled into the hallway hoping to get a seat.</p>

<p>In the Television Department, 56 students tried to crowd into "Age of Information," another basic class with room for just 40 students.</p>

<p>And largely unseen in the crush of students trying to get a college education in the era of budget cuts were those, like Shaun Wong, who were so frustrated that they simply quit.</p>

<p>"I got, like, zero classes, and it wasn't worth staying," said Wong, a would-be sophomore who loves history but has just withdrawn from S.F. State. "By the time it was my turn to register, about the only classes left were, like, fourth-semester Arabic and modern Greek. I need to take second-semester English."

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<p><a href="SFSU%20is">Quote</a> offering 354 fewer classes than last year, turning away dozens of lecturers, requiring employees to take two unpaid days off each month - and raising student fees 30 percent higher than last fall. ...</p>

<p>Students register online at a time assigned to them. But because so many courses have been eliminated, many students found that classes were full by the time they were told to sign up.</p>

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<p>From a letter to the editor:</p>

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Don't let music die</p>

<p>My son, who is an incoming music major at San Francisco State, was notified that his required music theory class has been canceled.</p>

<p>This is an absolute disgrace, especially as he was also told the class was available for an additional fee of $777. What, do we need to have a bake sale for the music department of a major university so we can pay prison guards and trash collectors $100K plus?</p>

<p>I'll teach the class for free, if need be, and I'm certain there are many qualified musicians in the Bay Area who would, also. I am absolutely disgusted.</p>

<p>JOHN STOVER</p>

<p>Member, Local 6, American Federation of Musicians</p>

<p>Petaluma</p>

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<p>While many of us had predicted things were going to be bad at the CSUs this year, it is certainly sad to see those predictions come to pass. The CA State budget crisis is seriously impacting these schools - and I am sure the UC is no better.</p>

<p>The articles can be found here:</p>

<p>With</a> fewer classes, cramming starts on Day 1</p>

<p>and (ignore the link name)</p>

<p>Biking</a> scofflaws taking over sidewalks</p>

2

<p>I saw that same article in the Chron. Very scary. While I wouldn’t want to wish cuts on the classics department, you wonder whether they could have matched which classes they cut a little more closely with demand.</p>

3

<p>A UC professor friend was complaining that the large lecture courses in the friend’s department will admit fewer students in the coming year. It seemingly makes no sense–why not put MORE students into large survey courses, since a lecture course of 150 vs a lecture course of 180 doesn’t really have a big change in quality. Except that then you have to pay for more TAs.</p>

4

<p>Our son’s department had planned cuts of 20% for TAs for this year but the TAs were reinstated because of a very large increase in enrollment. The 101 course went up by around 40% and had to be split into two course. The professor for those two courses in going to be very busy this fall. I noticed that the upper level courses had much more interest in practice-type courses over theory courses. It looks like students are gearing their courses for what they think the job market wants.</p>

5

<p>My DH teaches at Cal. They increased the size of the lecture course he’s teaching by two sections.</p>

<p>The number and availability of large lecture halls is a big constraining factor to increasing class size.</p>

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<p>as qialah comments, you can only enlarge lecture courses so much and still meet the fire code…</p>

<p>sigh.</p>

7

<p>One Florida public university in a cost cutting move removed the phones from professors offices, saying professors could use their own cell phones to communicate with students1</p>

<p>Times are very hard for public universities.</p>

8

<p>I think they should do ‘appropriate’ cost cutting as does every business which may include eliminating certain less popular majors or increasing the size of the intro courses assuming they have the reasonable facilities for it (i.e. all students need to be at least in the room) but they should maintain the quality of the classes, at least the ‘remaining’ ones, including by increasing the tuition if necessary. The CSUs/UCs are a bargain tuition-wise compared to privates but of course will be no bargain if they allow the quality to go down the tubes. I wouldn’t be enthusiastic about paying higher tuition but it’s better than having the education quality going down. </p>

<p>It sounds as if some students are really up against it if they simply can’t reasonably get the classes they need.</p>

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<p>Does anyone know if the original story reflects something new, or might just be “sensationalism” or whatever?</p>

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<p>^ The story about adding classes is nothing new for Cal States. It was that way when I attended CSUN years ago. First semester of freshman year is easy to get classes because you enroll before everyone else…hardest is second semester of freshman year and sophomore years when you’re put at the bottom of the registration priority list. Impacted majors, like business, always had these issues. With budget cuts it is probably worse and you’re paying more…so I understand the frustration.</p>

<p>I didn’t have problems getting classes at Berkeley - could be because I was in a small major. I talked to a current Berkeley sophomore and she claimed she didn’t have any problems getting classes this semester.</p>

11

<p>When I toured UC Davis with my D two years ago, we tried to drop in on a Bio class that had an auditorium of maybe 300 kids, filled to overflowing, including the aisles, with maybe another 20 kids sitting in a room just outside. They used huge monitors so the kids in the back could see, and a microphone for students with questions. </p>

<p>Sigh…just trying to get a handle on what it might be like for the HS class of '11</p>

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<p>Just as a spot check (and obviously a sample size of one), I called a friend of mine whose son is a sophomore at SFSU this fall as a business major. </p>

<p>Online registration was apparently very challenging. Of the 4 classes he wanted to take, he was able to get into one of them. He had two alternative in mind when he sat down to register - only one of them was still available - and it conflicted with the one class he already had. He scrambled around and figured out two other classes he could take out of his GE - and then signed up for 3 units of PE so as to be full time. His schedule on Mondays was 3 one hour classes - 8, 11, and 2 PM. </p>

<p>He has sat in on 4 classes, hoping to add and has been unable to add anything. Needless to say he is more than a little frustrated.</p>

<p>In comparison, last year he got 9 out of 10 classes he wanted over the two semester - and was able to get the 10th by waiting around for a week or so for someone to drop.</p>

<p>As I said, sample of one - but it seems much worse.</p>

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<p>^ Freshman are given registration priority. Sophomores are at the back of the line. So the different experience between registering for classes freshman vs. sophomore year is not surprising - especially for popular business classes. I don’t know how much of an impact it is due to budget cuts.</p>

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<p>They have 354 fewer classes than last year - I don’t think that being a sophomore is the only problem for my friend’s son.</p>

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<p>Do you have a sense of how big of a reduction that is? Is it like 10,000 minus 354, or 800 minus 354?</p>

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<p>^^ Probably not…but, like I said, business majors at CSUs have always had trouble adding classes - it’s the most popular major and sophomores have the lowest registration priority. Those are huge contributing factors.</p>

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<p>If I am reading the Common Data Set correctly, 2700 sections last year - so about a 13% decrease in the number of sections.</p>

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<p>

This brings up a related point - if it’s truly that difficult to register for appropriate classes it seems that they should waive the restrictions for determining ‘full-time’ status if the classes needed were full. I know that full-time status is generally needed to be permitted to live in dorms, receive certain scholarships, etc. but maybe there’s some overriding law dictating what determines full-time. If they don’t do this then they force students to take random other classes they might not really even want or need and just add to the problem by taking spots in those classes.</p>

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<p>^But how about the need to be full-time for health coverage under a parent’s policy? </p>

<p>And I’m wondering how this will affect kids who come in with a boatload of AP credits.</p>

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<p>The nasty secret of why it takes more than 4 years to graduate. There are not enough sections or the courses aren’t offered at the right times to meet graduation requirements. It happens everywhere but is worse now. As expensive as DD’s school is, it was an issue I discussed with the school. Since sequencing was essential, they do the scheduling for each major student themselves instead of letting it go into the queues. </p>

<p>S1 threw a fit when the required class for his degree had not been offered for almost 2 years, the one time it was offered he was on an internship. He made them sign off on a substitute class. But it took staying in the Dean’s office until someone would pay attention and the Dean signed off.</p>