Enrollment caps and tighter admission policies will cause incoming students to be denied admission at different system campuses this spring.

California State University officials said that such measures were taken to avoid impaction policies, which raise the standards for admission in a campus or program when eligible applications received in the initial filing period exceed student spots available.

CSU campuses are authorized to use supplementary admission criteria to screen applicants to majors and campuses that are designated as impacted.

“It’s a shame that the universities have to do something like this,” said student Lindsay Wicks, a senior. “But everybody is suffering under this budget crisis and new policies are just something we’ll have to adapt to, like the fee increases.”

While Sacramento State has avoided impaction status, the nursing and graphic design departments have been declared impacted until the situation improves.

Impaction policies include raising the minimum GPA and SAT scores for incoming students. They also include giving priority admission to students who live near a CSU campus. Those living farther away would have to have higher SAT or ACT scores or a higher GPA than the students living nearby.

“We are slightly under target for enrollment,” said Larry Glasmire, director of Special Programs and Enrollment Analysis for Sacramento State. “We’ve been planning for a year to keep admissions down for the 2003-04 school year so impaction will not be necessary.”

“We are in kind of a balancing act as we are trying to make sure we don’t go over capacity,” Glasmire said. “We think we are going to be all right but it’s hard to say how long this thing will last.”

Five campuses in the CSU system have been declared impacted by the Board of Trustees: CSU Chico, CSU Long Beach, San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Sonoma State.

The state legislature is not allotting any money in next year’s budget for growth in any of California’s public colleges. CSU Trustees are limiting growth this year to 4.3 percent versus the usual 7 percent.

“Community college transfer students will be hit hardest this year,” said Clara Potes-Fellow, the media relations manager for CSU. “Next year high school graduates and community college students will be suffering together.”

Associated Students, Inc. President Peter Ucovich said he is angered by the current situation in the CSU and feels that the chancellor’s office has not been creative enough in finding a solution to the current problem.

“This is a horrible move for the CSU system,” Ucovich said. “It’s going to be bad for the mission of the university. I blame the legislature for deteriorating higher education and turning away students. The chancellor’s office hasn’t done enough to stop this.”

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