Originally intending to enroll in 14 units this semester, design major Shawna Richtsmeier was only able to enroll in 5 units of classes she needed to graduate, during registration.

Even after a meeting with the department of design, Richtsmeier said her situation has not improved.

“I need one specific course before I can proceed in the program,” Richtsmeier said.

“I thought that when I transferred from junior college that I would have two years until my bachelor’s degree,” Ritchsmeier said. “Now I have an extra year.”Sacramento State students have reported difficulty in adding classes to their schedule after the semester started.

“There were thirty people trying to add that design class,” Ritchsmeier said.In response to the California budget crisis, Sac State and all California State Universities have been ordered by the Chancellor’s Office not to take additional students into already full classes.

Instructors are ordered not to exceed the “capped” number of students authorized for each class.

The enforcement of the chancellor’s orders varies from department to department.

Minimal course offerings, cap restrictions and a priority system left many students empty scheduled, add slip in hand on the first day of instruction.

One highly impacted department is the department of design. Restrictions on class-adding policy with a low number of upper division course offerings has created setbacks for students.

Nancy Tooker, Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Letters, said that because of budget cuts and direct orders of the chancellor, the various departments like design haven’t been able to add as many classes, or students this semester.

“If a class for this semester appeared under enrolled in July we cut it,” Tooker said.

Tooker said the problem lies within oversubscribed majors, design in particular, along with orders to conform to the budget crisis.

“Next semester design will be labeled as an impacted major,” Tooker said . “The bottom line is over enrollment and less money.”

Attempted accommodations seem like little comfort to students of the Design Department like Richtsmeier.

“It set me back a whole year,” Richtsmeier said.

Students are considered full-time when they are taking 12 or more units.

But some students, like Richtsmeier, opt to leave their schedules open for to attempts to add already full classes to their schedule once instruction begins. They went to full classes only to discover the new add restrictions and subsequently became trapped with smaller schedules.

The official policy on adding extra students into full courses is not uniform.James Chopyak, president of the California Faculty Association, said that before the orders this year from the chancellor, faculty members had been bending rules to accommodate extra students.

“Traditionally, adding students has been up to the instructor of the course and an awful lot of faculty members have added many students above the capped number,” Chopyak said.

When faculty take in extra students the university doesn’t increase staff or course offerings. Then budget cuts pose problems for the already-packed classes, Chopyak said.

“I don’t know the solution,” Chopyak said. “All I can say is register in advance for what is available. Students try to add my classes every year; they can’t rely on that.”

Different departments have felt their share of budget-driven limitations. Anthropology Professor Liam D. Murphy teaches a course that satisfies the general education requirement for ethnic and multicultural studies an is subject to the wishful faces of students who want to add his class.

“This year we were instructed by the College of Social Science not to take any adds whatsoever,” Murphy said. “All of my classes have been affected.”

Murphy said he added approximately 15 students last semester.

“Whenever I have to turn a student away, it’s not me making the decision,” Murphy said. “I would let people in if there was any possibility.”

Murphy said that he thinks the pushback for adding students is based on state decisions.

He said he feels that legislators would like to see California State University do more with less money.

“The problem is not about labor, it’s an issue that percolates through a system of bureaucracy,” Murphy said.

Ann Reed, spokesperson for Sac State administration, said there are more courses offered this year than last spring semester.

Reed said that fire regulations and enrollment caps may be factors in restricting class size.

“If a class is full, a class is full,” Reed said.