The last batch of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will allow Sacramento State to enroll 3,000 more students for spring 2011.

The California State University system received $106 million from the last round of funding approved by the Legislature on Aug. 31. Sac State’s share of the funds is $6.6 million.

The funds will allow the CSU system to restore as many as 3,000 course sections, according to CSU Public Affairs.

Sac State has not yet decided which and how many courses it will restore for spring, said Ed Mills, associate vice president for enrollment management, in an e-mail to The State Hornet.

“Specifics about courses will take a few weeks to be decided,” Mills said.

Mills said students already attending Sac State would benefit from the stimulus funds.

“The biggest benefit current students will experience will likely be a higher unit cap during early registration, which begins in late November for spring,” Mills said. “We have not made unit-cap decisions yet, but it is likely that we will be around 16 for undergrads and 21 for graduating seniors. No decisions have been made on graduate students yet.”

According to CSU Public Affairs, the stimulus funds are also intended to allow the CSU to partially restore student services and campus operations that have been decreased due to previous budget cuts.

Discussions about restoring these services in Sac State are still in progress, Mills said.

A total of $10.8 billion has been given to California since President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17, 2009.

In addition to the last stimulus fund allocation, the CSU has received more than $1 billion of the funds. Sac State’s share of the funds is about $69.2 million, according to Sac State’s Budget Planning and Administration office.

CSU spokesman Erik Fallis said the funds helped the CSU meet its payroll.

“In turn, the CSU will use moneys from state support and student fee revenues previously set aside for payroll to admit a limited number of new students and restore courses that were previously cut due to budget reductions,” Fallis said.

Richard Yang, director and counselor of the Transfer Center at Sacramento City College, said the stimulus funding made a significant difference for transfer students.

Last spring, the CSU closed transfer admissions due to budget cuts, and there were about 1,300 fewer students than in spring 2009.

Yang said he recently spoke with a Sac City student who was finishing up her general education requirements. Because of the funding, the deadline to apply to transfer to Sac State for spring 2011 was extended, which helped students who needed a little more time for advising, he said.

“The CSU and UC have always valued transfer students,” Yang said. “Because of all of the units they have already taken, they are prepared to continue their college education instead of starting it. The universities recognize that, so our students in the past never really had a difficulty getting in.”

Alex Rosner, a philosophy and political science major at Sac City, said although he is in his first semester of college, he is planning on eventually transferring to a university. He said the stimulus funds would be ineffective if course sections were not restored.

“From what I heard from friends at Sac State, the classrooms are pretty full and impacted, and it’s hard to get classes,” Rosner said. “I think if they added more classes, professors, and classrooms, then it would work out great.”

Rosner said being admitted o a university depends more on a student’s academic effort than the university’s transfer requirements.

“I think it depends on the student’s work ethic, as opposed to the school itself,” Rosner said. “I know people who are lazy that would always do assignments at the last minute, so they barely passed their classes, and therefore they barely made it. However, I also know disciplined people with great GPAs that transferred over easily.”

Jason Brinitzer, a communication major at Sac City, said transferring into universities is not as difficult as getting enrolled in the specific classes one needs. He said the difficulty in transferring depends on a student’s major and how impacted its courses are.

“I think it’s definitely good that they’re enrolling more students, but the biggest problem that I’ve had is with classes being cut,” Brinitzer said. “The fact that we’re getting more money to let students come in as well as give them more classes is great.”

Kyle Kloeppel, a philosophy major at Sac City, said the transfer process is not difficult at all, but hopes the increased enrollment from the stimulus funding gave struggling students the incentive to stay in school.

Because he keeps in contact with universities to become increasingly prepared for their enrollment requirements, Kloeppel said he is confident he would eventually be accepted.

“I wouldn’t say my foot is in the door,” Kloeppel said, “but I think these steps that I have taken definitely give me an upper hand in getting into universities versus, say, someone right out of high school.”

Transferring to universities from community colleges is still a very achievable and convenient option, Yang said.

“I tell students to think big,” Yang said. “My philosophy is that anyone can be anything they want. You might not be able to get through everything in two or three years, because everyone’s circumstances are different, but you have to believe in yourself.”

Yang said as long as students do not procrastinate on taking their required classes, community college students should not struggle, at least academically, to transfer to a university.

“I still encourage students to come to community college,” Yang said. “It’s a good way to figure out what they want to do while saving a few dollars, and then transfer to wherever you want to go.”

Micah Stevenson can be reached at [email protected].