Declining state funding means enrollment standards are tightening for three popular majors at Sacramento State.

Criminal justice, psychology and health sciences will declare program impaction, allowing them to institute higher admissions requirements than what is necessary to get into Sac State in order to limit the number of students who can take those classes. The restrictions will take effect in fall 2012.

In announcing the program impaction in a press release online, campus administration said it was necessary because more students are enrolling in those programs than the departments have the resources to support, requiring the change.

The California State University Board of Trustees approved the impaction in June. The Faculty Senate has yet to approve the proposal, but even if not approved, Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez would still have the authority to implement the plan since the Senate’s resolutions are not binding upon administration.

The programs join the nursing, graphic design and business programs, which were already under program impaction.

Sac State first declared a campus-level impaction in July 2010, which gave priority to eligible students from the school’s service area of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, San Joaquin and Solano counties, and raised standards for students from other areas. That designation must be renewed each year by the CSU Chancellor’s Office, and officials have indicated it will exist at least through the 2012-2013 school year.

The move marks a continued shift as programs in the CSU system, which used to admit all eligible students, become more academically competitive as state funding cuts prevent them from serving all qualified students.

The criminal justice department was able to delay making these changes because of its large size. With 1,850 students this semester, it was able to serve more students, but that is no longer possible, said department chair Hugh Wilson.

The department already is under financial stress, with four faculty positions open that it cannot afford to fill.

Joan Neide, health sciences department chair, declined to comment, saying she had been told to refer inquiries to Lakshmi Malroutu, special assistant to the provost.

“As the number of majors in the three departments continue to increase, the ability to provide quality academic programs, courses, advising and other support services is being seriously compromised,” Malroutu wrote in an email.

Six other criminal justice programs in the CSU system are already impacted, Wilson said. By examining the ZIP codes of student applications, the department has seen evidence that students in those areas who could not get into their local campuses were going to Sac State. Thus, other colleges’ restrictions increased the enrollment burden on Sac State beyond its existing regional base.

“We’ve got to do something,” Wilson said, adding that being admitted to a CSU by satisfying the minimum requirements no longer meant that all academic opportunities at a particular campus would be available.

Wilson said it would be harder to become a criminal justice major, but the department did not raise the standards as much as it could have.

Other schools, like CSU Los Angeles, San Diego State University and CSU Long Beach have higher requirements.

“A lot of it is new to people who, in our region, aren’t used to this kind of thing at the CSU level,” compared with the more restrictive CSU campuses in Southern California, Wilson said.

Sac State held public forums in March at Cosumnes River College, Solano Community College, Vacaville Center and Sierra College. Because the change does not take effect until next fall, future students will be affected, while students applying to the programs before then must only meet the current requirements.

Wilson said he would push to have the criminal justice GPA requirements in place by fall 2012, while not implementing the course prerequisite standards until fall 2013. This idea, though, will have to go through the Faculty Senate for approval.

The programs join a litany of others that are impacted throughout the state.

The challenge of meeting impacted programs’ stricter requirements is nothing new for community college students, said Sue Michaels, director of marketing at Sierra College.

Wilson stressed that officials had taken a comprehensive look at enrollment levels before making the change.

“It wasn’t a knee-jerk thing,” he said.

If current trends continue, with perpetual state budget cuts and additional demand on popular programs, these barriers to admission may become progressively more restrictive, Wilson said, and students will face more competition.

Sam Pearson can be reached at [email protected].