Students feel the pain of dual enrollment

Alex Mecredy

Graduation in four years is nearly impossible and for many, paying tuition for a fifth or sixth year is out of the question. Students have resorted to concurrently enrolling in community colleges in order to save money and get into the classes needed to graduate.

We have all noticed the tuition is higher and the classes are harder to get into with fewer sections available. The enrollment freeze is preventing new students from entering the CSU system for the spring 2013 semester and there is another possible $200 million budget cut in the works – which means it will be increasingly difficult to graduate on time.

Christiana Paduveris, a double major in deaf studies and communications, was able to graduate in four years with the help of simultaneously enrolling in community college and Sacramento State for two semesters.

“I was able to get into all my classes at Sac State, except they kept changing the unit cap from 15 to 17 and I needed to take 18 units,” Paduveris said.

Paduveris said she took a high number of units each semester because of the high cost of tuition and budget cuts.

Community college is supposed to be the step taken before attending a university to get General Education units out of the way. Today, it is being used as a means to an end. Several students are being forced to take classes both at local community colleges as well as Sac State, which adds a lot of extra inconvenience for students.

The cost of gas has skyrocketed as of late with the average in the Sacramento area currently at $4.59 per gallon. Those who are commuting between two college campuses every week are feeling that extra burden. The $159 parking pass at Sac State is already a hard hit for students, let alone having to purchase a second permit for another school.

Jessica Jones, a psychology and biology double major, attends both Sac State and American River College in order to take the classes she needs to graduate.

“I’m so consumed with taking as many classes as I can – 19 units this semester – because I can’t afford getting close to graduation and not having had a class I need because of impaction and/or budget cuts,” Jones said.

Jones is not alone in this struggle. English major Whitney Roller is a junior who is also attending American River and Sac State.

“I’ve been lucky to get classes at Sac State on Mondays and Wednesdays and classes at ARC on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but if I couldn’t, I can’t imagine having to go back and forth between the two campuses in one day,” Roller said. “There is having to pay two parking permit fees plus the cost of gas for going to two different campuses.”

Not only are these students struggling, there is also extra stress added to their plate that would be lessened if they were able to simply enroll – and stay enrolled – in one school.

“More than the extra tuition, books, parking and gas, it has affected me in a way that it’s incredibly stressful,” Jones said.

“It’s stressful not knowing whether I will get the classes I need at either school, it’s stressful having to divide my day between two different schools and it’s stressful not having time to devote to anything other than studying.”

Jones said she feels like the preceding generation and the government have set current students up by giving them a difficult time getting an education.

“I think the budget cuts are ridiculous, and are only going to hurt everyone in the long run,” Jones said. “If our government makes it so difficult to get an education, it means less and less people will get one, which means our society is going to be filled with uneducated people. I chose to go to college to better myself (and) to secure a future for myself.”

The enrollment freeze has made it difficult for students to even be accepted into college in the first place. Once admitted, many students are forced to attend two different colleges just to graduate.

The ability to even take some units at a university at all has become a luxury. Many are currently stuck at community college because there is no room for them in the university system.

“I feel lucky to have been able to transfer into Sac State when I did because I know that budget cuts are causing a closure for other transfer students,” Roller said. “In my classes at ARC, about half of the students mention that they’re close to finishing their education and want to transfer to Sac State once they’re done, but now they’re unsure of whether or not they’ll be able to do so.”

Many students are facing this stress in their finances and their schedule by simply trying to succeed.

“I know I’m not the only one facing these problems, and I feel for everyone on both campuses who is doing their best just to make it,” Jones said. “I hope our generation does more for the people who inherit our America than our predecessors have done for us.”

Alex Mecredy can be reached at [email protected]