SDSU Cuts Force Local Hispanic Applicants to Seek Alternate Education Plans

Perspective
 
 California’s budget crisis has now hit home. In President Weber’s fall 2009 convocation address, he estimated that if 22,000 eligible applicants rejected by San Diego State University (SDSU) this year stood in single file to enter campus, the line would stretch 8.4 miles. SDSU announced on its web-site, “All applicants are strongly encouraged to have alternate education plans.”
 Changes to SDSU’s 2010 Admissions Policy include the elimination of “local guarantee of admission” for San Diego’s local students. All students, regardless of their San Diego roots, must apply to the same application pool.
 SDSU students will now be forced to declare a major and apply directly to the program, rather than to the college at large. Applicants will be rank-ed by their Eligibility Index (SAT/ACT scores and GPA). All SDSU pre-majors and majors will be deemed “impacted” or full and SDSU website warns, “There will be a limited number of enrollment slots in each pre-major.” Furthermore, spring 2010 and 2011 applications are closed. Students who would go straight to college must wait until the fall semester to get started.
 Hispanic high school seniors preparing to enter college are taking the SAT entry test at record numbers. Hispanics represented the fastest growing group of minority test takers according to College Board 2009 statistics. Yet, Hispanics’ average score was 152 points lower than the average total score of 1,509. Local Hispanic students will be hardest hit by SDSU’s policy change.
 Hispanics are ranked by 2008 U.S. Census Bureau the largest group in all ages under 18 years old in San Diego County. On the flip side, over 63 percent of San Diego’s aging Caucasian population is 55 years and older. The citizens of San Diego need Hispanic students to be college educated to strengthen our city’s future work force and economy. SDSU closed its South Bay campus in National City, where almost 60 percent of the city’s population is Hispanic.
 SDSU’s admission policy changes include 100% of college transfer coursework completed from local community colleges, including all general education and major prerequisites with a 2.4 minimum GPA. Many current SDSU Hispanic students, like Gisselle Mejia’s worry about her high school friends in the Hispanic community who attended community college first to save money before heading to SDSU. Gisselle fears, “My friends didn’t know about SDSU’s new admissions policy two years ago when we graduated from Hilltop High [in Chula Vista]. Now, I don’t know if they’ll be able to transfer to SDSU.”
 Hispanic families will no longer be able to depend upon the local admissions guarantee to send their children to their local college. Israel Alarid, a local graduate of Sweetwater High School in National City states, “I’m the first of my Hispanic family to attend or graduate college. At least a quarter of SDSU’s student body is Hispanic. I’m so thankful I graduated before these changes.” Now, Israel will have to postpone returning to SDSU for his Masters degree, since SDSU’s efforts to limit enrollment growth include eliminating spring 2010 graduate admissions cycle. Both Gisselle and Israel attended school in the Sweetwater Union High School District.
  “With California’s Master Plan for higher education already seemingly broken and more students unable to afford or feasibly attain a college education, the answer may rest on the private education system. Private Educational Institutions such as Inter American College are more nimble and able to meet the demands of our future workforce in the wake of massive cuts in California’s three-tiered system of public colleges and universities,” says Jacqueline L. Reynoso President/CEO, National City Chamber of Commerce.
 President Weber blames state budget cuts of $571 million for the California State University system-wide reduction this year and next by 40,000 undergraduate students. San Diego State will be reducing its enrollment by 4,588 undergraduates.

Author

Lisa Lieb