UC San Diego Forced To Cut Out-Of-State Admissions
Speaker 1: 00:00 UC schools should accept more California students. That's the cry from critics. Who've watched the number of out-of-state and international students climb at state universities in this year's budget, California legislators included funding language that orders UC San Diego, UCLA, and UC Berkeley to cut their out of state undergraduate admissions by about 4% estimates are that will free up a total of 4,500 extra California admissions. And the budget also sets a target of expanding UC admissions in the next two years by more than 6,000 students. And all of them must come from California. Joining me is San Diego union Tribune, reporter Gary Robbins and Gary. Welcome. Welcome. Well, thank you so much. How much have out of state and international admissions increased at UC San Diego? Speaker 2: 00:51 It's been explosive, um, over the past 10 years, the number of international students for example, has gone from about 2000. We have to 8,000, the number of California residents has increased by about 5,000, excuse me, 500 students up to approximately 2000. So a lot of the growth of the university has been from people who are from outside the state of California and Speaker 1: 01:13 Is the increase in those steep students, all about the extra tuition that they bring to the school. Speaker 2: 01:19 And it is mostly about that, but not entirely. So this is a dilemma with taxpayers. Taxpayers are saying that they want more of their kids allowed into the UC, the people that qualify, but at the same time, over the past 20 years, taxpayers have also been saying, well, we really don't want you to increase the funding for the UC system that pressured the UC system, particularly some of the larger campuses into going elsewhere, like out of state and internationally, uh, to bring in students who pay more than a two and a half times intuition. So it's partly that they're also trying to create universities here that have a more global outlook, particularly in San Diego, which is a Pacific rim, uh, city and a city on the border, but it is this mostly has to do with money. Speaker 1: 02:04 And how does this new state budget compensate the UCS for cutting out-of-state admissions? Speaker 2: 02:10 So it appears that the state assumes that it's going to cost about $184,000 over the next four years for the three campuses to reduce the number of undergraduates from other places and replace them with California's. They haven't appropriated all of that money, but the legislature is on track to do that. So they're essentially buying out the out of state and international students. Speaker 1: 02:34 Why exactly is there criticism about the number of out-of-state UC admissions and where is that criticism coming from? Speaker 2: 02:42 A lot of the criticism comes from prospective students and from their parents. Um, they've rightfully point to the fact that their children would qualify for entrance into the UC system under the current standards. And California, as you know, has been growing and the number of high school graduates who qualify for the UC has been improving. So there's quite a pipeline of, um, California based students who want to get into the UC. And many of those students want to get into particular schools like a Hoya, UCLA and Berkeley. They're considered to be the most prestigious. And I'm a school like San Diego has been growing so fast. There's just a lot of dynamic energy there. And people are seeing it as a place that is really a fun and interesting place to be. Speaker 1: 03:22 And apparently California politicians are feeling that pressure from parents. Speaker 2: 03:27 They really getting it. I talked to Phil ting and he was just directly echoing the sediments of parents saying, this is wrong. This is fundamentally wrong. That, um, you know, these parents are taxpayers and yet many of their kids aren't able to get into the UC because students are being given those slots from other places. Now, chancellor Kozol at UC San Diego says that there's never been a California student who didn't get in rightfully during his term at the expense of, um, of an out-of-state student and, uh, an international student. Some parents are not buying that argument, but that is the one that the chancellor makes. What was Speaker 1: 04:06 Chancellor Koestler's overall reaction to this cut in out-of-state students, Speaker 2: 04:12 Very practical. I've known him for a long time now. So the conversation was very down to earth. He says, we will do this. We will do it over the five-year period. Um, and he is hopeful that the university system will get the money, the replacement money that the legislature says it will give. If it doesn't get that money, they could be in a world of hurt and you referenced something else. Marine that could be really difficult, uh, as part of the budget language, they said, in addition to do all these things, we want the UC system to add 6,200 students. We're talking about freshmen now, undergraduate freshmen next fall. Well, that's a very, very large increase in students in a one-year period. And if they go ahead with those 6,200 students, well, a lot of them will end up at LA Jolla because it has more room to exp to expand, but it's also difficult because UC San Diego has been growing so fast that it's kind of tripping on its growth right now. Um, it has 40,000 students. It is it expecting a very large record enrollment this fall fall 21. And then if you go ahead and expand the system further next year, that just makes it more difficult for UC San Diego. To keep up with the pace. The chancellor is saying that the infrastructure is not keeping up with the number of students. So they're really choking on, um, building problems and growth problems. Right now. Speaker 1: 05:31 I've been speaking with San Diego union Tribune, reporter Gary Robbins, Gary. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.
