4 NEWS
SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don/eldonnews.org • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016
ADMISSION / University of California campuses will accept 5,000 more in-state freshman and transfer applicants in the 2016-2017 academic year alone. / Genaro Molina / TNS
T
Locals Gain
More Slots
at UCs
System plans on adding thousands of
new students over the next three years
BY JOHN OLIVARES / el Don
he University of California
plans to expand enrollment
for 10,000 Californians over
the next three years.
Under the plan approved by
the UC Board of Regents, the
nine campuses with undergraduate programs must enroll an
additional 5,000 freshman and
transfer students in 2016-17.
Another 2,500 students in each
of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years will be added.
“The increase in enrollment has
really made it that much more
hopeful that I will attend UC
Berkeley this fall, which is my
dream school,” said Jennifer Mendoza, Santa Ana College student.
Each campus will determine
how many additional students it
can accommodate, based on the
number of applications received.
Tuition will remain the same
this coming year, but, starting in
2017-18, it will rise to account
for inflation.
“We strongly believe in sustaining increased access for all
Californians to our campuses
and the world-class education
they offer,” UC spokesperson Kate
Moser said.
The UC system plans to match a
$25 million allocation with monies from the state to cover costs
related to the enrollment, according to the Budget Act of 2015.
The funding will provide campuses the ability to hire faculty
members, expand academic support services and provide other
critical services, according to the
funding proposal.
A 10,000-student increase
would be a boost of about 20 percent over the 50,000 new in-state
freshmen and transfer students
who enrolled in the fall of 2015.
UC President Janet Napolitano
urged community college students to begin thinking about
enrolling at a UC, in an email sent
to 350,000 transfer hopefuls.
Students transferring from community colleges around the state
will be an important part of the
growth, Moser added. “UC enrolls
more community college students
than any university of its caliber
in the nation.”
Out-of-state students pay tuition of about $36,000, triple the
average fees Californians pay.
Tuition for out-of-state students
will rise each year as enrollment
increases, while in-state tuition
will remain frozen this year.
Along with the elimination of
financial aid for incoming out-ofstate students, nonresident tuition
will rise eight percent in the next
year, according to the “Three Year
Financial Sustainability Plan.”
Increasing in-state enrollment
will start to reverse enrollment
freezes placed on the UC System
as a higher number of international and out-of-state students
were granted enrollment to compensate for budget cuts.
The university system will request an additional $6 million in
state funding to enroll 600 more
graduate students this fall.
“This will give more students
that come from a minority group
or a low income family like myself
the opportunity to attend a great
school,” Mendoza added.