By Alexis Figueroa |News Staff|
CSUSB students’ schedules will be capped at 17 units when enrolling in Fall 2012, unless they are willing to pay $700 for an additional four unit class.
CSUSB is not alone as the CSU system issued a memo in early March that they will regulate a unit limit for all 23 universities in the CSU system, regardless of their financial circumstances, according to a report by KRCRTV.com.
The main force behind this change is addressing budget crisis; many CSU campuses have seen the toll the lack of funding have taken on their budget and CSUSB students have seen tuition continuously rising.
With the budget crisis, CSUSB students for the 2012-2013 academic year will see a 9.1 percent increase in tuition. CSUSB students who plan to take 0-6 units next fall will pay about $128 more and those planning to take six or more units will be paying about $198 more than this current academic year, according to the CSUSB Bursar website.
CSUSB students like Ashley Buchanan see this shortage as a setback. “My problem with this change is that I am already on budget, and if I want to keep my goal to graduate on time I will have to pay more. I do not think it is right that students have to pay the price. I think that the state should help more,” said Buchanan.
Fellow student Lauren Flynn expressed her worries about this issue. “I think there are other ways to help with the budget instead of the CSU system going this route,” said Flynn. “I have been getting used to having a busy schedule each quarter so I do not have to add more and spend more during summer.”
However, students are still allowed to petition to add more units to their schedule for fall quarter. “They must meet the criteria and have a compelling reason for the request, there is no additional charge for the request,” said Olivia Rosas, CSUSB’s director of admissions and student recruitment.
Students who worry the new cap limit placed on units will push them back towards graduation, according to Rosas, can be assured that they will still be able to graduate on time.
“The plan is to continue to provide the courses students need to make progress towards graduation,” stated Rosas. “Students have to register in a timely fashion during their scheduled enrollment time and take the courses they need at the time they are offered,” she continued.
Rosas assures future graduating seniors that they will have the opportunity to enroll in a maximum of 19.5 units.
In addition, all seniors will be able to register for up to 19.5 units after priority registration.
By CSUSB implementing this 17-unit mandate, more seats will be open to students which would allow more students to enroll in courses that wouldn’t have been available in the past, according to Rosas.