By now, everyone has heard of the difficulties in trying to get classes at California State University, Fresno, let alone get admitted.
Like most other California-based institution, budgeting shortfalls
have put the gates to higher education under lock and chain. For students looking to transfer to Fresno State after completing their lower-division G.E. and major requirements
at Fresno City College, this poses a major problem-how can FCC transfer students complete
their undergraduate degree without having to relocate?
Lynn Jaschke, an outreach
counselor from CSUF, explained
that the heart of the problem
lies in the state’s multi-million dollar budget cuts to the CSU system. Students are not the only ones who are suffering from the state’s budget crisis either. Staff and faculty, across the board, are being forced to take a 10 percent pay cut through two furlough days each month. “This has never happened before-it’s a historic event,” says Jaschke.
The lock and chain upon CSU’s new enrollment policies are a part of an overall strategy to address their multi-million dollar budget cut by cutting down on enrollment numbers. Jeri Echeverria,
executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer for CSU Fresno, said that no applications will be accepted for undergraduate, transfer, or graduate students for spring terms of 2010.
Jaschke added that this policy extends into the 2011 spring term, but will not affect continuing students; moreover, students registered
for the fall of 2009 and 2010 semesters may attend classes in their respective spring semesters. Fortunately, however, transfer students are not completely out of luck in terms of application and enrollment-the key, according to Jaschke, is timeliness. Some pro-active students were able to apply, register, and attend CSUF even this fall. Dalia Haitayan, a Fresno City College transfer student, was one of them. “I took the advice of my counselor and applied as soon as possible,” said Haitayan.
Typically, priority registration
for CSU’s fall term is from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30. Now, however, is the only time that students may apply for the following
year’s fall term. The catch is that no lower-division transfers — students who do not have at least 60 transferable units-these being at least 30 semester units of G.E. and all lower-division major requirements-completed will be accepted-.
Students may apply for CSUF online at www.csumentor.edu and are also encouraged to apply for the university’s scholarships at www.csufresno.edu/scholarships.
The filing period for Fresno State scholarships is Oct. 1 through Feb. 28 for the following fall term. Additionally, students should submit
their FAFSA to Fresno State no later than March 2 in order to be considered for financial aid.
For more information regarding
transfer opportunities, students
may make appointments with a CSUF representative through FCC’s transfer center, which is located
in the student services building
in the counseling department.