RIVERSIDE, Calif. — They were once the envy of the world for the access they offered to high-quality education for all students at a low price. But California’s public colleges and universities delivered something different to Andrew Hotchkiss when he applied for admission two years ago: a punch to the gut.
Hotchkiss, now 21 and from Fontana, Calif., was snubbed by the selective Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego campuses of the public University of California system, but never expected California State University at Long Beach to turn him down too. After all, any California resident who is eligible for a UC campus, which Hotchkiss was, is all but guaranteed entry to the Cal State system. For years, it was a safety net of sorts. That’s no longer true.
Hotchkiss was eventually admitted to UC Riverside but his rejection from the popular and crowded Long Beach campus reflects the turmoil and declining fortunes of what was previously regarded as America’s best state higher education system — and one of the most respected in the world. It also serves as a dramatic symbol of how years of budget cuts at public universities and colleges are taking their toll in disturbing and sometimes surprising ways.
“I was incredibly surprised” to be turned down by Long Beach, Hotchkiss said on a dazzlingly sunny April day at UC Riverside.
He might not have been, had he considered that, between 2007 and 2012, California trimmed $2 billion from the Cal State and UC budgets, essentially cutting per-student funding in half. At the same time, it gave more spots to out-of-state and international students who pay the full cost of their educations while turning down Hotchkiss and thousands of other qualified Californians.
At UC campuses, California residents pay $14,000 in tuition and fees per year, compared to $38,000 for nonresidents. Californians pay $5,472 for the Cal State system, while nonresidents pay an additional $372 per semester unit or $248 per quarter unit, which works out to at least $8,928 extra per year for full-time out-of-state students.
California once showed the world how a state could guarantee a college education for nearly every resident, but then it failed to provide the long-term funding to do it, said Martha Kanter, a former U.S. education undersecretary and California community college leader.
