Napa Valley College feels pinch of Cal State campuses cuts

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Monday, February 04, 2008

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By JILLIAN JONES
Napa Valley Register

Napa Valley College could be forced to start turning away students next year, as enrollment freezes at California universities create an influx of applications to community colleges.

Faced with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget cuts to higher education, the California State University system plans to reduce the number of students admitted to its 23 campuses by 10,000 next year, freezing total enrollment at 450,000, said Susan Kashack, spokeswoman for Sonoma State University.

“When the governor’s budget came out in January, we knew then that there would be budget cuts to every campus,” she said. “What that meant was we had to take a look at how many students we will be able to educate.”

“There is only so much money to work with within a state,” said Kashack.

As Cal State campuses freeze enrollment, nearby community colleges are likely to feel the pressure, she said.

“It’s going to affect community colleges by the fact that those 10,000 students … will probably either enroll in community college, will decide to go out of state or to private colleges that don’t have the same (budgetary) constraints, or they may decide to hold off going to college,” she said.

“It’s impossible to say” how many will turn to community colleges for their first two years of education, she said, but for a school like Napa Valley College with a Cal State campus just one county away, enrollment is likely to jump.

Sonoma State, which receives many applications from Napa County residents, will reduce admission from 7,900 to 7,500 next year, she said.

Napa area students turned away from Sonoma State may turn toward Napa Valley College, said Kashack.

NVC Vice President of Instruction Sue Nelson said she expects to see “100 or more students that would choose Napa Valley College because they can’t get into Sonoma State.”

“Those students will look for community college as their answer, and we want to be their answer,” she said.

The question, though, is how. “For a college our size, 100 students is quite a few,” said Nelson. Last fall, NVC served 1,800 full-time students, she said.

“If we’re talking about Sonoma State students, those are probably full-time students. Many of them will take five to six classes. That means there will be 500 classes affected,” she said.

Particularly in classes like math and English, which fill up quickly, additional students are likely to “force out others,” said Nelson. “They are probably more prepared, and they know how to enroll early. They are more ready to jump in and take the courses.”

The result, she said, is that it could end up taking longer for students to graduate from NVC.

Nelson said NVC is not planning to add many classes in preparation for growing enrollment, except possibly “in math and English.” Additional classes, though, will have to be offered either at night, on weekends or at the upper valley campus, she said, because during the peak hours of 9 a.m. to noon, all facilities are already occupied.

If Measure L — the $178 million school bond measure for NVC — passes in February, the additional facilities proposed under the measure could alleviate some of the scheduling issues, she said, but not in time for next fall.

The college might also have to add orientations and assessments, and hire new counselors or extend counseling hours, she said.

Nelson said her “biggest fear” is that the college won’t receive extra funding for the additional students.

“As far as funding goes, we have grown enough this year,” said Nelson, adding, “We may be what’s called ‘at cap,’ which means that at some point we don’t get paid for any additional students. … If we have to add classes, state funding would not be available if we are over cap.”

According to Scott Miller, vice president of business and finance, funding to NVC is already expected to decrease by $500,000 to $600,000 next year under the governor’s proposed budget.

3 comment(s)

supernova8610 wrote on Feb 3, 2008 11:09 PM:

" Parking was a nightmare when I went to NVC (graduate with my AA in Spring 2007). Now it's going to be hell. "

Musikluvr wrote on Feb 4, 2008 7:02 AM:

" It is not our job to be a refugee camp for wandering college enrolees! This is Napa Valley folks, we are a rural county with 135,000 residents. Why does Napa Valley College want 1/3 of a Billion Dollars? Why do they need 33 different vocational studies programs? Why must they coerce us into bringing huge numbers of state students to our little community college? Napa Valley College has serious managerial problems at the top. "

bittersweet wrote on Feb 4, 2008 9:25 AM:

" Perhaps more students will gravitate toward online degrees. After all, it seemed to work for some of the Vice-Presidents at NVC. "

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