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Fairfax High School senior Gina Parks hopes to be admitted to UCLA next year amid possible enroll

Gina Park wants nothing more than to attend the University of California after graduating high school, but if the UC limits enrollment growth in an attempt to preserve quality, her dreams could be shattered.

Park, a senior at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, is the type of student UC admissions officers value. She is student body president at Fairfax, she comes from an immigrant family with no culture of college; she excels in school and is a staple in her college counselor’s office every school day.

“There might be 40 or 50 kids that come in during break, and she handles half of them,” said Denis Furlong, Fairfax’s only staffed college counselor and a UCLA alum.

But Park is hurting her chances of going to college by doing exactly what many college counselors advise against – putting all her eggs in one basket.

“It’s all or nothing with the UC,” she said.

If admittance letters for 2004-2005 were mailed out this week, Park would likely be accepted. But they are not sent out until March, and before then UC Regents will make a decision that could significantly affect Park’s chances.

Last month, UC President Richard Atkinson recommended the UC curb its enrollment growth, to alleviate the effects of slashed state funding. If the regents agree, thousands of students promised an education could find themselves empty handed.

Many administrators and policy analysts are blaming the state government, which recently legalized a budget with $410 million in cuts to the UC and refused to fund enrollment growth for 2004-2005.

Atkinson expressed distress about increasing student fees 30 percent – $1,150 per year – and about recommending enrollment caps, but he said in a statement that the alternative “would be even worse.”

That alternative, as defined by UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman, is to “erode the quality of instruction beyond recovery.”

Instructional quality includes resources such as research, competitiveness for top students and faculty and class size and availability.

At UCLA some aspects of quality are suffering, as administrators say programs are “cut to the bone.”

The state budget reduced research funding 10 percent, in addition to 10 percent this past year, which will require some research layoffs, said Roberto Peccei, vice chancellor for research.

“You can’t keep cutting things at 10 percent per year and have a stable program,” he added.

Though UCLA generates more research dollars than any other UC and is among the top five institutions in the nation, certain research units rely on state allocations for the majority of their support.

“For the North Campus units, those are going to be very difficult cuts,” Peccei said.

Because of the nature of research North Campus programs conduct, they do not attract the federal and private grants reserved for physical and life science research centers.

The ethnic study centers – the American Indian Studies Center, Chicano Studies Research Center, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and Asian American Studies Center – each took a “huge blow,” said Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, vice chancellor for graduate programs and dean of the graduate division.

These centers are responsible for ethnic and cultural research, outreach, and some support academic programs. The centers are currently working hard to mitigate the effects of reduced funding.

“Our current faculty and staff are having to work more and they are also trying to go out there and attract additional resources … to maintain a level of research activity that is appropriate for the center,” said Carlos Haro, assistant director of the Chicano Studies Research Center.

Mitchell-Kernan said the budget shortfall could limit the number of classes offered, the size of the courses and the number of teaching assistants and graduate fellowships offered.

“If we can’t support graduate students, we are in great difficulties,” said Judy Smith, acting executive dean for the College of Letters & Science.

Graduate students assist with faculty research, perform their own research, and lead course discussion sections. They are often the mediators between what professors and lecturers teach and what students understand.

Mitchell-Kernan said UCLA has already fallen behind other UC campuses in competing for graduate students, and the current round of cuts will increase the difficulty.

The story is different for undergraduates.

Applications are on the rise, and admittance rates on the decline. Every year, acceptance to UCLA, which admitted fewer undergraduates than any other UC campus, is becoming more difficult.

But after the state cut 50 percent of outreach funding, UCLA’s ability to have a diverse student body may falter, said Debbie Pounds, director of the Early Academic Outreach Program.

“A 50 percent cut really threatens our ability to be a viable outreach effort,” she said.

Reduced funding at UCLA has also affected the school’s ability to offer competitive faculty salaries. The average faculty salary in the UC lags by 9 percent behind members of the Comparison Eight – a group of schools including Harvard and Stanford that the UC rates itself against.

The College competes by offering “off-scale” bonuses, which award compensation for scholastic accomplishments.

For lecturers, who teach 30 percent of lower division courses, the concern is no longer over money. Though lecturers just agreed to a new contract that increased base salaries from $27,000 to $34,000 in one year, lecturers “will be more likely laid off than any other category” of faculty, Smith said.

Professors would be asked to fill the void left by absent lecturers, teaching roughly one extra course every three years, Smith added.

But many lecturers doubt faculty willingness, and some professors agree.

Kathleen Bawn, associate professor and vice chairwoman of the undergraduate political science department, said she would not want to teach an additional four- or five-unit lecture.

“It’s just too big of a commitment, and my job involves too many other competing demands,” she said.

As long as permanent faculty is able to teach classes ordinarily taught by lecturers, Smith said there would only be a 2 to 3 percent reduction in courses the College offers.

“We don’t expect students to come this year and find that courses they need to graduate are not being offered,” she said.

But already some students are finding they cannot get the classes they need.

“I think it would be easier to graduate if I could get into my classes,” said Trang Nguyen, a fourth-year math and applied management student.

Other students are discouraged from meeting with their instructors because of long lines.

Jose Salgado, a third-year anthropology student, said he once visited a professor during office hours to get instructional help. Instead of waiting in a line of several students, he said he left – and suffered a worse grade for it.

Yet despite complaints, many said the UC should maintain its commitment to growth, even if it limits the resources UCLA has for students already enrolled.

“It’s important to keep talented students from California in California,” said Sumit Datta, a third-year biochemistry student.

Mitchell-Kernan echoed this concern for educating homegrown graduate students, citing their ability to give back to the economy.

“If they leave California, we might not get them back,” she said.

Retaining graduate students is something California is concerned with as it faces a dismal economy, and even bleaker budget outlook.

“We are not a manufacturing economy,” said California First Lady Sharon Davis. “We have got to realize our economy requires a higher level of education.”

Facing an $8 billion deficit for next year, the state is expected to further reduce higher education funding for 2004-2005. Still, administrators remain optimistic about the state’s finances.

“It is going to be rough for the next few years ... but I don’t see it as catastrophic,” said Cliff Brunk, Academic Senate vice chairman.

Smith expects the College will receive similar budget reductions for 2004-2005.

“It really all depends on the state,” she said. “If we have a stable government that would be willing to raise taxes ... I would say our troubles were over.”

The face of California is expected to change in coming months, as incumbent Gov. Gray Davis could lose his job at the hands of state voters. Regardless of the future of California, this year’s UC budget has high school students anxious about their prospects of being admitted. Yet this is not apparent at Fairfax High School, Furlong said.

“There is not a lot of talk about it, but it isn’t something you talk about,” he said. “It’s kind of like death.”