With CSU East Bay students preparing to register for summer and fall classes in less than a week, many are beginning to realize they will not earn their degrees in their desired time frame.

Our university does a good job of enrolling students and has received national attention for its innovative freshman-year experience, according to the CSU website.

However, less than half the students who enroll here end up with a Bachelor’s degree.

With the recent implementation of the 17-unit cap to all Cal State universities beginning this summer, already-low graduation rates in the Cal State system will more than likely begin to decrease.

The 17-unit cap is part of a system-wide effort to avoid a possible $200 million budget short fall next year, causing many students to turn their 4-year plans into 6-year plans.

According to the National Center of Education Statistics, the average graduation rate at all CSUs is just over 50 percent.

CSUEB has a 45 percent overall graduation rate for students who began their studies in the fall of 2004, ranking 15th out of the 23 CSU schools, with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo taking the top rank with a 73 percent overall graduation rate.

Only 15 percent of CSUEB students finish within four years.

Retention rates at CSUEB also rank toward the bottom. Just 74 percent of full-time students who began their studies in Fall 2009 returned in Fall 2010. Meanwhile, 91 percent of students at Cal Poly SLO returned in the same period, according to the NCES.

Is there something our university can be doing to retain students and ensure they graduate in a timely manner? Or does the responsibility sit solely with the students?

The university must do everything in its power to take care of the students, while students must put in similar efforts. In order for this problem to be resolved, students and administration need to both put forward the most effort possible.

On this campus we have personally seen a lack of engagement and investment from fellow students in their education.

Cutting classes and the implementation of unit caps are issues students experience at universities across the nation, yet we at The Pioneer have seen many of our fellow classmates not pushing themselves enough or taking their educational experience seriously enough to adapt to changing conditions.

Students need to take a better command of their planning, seek out advising and meet with professors and advisers early on to ensure their path to graduation is ensured.

We hope this article will bring attention to this issue and ensue positive change across campus because CSUEB, both in its administration and among the student body, can do better than this.

We urge our university to take this matter seriously and to seek creative and innovative ways to increase the graduation rate.

It’s an unfortunate hand that not only students at CSUEB but across the state have been dealt, with what seems like never-ending budget cuts and restrictions to class selection.  

However, as a student body we shouldn’t let these challenges deter us from obtaining the goal we had in sight when we first stepped onto this campus.

It is, after all, why we first stepped foot on this campus.