CSU Chancellor Timothy White addresses student enrollment issues, frustration over “bottleneck” classes and funding for student programs in a press conference on Sept. 27 held at his office in Long Beach.

“It’s frustrating to me to know personally that we have people by no fault of their own, can’t get in one of the campuses,” said White “We will continue to make the case in Sacramento about enrollment.”

White said there are approximately 25,000 qualified applicants that were not able to get into a CSU campus and thousands of existing students who got lost in that fill up quickly but have high failure and drop out rates.  Students who need these bottleneck classes to graduate are unable get in because those seats were taken up at enrollment time and it causes a lot of frustration.

Chancellor White said the solution is to expand technology and expand online classes.

“I don’t think there is a single one size fit all magic solution to any of these problems,” said White, “I think technology is a piece of it.”

Chancellor White acknowledges that many CSU campuses need to improve or enhance their programs, infrastructure and curriculum but he can only work with the budget that has been allocated.

“We were fortunate here in CSU last year, along with the UC and the community college to be one of the few agencies that got any increased funding,” said White.

The California State Budget Act of 2013 signed by Governor Jerry Brown increased the General Fund Spending Plan for CSUs by $125 million.

From that amount, $10 million was allocated towards the innovative use of technology and online classes to address the bottleneck issues.

$21 million is allotted towards enrollment that translates to a 1.45 percent growth but Chancellor White had hoped for funding to see a 5 percent growth.

“We will prioritize within that list the most vital thing for us to do and we will live within our budget,” said White.