The Executive Committee of the CSU East Bay Academic Senate briefly debated a resolution on Tuesday to enforce a strict course limit of 17 units for all students.

It voted to have the issue further debated at the next meeting in front of the entire Academic Senate in two weeks and then decide from there what actions should be taken.

The course limit is part of a statewide effort of the Chancellor’s office to address a concern that a “$200 million trigger cut will occur,” according to a memo released in March.

All CSU campuses have been directed to limit students to a course load that allows all students to register for the classes they need to progress in a normal timeline.

In order to enforce the limit at CSUEB, the Planning, Enrollment Management and Student Affairs (PEMSA) department recommended that starting this summer students be allowed to sign up for only 13 units during the first enrollment period and then meet the cap of 17 units in the enrollment period that follows.

This did not sit well with Elizabeth Ortiz of Associated Students Inc. (ASI), who voiced her concern that students in majors requiring high unit courses such as science and art, would not be able to sign up as full time students in the first enrollment period.

“Not only would that affect financial aid for many students,” said Ortiz, “but it would cause problems in the long run.”

“Last quarter I took 16 units. That was a six-unit course and two five-unit courses. My concern was that I would not be allowed to enroll as a full time student in the first pass.”

Ortiz also stated her concern that some classes have been taken up by students who have been allowed to enroll in an abnormally high amount of units once they receive permission from an advisor.

“The reason we have students sometimes taking 30 some odd units,” explained Dr. Sally K. Murphy, director of the General Education Program, “is that once you gain permission […] you can continue to enroll in classes. That’s a problem that has to be fixed.”

Ortiz recommended that students be allowed to sign up for at least three classes in the first enrollment period, regardless of the amount of units. The problem with this, which was explained by Statistics and Bioethics professor Mitchell Watnik, is that the computer program, created by Peoplesoft, can only count units and does not allow for classes to be counted.

“It’s very strange to me that Peoplesoft can’t count classes,” said Watnik. “Maybe we need to find another system than Peoplesoft.”

Ortiz’s arguments were supported by many of the senators on the Executive Committee, who expressed interest in amending the resolution to allow students to register for 17 units in the first registration period instead of the proposed amount of 13.

After the meeting, Murphy said she plans on meeting with ASI to discuss possible amendments to address student concerns.