CSU to admit fewer students

California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed warns that the system may have to cut enrollment by 40,000 across the board if proposed state budget cuts are passed. That’s about 9 percent of its student body and would be the largest single-year decrease in CSU history, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education report.

Individual campuses like Chico State will need to come up with a way to limit enrollment. Among the options are increasing the minimum academic requirements or shrinking the number of students accepted from outside their areas, Reed told the Chronicle.

The current proposed budget includes cutting support for the CSU system by about 20 percent for 2009-10. The lowered enrollment numbers would affect those applying for the 2010-11 school year.

“If the Legislature and the governor are going to continue to significantly reduce our budget, we cannot educate more and more students with less and less money,” Reed said.