Cal Poly has increased its efforts to recruit out-of-state students after approximately 1,500 California resident student slots were cut in a decision by the California State University (CSU) system. The move is an effort to recoup some of the lost money and fill the empty space where those in-state students would be.
The CSU system as a whole is applying a 9.5 percent reductions to all of its 23 schools.
Cal Poly will be reducing its resident enrollment slots from 17,350 Californian students to 15,702 because of the budget shortages, following the system-wide percentage.
The empty places open the door for more out-of-state students to get into Cal Poly and the CSU system as a whole (eight to nine percent of Cal Poly’s students are out-of-state now, according to Cal Poly Admissions).
Out-of-state students pay approximately 3,000 dollars per quarter more than resident students, making their yearly (three quarters) tuition and fee total approximately 15,000 dollars. An in-state student pays about 6,000 dollars. Resident Californian student tuition is, in effect, subsidized by the state government meaning that the state absorbs the 9,000 dollars per year for each in-state student.
By cutting the state resident enrollment slots, the university prevents itself from losing more funds.
However, a problem occurs because Cal Poly is currently already maintaining (in facilities, faculty and staff) the 17,350 resident students, plus out-of-state students. The results if those slots are left unfilled are empty classrooms, unused equipment and extra faculty.
“Cal Poly is equipped to support the amount of students they have now,” ASI President Kelly Griggs said. “We will now have an excess of stuff they have around campus to support the current 19,000 plus.”
To cover this excess Cal Poly is “putting additional interest in students who show interest in Cal Poly from out-of-state,” Provost Robert Koob said.
Because there are more open slots there are more opportunities for out-of-state students to come to Cal Poly, Koob said. Cal Poly Admissions has recently added to their efforts to bring out-of-state students to Cal Poly.
Admissions accomplishes this goal by what they call the Outreach Recruitment Effort.
James Maraviglia, the assistant vice president of Admissions, Recruitment and Financial Aid said that although Cal Poly hasn’t hired more staff to assist in the search for out-of-state students that they have increased efforts to bring them here.
“It’s a multi-pronged effort to drive diversity and thought as well as maintain an overall size,” Maraviglia said. “We’d like to become more of a national draw.”
Admissions purchases information about students who have taken the PSAT to target those best suited for the university. This gives them an idea of whether the student has the achievement level and interest level to succeed at Cal Poly. This effort was traditionally limited to the West Coast, but because of the budget shortages, they are now making a national push.
Not only is admissions looking to fill budget and student gaps but is trying to attract new and diverse types of students to Cal Poly, Maraviglia said.
“This helps us diversify in areas that may be lacking of instate demand,” he said. “It attracts a different breath of student. How many kids from California come from a logging and fishing town? Not many.”
Griggs said that it is unfortunate that the California government is giving an advantage to out-of-state students and not its residents.
“The state is basically saying they can’t and won’t fund California students,” Griggs said. “When (the government) cut the money from the state they are reducing places for California students.”