Let’s put things in perspective: The 16-unit quarterly cap coming to Cal Poly is not the biggest problem students will face during registration. The vast majority of those who try to enroll for classes during Fall 2012 will fall under one of the three exemptions outlined in Cal Poly’s academic policies and will find absolutely no change in the way they enroll in classes.
Even better, early estimates from the Office of the Provost predict only a small percentage of those who are not exempt will want to take more than 16 units. Associate Vice Provost Kimi Ikeda said roughly 300 students would actually be limited in the amount of classes they will be able to take, far less than the thousands who take more than 16 units on a quarterly basis.
And though it might be difficult for those 300 to find ways around the restriction — it might even throw off their graduation plans — Cal Poly as a whole is in a financial situation where it does not need to create a unit cap for all students, without exception.
After we spoke with the university president, provost and others about the cap, it does not appear as though Cal Poly needs a limited cap such as the one that is being set into motion now. The only reason campus administrators are following the guidelines is because they come straight from their boss: the California State University (CSU) chancellor. The cap won’t actually help the university, it is just part of a blanket policy aimed to aid some of the state schools in their budget woes.
President Jeffrey Armstrong said after the cap was initially introduced, he contacted the CSU to remind them of the several high-intensity majors at Cal Poly. It was only after this the CSU decided to create special exemptions for the university so it could retain students’ ability to graduate on time, even in programs such as engineering and architecture.
But this begs the question, why bother applying the unit cap to Cal Poly at all? The university is accepted by most as the top school of the 23 CSU campuses. Through preemptive measures taken in recent years, Cal Poly has been able to remain more financially stable than some of the other schools in the system.
Sure, a unit cap is right for some. But for Cal Poly, it is a waste of everyone’s time and resources to create and enforce all these exemptions that essentially nullify the unit cap on our campus. Armstrong said after he spoke with CSU administrators, he was told the exemptions were the best they could do to help Cal Poly. But there’s another option.
Instead of forming one-size-fits-all policies for its schools — when we obviously do not need them here at Cal Poly — the CSU system should consider how its mandates will individually affect all of its campuses, especially one that consistently wins awards such as “Best in the West.”