In summary

We call on lawmakers and the courts to avoid a dramatic reduction in the number of UC Berkeley students enrolled for this fall.

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By Mel Levine

Mel Levine, a Democrat and former U.S. congressmember and state assemblymember from Los Angeles, is co-chair of  the California Coalition for Public Higher Education.

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Dick Ackerman

Dick Ackerman, a Republican and former California state senator and assemblymember from Orange County, is co-chair of the California Coalition for Public Higher Education.

ReIf UC Berkeley must cut 3,000 students, should it spare Californians?”; Higher education, Feb. 18, 2022

As University of California, Berkeley, graduates, we can attest to the incredible opportunities Cal opened in our lives. We call on lawmakers and the courts to avoid a dramatic reduction in the number of students who will have these same opportunities next year. 

The appellate court’s rejection of UC’s request for relief from a lower court order requiring the campus to freeze student enrollment at the same level as 2020-21 is unfair. It bases enrollment on an unusually low enrollment year because of the pandemic, and it will have an immediate and devastating impact on thousands of students who will be denied access to a UC education. 

The lower court decision also, for the first time, treats enrollment as a “project” that must be analyzed under CEQA, a troubling departure from past practice that would significantly harm our attempts to increase the educated workforce needed to support our state’s economy.

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