Third year architecture student Alex Vincent found it difficult to choose his studio due to limited choices during his registration slot. Photo by Patrick Leiva- Mustang Daily

Cal Poly students struggled to find the necessary available units through the registration process for winter quarter.

Budget cuts have forced more competition among students because fewer sections are available. Some students are forced to crash classes and endure long wait lists without any guarantee of obtaining their necessary courses. Furloughs have made crashing classes more difficult as well, as fewer students are deciding to drop out of classes since they might not find others to replace them.

Kate Stewart, a business freshman, worried about finding enough classes for winter quarter. She registered on December 3, the last day before open enrollment and got four units. Stewart was forced to crash classes during the first week. She could not get any on the first two days, but finally obtained the classes that she wanted on the third day of the quarter.

“It was stressful having to worry about finding classes especially since it was a new experience for me,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect or what I was doing when trying to crash classes.”

Stewart was able to obtain 16 units for the quarter by continually crashing classes and constantly e-mailing professors, but some students are not as lucky.

With classes in shorter supply and higher demand for those classes, departments are trying to find ways to help their students during registration.

The architecture department created a new policy that allows certain studios to last for two quarters instead of one. Studios are the workshops for architecture students where they work on designing their models and other assignments throughout the year. These studios are essential to architecture students, because without a studio, the student is set back a whole year instead of just one quarter. The department also removed the ability for students to use their priority choice for their studio.

Alex Vincent, a junior architecture student said that he is frustrated by the registration system for architecture students since they can only register for 16 units on PASS. Architecture studios are five-unit courses, which makes it difficult for students to register for other classes they need, since their need would come to more than 16 units.

“It’s frustrating because I have to spend two summers here in order to graduate on time,” Vincent said.

Cal Poly’s administration continues to search for ways to get students their necessary classes so they can graduate from the university in a timely manner.

Cal Poly Provost Richard Koob said at an ASI Board of Directors workshop, that block scheduling will continue next year for freshmen. Freshmen liked the idea of having a set schedule coming into Cal Poly instead of having to search through classes during registration, Koob added.

He also said that fall registration will take place in May again for continuing students. Despite fewer available courses offered in the fall, the average student courseload went up by 2 percent.

In the future, Koob said that priority registration might be cut since he considers it a “Band-Aid,” and students should be able to stay on track to graduate through normal registration. He said that students should take at least 12 units, and the administration encourages students to take 15 or 16 units in order to graduate on time.

Associated Students Inc. has been working on the issues of class availability and timely graduation since the beginning of the year.

Kelsey Rice, an agricultural business senior who serves on the ASI Board of Directors, said that the transition to block scheduling for freshmen students should help to decongest the classes in high demand. Also, she said that starting students out on the right path is beneficial so they do not encounter difficulties in registration later on, and fall behind their expected graduation time.

Rice said that she has not had any trouble registering for classes and feels fortunate that her major allows her some flexibility in her flow chart, unlike other majors.

“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones,” she said.

Cal Poly students struggled to find the necessary available units through the registration process for winter quarter.

Budget cuts have forced more competition among students because fewer sections are available. Some students are forced to crash classes and endure long wait lists without any guarantee of obtaining their necessary courses. Furloughs have made crashing classes more difficult as well, as fewer students are deciding to drop out of classes since they might not find others to replace them.

Kate Stewart, a business freshman, worried about finding enough classes for winter quarter. She registered on December 3, the last day before open enrollment and got four units. Stewart was forced to crash classes during the first week. She could not get any on the first two days, but finally obtained the classes that she wanted on the third day of the quarter.

“It was stressful having to worry about finding classes especially since it was a new experience for me,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect or what I was doing when trying to crash classes.”

Stewart was able to obtain 16 units for the quarter by continually crashing classes and constantly e-mailing professors, but some students are not as lucky.

With classes in shorter supply and higher demand for those classes, departments are trying to find ways to help their students during registration.

The architecture department created a new policy that allows certain studios to last for two quarters instead of one. Studios are the workshops for architecture students where they work on designing their models and other assignments throughout the year. These studios are essential to architecture students, because without a studio, the student is set back a whole year instead of just one quarter. The department also removed the ability for students to use their priority choice for their studio.

Alex Vincent, a junior architecture student said that he is frustrated by the registration system for architecture students since they can only register for 16 units on PASS. Architecture studios are five-unit courses, which makes it difficult for students to register for other classes they need, since their need would come to more than 16 units.

“It’s frustrating because I have to spend two summers here in order to graduate on time,” Vincent said.

Cal Poly’s administration continues to search for ways to get students their necessary classes so they can graduate from the university in a timely manner.

Cal Poly Provost Richard Koob said at an ASI Board of Directors workshop, that block scheduling will continue next year for freshmen. Freshmen liked the idea of having a set schedule coming into Cal Poly instead of having to search through classes during registration, Koob added.

He also said that fall registration will take place in May again for continuing students. Despite fewer available courses offered in the fall, the average student courseload went up by 2 percent.

In the future, Koob said that priority registration might be cut since he considers it a “Band-Aid,” and students should be able to stay on track to graduate through normal registration. He said that students should take at least 12 units, and the administration encourages students to take 15 or 16 units in order to graduate on time.

Associated Students Inc. has been working on the issues of class availability and timely graduation since the beginning of the year.

Kelsey Rice, an agricultural business senior who serves on the ASI Board of Directors, said that the transition to block scheduling for freshmen students should help to decongest the classes in high demand. Also, she said that starting students out on the right path is beneficial so they do not encounter difficulties in registration later on, and fall behind their expected graduation time.

Rice said that she has not had any trouble registering for classes and feels fortunate that her major allows her some flexibility in her flow chart, unlike other majors.

“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones,” she said.

The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees appointed Herbert Carter board chair on Nov. 18 after the resignation Jeffrey Bleich who was named the Ambassador to Australia by the Obama administration on Nov. 18. Governor Schwarzenegger also appointed a new student trustee, Curtis Schlaufman of CSU Fullerton, on Nov. 20.

The Board of Trustees, which develops policy across the 23-campus CSU system, appointed Carter from his vice president position, which he had held since 2008. He has been part of the Board since 2004.

Carter has been involved in the CSU system for 35 years in a variety of administrative positions, according to a press release from the CSU.

The chair is “vital in leading the other trustees and policy direction of the entire board,” said Erik Fallis, media relations for the CSU. Fallis said that Carter has been a strong leader already.

The Board of Trustees, which is composed of 25 members, executes and controls policies across the entire CSU.

“The trustees would see any policy decision from say setting the alcohol policy to say the naming of a building from donations to formal budget requests,” Fallis said. “They are really instrumental when it comes to all those policies.”

The student trustee position, to which Schlaufman was just appointed, holds all the same powers and privileges as the other trustees once they enter their second year of a two-year term. Student trustee terms are staggered and Russel Statham, a masters student in business administration at Fresno State University, is now in his voting year as the student trustee.

Statham said the vote is just a minor part of the position.

“Your vote is a very small component of what it means to be a trustee,” he said. “So many things happen outside of our meetings.”

Outside meetings, sitting on California State Student Association (CSSA) and shadowing administration and faculty members are all duties that Statham said he undertakes. He said that he is confident that Schlaufman will be a good successor.

“Curtis is a very thoughtful person and I think he’ll do a great job representing CSU students,” he said. “I told him it will be one of the most challenging positions that he’ll hold in his life with the budget shortfalls that we face.”

Statham said that Bleich picked a hard time to leave.

“It’s obviously quite bittersweet,” he said. “He was an inspiration to a lot of us and we’re excited for him.”

Bleich, who was a litigation partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson law firm in San Francisco from 1995 through 2009, met President Obama when Bleich was going to Harvard University for his masters in public policy according to the US Department of State Web site. He was also a contributor to President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“But any time you lose a leader there’s going to be an organizational adjustment,” Statham said. “We have a great new chair for our board.”

Cal Poly Provost Robert Koob said that it is too early to tell how Carter is doing in his new position. The policies that the Board of Trustees set are broad and are guidelines under which Cal Poly and the other campuses operate, Koob said.

“The policies effect us day-to-day only in the way it sets boundary conditions,” he said. “A good example is the student fees last summer. Their actions matter, but it is not a direct contact in many ways.”

The next Board of Trustees meeting is in January.

Graphic by Kevin Black.

Cal Poly leads the California State University (CSU) system with 74 percent of students graduating within six years. Provost Robert Koob predicted these rates will continue to rise despite the poor economic environment in California.

Additionally, the freshman retention rate (which measures the amount of Cal Poly students who return for their sophomore year and, Koob said, is strongly influential in graduation rates) from 2008-2009 was at a record high.

Of the 3,011 freshmen who enrolled at Cal Poly in 2003, 2,288 graduated within six years, according to a press release from the provost’s office. The standard for higher education graduation rates nationwide is measured by six- and four-year rates, according to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which operates under the National Center of Educational Statistics.

Of the 3,575 students who came to Cal Poly in 2005, more than 30 percent (1,073) graduated within four years. This percentage is up from a 15 percent four-year graduation rate 10 years ago.

Koob attributed Cal Poly’s graduation rate to the high-quality students and faculty who care about education, orientation and residential housing programs. These programs are crucial to creating an environment that make students feel comfortable and enables them to succeed. Koob’s goal is to increase the six-year graduation rate 6 percentage points to 80 in the next four years.

Koob plans to raise the rate in part by maintaining and raising an already high freshman retention rate. Students returning that first year is key because of high dropout rates at that time.  In 2008, 3, 450 freshmen enrolled at Cal Poly and 91.4 percent returned as sophomores; it is the highest this rate has been in Cal Poly’s history.

Koob said he does not think the current budget deficit will affect the graduation rates or freshmen return rates.

“The standards haven’t changed; it’s our enforcement that seems to be changing,” he said.

In fact, Koob said it should help students who can’t graduate on time figure out early and decide on other plans. This might translate to higher graduation rates.

“The graduation (rate) will go up because the budget crisis will force us to be more selective,” he said. “We’ve gotten so much better information about what each student needs to take when.”

Carole Moore, program coordinator for Career Services and a career counselor, said there was significantly more freedom to take classes when she was a Cal Poly student.

“There was no hurry,” Moore said. “We don’t have that luxury now.”

Moore said that Cal Poly still has an approach that fosters student and faculty relationships. Job fairs, orientations and networking all add to the Cal Poly experience, she said.

“I think that Cal Poly, as opposed to other schools, has a close relationship with its students,” she said. “My guess, just being here on campus, is the personal approach we take to education.”

“There are a lot of really lasting relationships,” Moore added.

Moore said the fact that Cal Poly makes newly admitted students declare a major upon applying to the university can be difficult for students if they want to switch, but it could help the graduation rate. Students like it here, she said, and rarely want to leave, even if the school doesn’t have a desired major.

“I meet with students constantly about changing their major,” she said. “One question we ask is it a major we offer at Cal Poly. Almost always the answer is, ‘I want to stay at Cal Poly.’”

Cindee Bennett-Thompson, the associate director of admissions, said the declaration of a major is key to retaining students and having them graduate.

“One of the biggest reasons for (high graduation rates) is students are required to declare a major when they apply,” Bennett-Thompson said. “Once they’re here, they know they want to be here.”

All these factors lead to Cal Poly having the highest graduation rate in the CSU system. For instance, CSU Long Beach has a 54 percent graduation rate over a six-year period, according to their Web site.

The University of California system generally has higher graduation rates. For instance, UC Santa Barbara has a 61 percent rate in four years and 79 percent in six, according to their Web site.