Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- It isn't just tuition increases that are driving up the cost of college. Around the country, deep budget cuts are forcing colleges to lay off instructors and eliminate some classes, making it harder for students to get into the courses they need to earn their degree.
The likely result: more time in college.
And while that may sound agreeable to nostalgic alumni, to students like Michael Redoglia, time is money.
Early this semester at San Francisco State University, Redoglia unsuccessfully crashed 26 different classes, hoping to find space that would move him closer to a hospitality management degree. Outside some classrooms, wait-listed students took turns standing closest to the door so they could hear the lecture and not fall too far behind should they get in.
Redoglia, a fourth-year student, is now enrolled in just two courses. He could lose financial aid, and his plan to finish his degree in 4 1/2 years is up in smoke.
"This semester has put me back another full year," said Redoglia, adding that the delay is "killing me financially."
Policymakers right up to President Barack Obama have been calling on public colleges to move students through more efficiently, and some have been doing so. But experts say any recent progress is threatened by unprecedented state budget cuts that have trimmed course offerings.
Some students struggle for places in the core entry-level classes such as composition and math because the part-time instructors who typically teach those courses are the first to be laid off in tough times. Other students are shut out of crowded core courses in their majors by upperclassmen.
A federal study of 1999-2000 graduates found it takes students roughly 4.5 years on average to earn a bachelor's degree. About two-thirds of traditional-age college students who finished got through within five. A study of 2009 graduates is not yet complete.
To help students get the courses they need to graduate, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill raised enrollment caps on some English and foreign language classes from 19 to 24. The University of Kansas also increased some class sizes -- but offered fewer sections of a big introductory chemistry course. Both schools insist most students who truly needed a class eventually got in.
Money isn't necessarily the only problem, some experts argue. Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, said universities focus too much on prestigious but unessential graduate programs at the expense of the undergraduate basics. Others want professors pushed harder to teach essential courses instead of their own boutique interests -- and students to accept more unpopular, early-morning slots.
