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This year marks the first time that a majority of Fullerton students – 52.2 percent – belongs to minority groups, and that trend will continue, President Gordon expects. Latinas and first-generation Asians will account for a lot of the increase, he thinks. Enrollment figures will depend in part on government decisions on immigration, especially whether immigrants here without papers are legalized. In any case, he expects enrollment to remain strong. “Our location is ideal, right off the 91. We’re close to Riverside and San Bernardino; we’re close to L.A.,” he noted.
“We’ll see a growth in demand from individuals and industries for short-term, intensive courses that update skills, as the economy becomes more international and language becomes more important,” said economics professor Jane Hall. “That will affect how we package our curriculum.”
“We’ll also have military people returning from long tours of duty who look to education as a way to refocus their lives,” said political science Professor Raphael Sonenshein.
“There may be a surge in baby boomer retirees who may want to take enrichment courses,” suggested Steve Murray, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “But the bread-and-butter enrollment will come from traditional-age students.”
Diana Guerin: Institutional data suggests that our potential pool of high school graduates will rise for a few more years, then level off and decline. We won’t have this embarrassment of riches forever, so we have to think about whom we’ll be serving after the tidal wave of available students. We need to think about the programs we’ll need in less than 10 years' time, when we’ll have to work harder to recruit students and to think about the kind of students who will need our programs.
Jane Hall: Two social trends will drive us. “No Child Left Behind” and other programs using specialized testing may give us a higher yield rate. If we legalize the immigration status of a lot of people already here, it will provide a huge potential pool for the CSU. In addition, we’ll see a growth in demand from individuals and industries for short-term, intensive courses that update skills, as we internationalize more, as language becomes more important. That will affect how we package our curriculum.
Raphael Sonenshein: The numbers of applicants being turned down by the UC system, from both in state and out of state, is staggering. The quality of research suggests that [the] Cal State [system] is becoming closer to [the] UC [system] all the time. That fact hasn’t sunk in to applicants, but when it does, it may give us a huge pool. We’ll also have military people returning from long tours of duty who look to education as a way to refocus their lives.
Steve Murray: There may be a surge in baby boomer retirees who may want to take enrichment courses. But the bread-and-butter enrollment will come from traditional-age students.
President Milton A. Gordon: Immigration will play a significant role in enrollment. The largest potential applicant base is Latina. The growing population is Hispanic, but right behind that are the Asian students. I don’t see the first wave abating at all. Our location is ideal, right off the Riverside (91) Freeway. We’re close to Riverside and San Bernardino; we’re close to L.A. I don’t see us hitting 50,000. I do see us in the immediate future continuing strong. This is our first year as a majority minority campus with 52.5 percent minority enrollment. I see that continuing to grow, especially in the first generation of Asian students. (The second generation tends to go to the UCs and similar.) It depends on the U.S. government’s decisions on immigration. [People] used to refer to the CSU as “the people’s university.” I still think that’s a great slogan and mission.
