Enrollment freeze jolts the hopeful

Potential students see chance for acceptance dim after court ruling caps campus numbers for now

Max Schlosberg looks like any other UC Berkeley student as he saunters through patina-coated Sather Gate, blending into crowds of masks and backpacks in his Converse shoes, gray university hoodie and shoulderlength locks.

After growing up in the city and going to Berkeley

High School less than four blocks west of the very campus where his parents met as students, the 17-year-old feels right at home. He's crossing his fingers that he'll be walking through the university's storied grounds for years to come as a student.

“Knowing it's one of the most highly regarded institutions in higher education in the U.S., I've sort of faced the fact that a lot of people want to come to Berkeley,” said Schlosberg, who has to wait six more weeks to learn whether he'll officially become a California Golden Bear.

“When I applied, I already knew the chances of success of any one person getting in is very low,” he said. UC Berkeley, after all, gets about 150,000 applications a year.

His odds got a little longer last week when he and tens of thousands of high school and transfer students got the gut-wrenching news that Cal must accept 3,050 fewer students this fall than anticipated because of a lawsuit filed in 2018 by a group of local residents tired of the university's constant expansion.

An appellate court last week upheld Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman's August 2021 ruling that the university must cap student enrollment at 42,347 while the lawsuit continues to be litigated. That's the number of students who attended in the 2020-21 academic year. Even though most classes were virtual

then because of the pandemic, enrollment was roughly 25% higher than what the university's 2005 long-range development plan envisioned.

“This cut makes it even more competitive,” said Schlosberg, who applied to 17 colleges. “It's out of my hands now, but I don't think there's ever a point where nothing can be done.”

News of the enrollment freeze prompted the Berkeley City Council to unanimously vote Friday morning to submit an amicus brief supporting the university's request that the California Supreme Court step in and overturn the enrollment freeze.

Later that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom also filed an amicus brief, arguing that the freeze “would force UC Berkeley to shut the door on over 3,000 potential college freshmen and transfer students — 1 out of every 3 undergraduate students who would have otherwise enrolled — disproportionately impacting students from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds.”

Phil Bokovoy, president of the Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods group that sued the university, says it's his alma mater's fault that enrollment was frozen.

For too long, he noted, the university has accepted more and more students while failing to provide housing for them in a city that has too little of it.

The longtime resident of South Berkeley's ParkerPiedmont area said dozens of students have to pack inside houses converted to “mini-dorms,” often paying more than $1,000 a month in rent for the cramped quarters. Other students must try to find units in nearby affordable housing complexes, resort to hourslong commutes or sleep inside their cars.

After years of unsuccessful negotiations, he said Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods sued in an attempt to stop the university from expanding beyond its capacity, displacing low-income tenants in the process.

“Our ideal would be that the university makes a legally binding commitment to tie enrollment growth to housing production for students on property they already own,” Bokovoy said. “They've been extremely resistant for years and years and years.”

In its decision, the appellate court backed Judge Seligman's determination that UC Berkeley violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not adequately planning for or mitigating impacts that student spillover could have on the surrounding environment.

The order stemmed from the same lawsuit that halted the school's plan to construct its Upper Hearst Project, which would have added more than 200 housing units for graduate students and faculty in Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.

Meanwhile, away from the courts, time is running out for would-be students. The university's deadlines for sending out admission decisions are March 24 for freshmen and the end of April for transfer students.

One of those anxiously waiting transfer students is Kiara Bragg, who now wonders whether all the sacrifices she made to get into a school like UC Berkeley will be for naught.

Born and raised in Palm Springs, the 20-year-old recently graduated from College of the Desert, a community college near her home.

Even though UC Berkeley's application portal didn't open until November, she had the paperwork to join her dream school ready since August. When UC's letter came into her inbox announcing the enrollment freeze, she froze too.

“I don't even know how to describe it without cussing. … I'm just trying to process this,” Bragg said. “I'm a first-generation college student and I didn't have the support from my parents at all about education or going to a university, so everything that I've chosen to do with my higher education was always my choice alone.”

COVID-19 already caused enough stress in her life, forcing her to take Zoom courses while switching majors and leading to her ouster from home in August 2020 after coming out as bisexual to her religious family — years after hiding her identity as long as possible to avoid a disruption to her education.

“At the end of the day, it was always me choosing my education,” Bragg said. “I've sacrificed so much. I've even sacrificed myself and my happiness because education has always been my priority.”

She says it's difficult to grasp how all that hard work could be derailed now. “It's a hard thing to digest. I just feel like I've done everything right, and all I can do is hope that that appeases the admissions committee,” Bragg said.

The stakes are also high for UC Berkeley. If the freeze isn't lifted the university could end up losing at least $57 million in tuition, fees and state support, according to a statement Chancellor Carol Christ and Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Catherine Koshland released after the appellate court's announcement.

“If left intact, the court's decision would have a devastating impact on prospective students, university admissions, campus operations, and the university's ability to serve California students,” they added.

The school didn't appeal Judge Seligman' August ruling until Oct. 18, then waited until Jan. 28 to request a stay order — a time lapse the appellate court noted in its reasoning for upholding the freeze.