Impaction: CSUN president uses first in a series of community meetings to address impaction concerns

Saffana Hijaz

March 7, 2015

Vice President for Student Affairs William Watkins discusses the impaction plan at the first public hearing. (The Sundial Photo)

Vice President of Academic Affairs Willaim Watkins and President Dianne Harrison hosted the first in a series of community hearings about CSUN’s impaction plan on Thursday at Nordoff Hall.

The impaction plan, which places stricter admission requirements on prospective students, comes as CSUN has grown to 11 percent over the Chancellor’s office enrollment target number. The presidents says that the impaction plan will help ease some financial burden encountered from an over enrollment of students and inadequate funding from the state to support a student body of that size.

“[CSUN is] basically being forced to seek approval for an impaction plan that involves, potentially academic, freshman and transfer level impaction for our undergraduate programs beginning in the Fall of 2016,” said Harrison.

Also Read: CSUN develops impaction measures for 2016-2017

Currently campus impaction is limited to first-time freshman from outside of CSUN’s local admission area which extends from Los Angeles to Ventura county. If the new plan is approved transfer students from out side of the local admission area will be faced with campus impaction.

“The CSU system is currently receiving 400 million dollars less than it received before the recession,” said Harrison. “And is serving 50,000 students more than it did before the recession.”

During the Q&A alumnus voiced concerns over the governors decision last year to veto $50 million for the UC and $50 million for the CSU. The alumnus asked if that could have prevented the new impaction plans altogether.

CSUN Alum Irene Tovar, left, expresses her concerns at the public hearing on impaction with President Dianne Harrison, right. (The Sundial Photo)

Watkins said that in the next several weeks CSUN administration will head to Sacramento to try and earn more state funding and possibly avoid impaction all together. Watkins said if CSUN could obtain three percent more in additional funding the school would not move forward with the current impaction plans.

Also Read: Faculty Senate’s first meeting of semester speaks on policy changes and impaction

Harrison said that if the plan for impaction was approved the school would “use it as judiciously as possible,” in hopes of trying to maintain as much access as they can and trying to keep the demographics to stay the same.

The next in the series of meetings on impaction will be held on March 9 at Glendale Community College from 6:00-7:00 p.m. The chancellor also encourages the public to leave comments about impaction at CSUN’s impaction website.