The University of California-Berkeley has been forced to scale back enrollment for the fall of 2022 after a ruling from the California Supreme Court.
At the heart of the issue is a lack of adequate housing. Residents of the area argued that the school has not expanded enough to take on thousands of new students and have also complained about noise, traffic, homelessness, and crime.
We touched on this in a recent quick take but the ruling from the CA Supreme Court makes it a much bigger story.
CBS News in San Francisco reports:
California Supreme Court Orders UC Berkeley To Freeze Enrollment At 2020 LevelsThe University of California, Berkeley was ordered by California’s Supreme Court on Thursday to freeze its undergraduate enrollment at 2020-21 levels, meaning it will have to accept at least 3,000 fewer students than planned for the upcoming academic year.Thursday’s decision is the result of a legal battle with a residents group called Save Berkeley Neighborhoods that sued the university for failing to address the effect of increased student enrollment on housing, homelessness, traffic and noise.In a statement from the university, officials said they were “extremely disheartened” by the ruling, which leaves intact a lower court’s order and rejects the university’s request to lift the enrollment cap while it appeals the original lawsuit by the neighborhood group…Freezing enrollment at the 2020-21 level means that the university is capped at a student population of 42,347, and not be able to offer an additional 3,050 seats for incoming first-year students and transfer students as planned for the fall of 2022.
People on the left are up in arms over the decision. Take a look at this tweet from a Democrat state senator in California:
Yes, it is tragic when courts and environmental laws prevent people from doing things. Just ask the thousands of people who used to work for the Keystone XL pipeline.
UC-Berkeley released this statement:
UC Berkeley statement on court ruling that leaves student enrollment freeze intactWe are extremely disheartened by today’s ruling by the Supreme Court of California, which leaves intact a lower court order that will reduce and then freeze enrollment at 2020-2021 levels and prevent thousands of students who would have been offered in-person admission to the University of California, Berkeley, this fall from receiving that offer.This is devastating news for the thousands of students who have worked so hard for and have earned a seat in our fall 2022 class. Our fight on behalf of every one of these students continues.Seeking legislative reliefLooking ahead, we are engaged with state leaders to identify possible legislative solutions that could address the significant impacts of the lower court’s ruling on enrollment decisions at UC Berkeley and other campuses. We know that access and opportunity for prospective UC students remains a priority, not just for the university, but also the state’s policymakers, as reflected in the recent state budget proposal for enrollment at UC.
Doesn’t the community have every right to object? Doesn’t everyone at Berkeley support community activism and the environment?
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