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One word, uttered under breath by a California lawmaker, captured a sentiment, at times boiling over into anger, among legislators struggling to get more California students into the University of California.

What Assemblymember , a Democrat from Sacramento, found frustrating Tuesday was the UC鈥檚 seeming refusal to adopt the same systemwide guaranteed admissions policy for transfer students that the California State University has. But it was one of several expressions of legislative aggravation over the UC鈥檚 鈥� and to a lesser degree, the Cal State鈥檚 鈥� struggles to educate more Californians during an .

There鈥檚 an emotional and fiscal component to lawmakers鈥� disappointment. As chairperson of the subcommittee, McCarty frequently references parents telling him about their children who graduate high school with GPAs above 4.0 but aren鈥檛 accepted to a UC of their choice. To try and get more Californians into the vaunted public university system, the Legislature has recently given or promised the UC:

•  the equivalent of 4,700 more full-time California students by 2023-24 鈥� ;

• $30 million to UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego 鈥� UC campuses with the most out-of-state students and among the lowest admissions rates 鈥� , who pay three times more tuition, and replace them with in-state students;

• And agreed with the governor to grow the UC鈥檚 state funding 鈥� by  鈥� part of which is supposed to cover the UC鈥檚 raising its undergraduate .

From all that, the Legislative Analyst鈥檚 Office calculated UC should enroll the equivalent of . But UC鈥檚 projections show 鈥� about 4,000 short.

And for 2022-23, the UC estimates it鈥檒l enroll the equivalent of than it did in 2021-22.

Now, lawmakers are asking why the UC can about the large volume of students who apply each year and yet cannot find enough slots for all those applicants 鈥� especially at the most selective campuses, UC Berkeley and UCLA.

鈥淵ou just sound out of touch with, you know, the dreams and aspirations of kids who are trying to go to a dream school,鈥� said Assemblymember , a Democrat from Torrance, to the UC official taking the heat at Tuesday鈥檚 hearing, Seija Virtanen, associate director of state budget relations.

Grow and trust

The UC wants to enroll more students 鈥� and technically has. Complicating the debate over enrollment is that the state鈥檚 funding formula looks at full-time equivalent California residents. That鈥檚 different from what the lay person thinks of enrollment: headcount, or the actual number of people taking classes. The UC鈥檚 , but because those students are taking slightly fewer class units per term, the full-time equivalent enrollment dropped.

UC has a plan it shared with the committee: encourage more students to take summer school and through 2026-27. That would add 17,300 full-time equivalent California undergrads, than what lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom wanted from UC.

The analyst鈥檚 office recommended that the 2023-24 state budget 鈥� due in late June 鈥� cut between roughly $9 million and $60 million from UC for this year and next. Lawmakers Tuesday didn鈥檛 seem ready to do so, but they put the UC on notice.

鈥淲e would be super, super disappointed鈥�if we came back a year from now, and we had the same (problem),鈥� said McCarty. 鈥淎nd then at the same time, tens of thousands of Californians from all of our districts with 4.3 GPAs didn鈥檛 get into the UC, even though their parents pay taxes.鈥�

That the UC and California State University 鈥� which expects to be about 5.6% short of its state enrollment target this year, 鈥� are struggling to add more students is an inversion of recent trends.

For the past few years, both systems than what the state paid them to educate. Now, it鈥檚 lawmakers putting pressure on the state public universities to use the extra money they鈥檝e already gotten.

McCarty鈥檚 message to the UC and Cal State Tuesday was to grow as much as they can and trust that the state would reimburse the universities for exceeding their enrollment targets.

UC鈥檚 Virtanen asked for that assurance in legislative writing.

鈥淐ampuses would feel far more comfortable making some additional offers of admittance knowing that if they鈥檙e over by 50 or 100 students, they would get those funds the next year, and we wouldn鈥檛 start building up unfunded enrollment,鈥� she told the subcommittee. The state pays the UC about $10,900 for every California undergraduate it enrolls.

Adding to the enrollment uncertainty at both the UC and Cal State is the hemorrhaging of students at California鈥檚 community colleges, whose transfer students make up a large portion of undergraduates at the public universities. this fall, it鈥檚 still down 280,000 students compared to fall 2019 鈥� a collapse blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Tuesday hearing, the UC debuted what it thought could be a solution: A senior UC official outlined a plan to guarantee admissions to California community college students who complete the right set of courses and meet GPA requirements.

It鈥檚 the first time the UC proposed a systemwide admissions guarantee; now such guarantees exist campus by campus . Under the UC guaranteed admissions proposal, if a student isn鈥檛 admitted to a campus of their choice, they would be redirected to UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside or UC Merced.

But McCarty was unimpressed, faulting the plan because it wasn鈥檛 identical to the . Lawmakers and advocates have been urging all three public higher-education systems to create a single set of requirements across academic majors, such as an associate degree that guarantees admission, so that community college students could enter either a UC or Cal State.

鈥淲e should be using proven pathways rather than adding new pathways and creating additional confusion for students,鈥� said Molly Maguire, a policy director for the advocacy and research group Campaign for College Opportunity, during public comment at Tuesday鈥檚 hearing.

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