CSUs face enrollment decline

By Mikhail Zinshteyn CalMatters

The California State University system is putting campuses on notice: Enroll more students or lose money.

It’s a stunning reversal of fortune for the 23 campuses of the country’s largest public university system, which have collectively lost 27,000 students in two years — part of a national wave of declining college enrollment.

In fall 2020, Cal State posted its highest-ever enrollment, a capstone to almost ceaseless growth in its six decades as a unified system. Now, it’s home to 25,000 fewer students than the state says it should educate.

That’s despite a deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom that the system continue to attract more Californians to its campuses — and graduate them at higher rates — in exchange for increased state funding.

“The California State University is facing an unprecedented moment in its 62-year history,” said Steve Relyea, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer for the system, at this week’s Board of Trustees meeting.

Seven campuses in particular — CSU Channel Islands, Chico State, Cal

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