California Supreme Court ruling upholds enrollment freeze at UC Berkeley
"This is devastating news for the students who have worked so hard for and have earned an offer of a seat in our fall 2022 class," Berkeley leaders said Thursday. "Our fight on behalf of every one of these students continues."
March 3, 2022
Chancellor Carol Christ and Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Catherine P. Koshland sent the following message to the campus community Thursday:
We have just learned that the Supreme Court of California has issued its ruling, which leaves intact a lower court order that will freeze enrollment at 2020-21 levels and prevent 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 students who have worked so hard for and have earned an offer of a seat in our fall 2022 class. Our fight on behalf of every one of these students continues.
Looking ahead, we will engage with state leaders to identify possible 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 providing 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 to grow enrollment at UC.
At the same time, we are preparing to implement enrollment strategies in case there is no timely fix. Our implementation strategies will focus on mitigating the harm to prospective students, largely by increasing online enrollment and/or asking new, incoming students to delay enrollment until January 2023. We will also prioritize California residents for fall in-person undergraduate enrollment, as well as prioritize our commitment to transfer students.
While these strategies will enable UC Berkeley to make available as many enrollment seats as we can, the lower court order leaves us with options that are far from ideal.
This ruling is disheartening; however, our resolve is unwavering. We will do whatever we can to mitigate the harm to prospective students and to continue to serve our students. We have posted our media statement on the Berkeley News website.