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.