Cal State plan locks out local students

California State University plans to freeze admissions for in-state students and accept more out-of-state and foreign students have sparked controversy. University officials are pushing the plan as a way to raise additional revenue for the cash-strapped system, the Los Angeles Times reported. Cal State will limit admission of new students in spring 2013 to a few hundred transfer students from community colleges. The rest will be comprised of out-of-state and foreign students. Only 10 of the system's 23 campuses will accept new students. Admitting more out-of-state and foreign students would help the system make up some of the $750 million in cuts imposed during the last school year, and a possible $250 million more in the next. Out-of-state and foreign students pay an additional $372 per semester unit while California resident students are subsidized by the state. Department leaders on some campuses are protesting the decision by refusing to accept any new students. "Diversity from the international community is always welcome," said Maria Nieto, a Cal State East Bay biology professor who coordinates her department's graduate studies. "But you do not run a program in the Cal State system and exclude California residents from the application pool to bring in out-of-state folks. It's not right." The president of the Cal State Student Association concurred. "The mission of Cal State is accessibility and affordability," David Allison said. "I find it troubling that students who are not California residents are being given priority."