UC Berkeley Keeps Enrollment Freeze, Refuses Offer for More Students

The University of California, Berkeley rejected an offer over the weekend from a local group that successfully went to court to limit the university's enrollment size for the upcoming semester that would have allowed them to raise enrollment by 1,000 students after initial estimates showed the university would have to reject about 3,000 applicants.

The group Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods released a statement Saturday with an offer to allow for a temporary stay of last week's court ruling that froze UC Berkeley's enrollment rates where they were for the 2020-21 school year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

However, a university spokesperson told Newsweek that its enrollment and policy decisions will not be dictated by a "small group of litigants."

The university first became aware of the offer from the group through the publication of a press release, and that the university is "unable to grant a small group of litigants with the ability to decide who gets to attend the University of California," spokesperson Dan Mogulof said by phone Monday.

He also said that the university looks to its partners in the city of Berkeley in the local government and the residents to understand the needs and wants of the community. The university is also still in discussions with state lawmakers for a legislative fix to the court rulings, Mogulof added.

He said those partners have been largely supportive, including sending an amicus brief to the state Supreme Court urging the court not to freeze the enrollment and also pointed to the $82 million agreement between the city and university announced last summer to address "the impact of the university's presence and population on the city."

The group's statement offered to allow a temporary stay of the California Supreme Court decision issued last week and increase enrollment by 1,000 students, provided at least 90 percent of the incoming students were California residents and that the university would halt efforts to add more than 1,000 new students through the courts and state legislature.

Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods has argued that the university, in continuously increasing enrollment numbers, has failed to consider its impact on housing capacity in the city, therefore also affecting homelessness and other concerns like traffic and noise.

"We have not been contacted directly by anyone at the University of California, despite having contacted President [Michael] Drake's office directly. We are quite surprised that UC Berkeley has apparently decided to ignore California Supreme Court Justice Liu's admonition to sit down and negotiate a settlement, particularly since his dissent supported the university's position," Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods President Phil Bokovoy said in a statement to Newsweek.

"We have made a good faith offer and are willing to sit down and hammer out a settlement. UC Berkeley has created this crisis by failing to undertake a new environmental study as ordered by the court and now they don't seem to want to find a good faith way to resolve the legitimate concerns of the community. We remain ready to meet with President Drake at his earliest convenience."

Last week's ruling that upheld a lower court decision in favor of the group would force the university to keep enrollment levels at the numbers for the 2020-21 school year, down to 42,347 from the estimated over 45,000 students set to be enrolled for next semester, the school said in a statement on its website.

The university also said in a statement last week that following the state Supreme Court decision, it was preparing to reduce enrollment numbers by over 2,500 students by encouraging prospective students to opt for online classes or delay the start of their college career until the following semester when the issue could be resolved further.

"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," the school said.

The university is set to argue its case to an appeals court this summer in hopes that the lower court's decision will be reversed and the school can continue enrollment as planned, according to the Associated Press.

Update 3/7/22 2:30 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and context, along with statements from spokespeople from UC Berkeley and Save Berkeley's Neighborhoods.