Matt Weir / The Collegian Online
While California State University, Fresno students, faculty and staff are taking furlough days, UHS classes are still in progress.
Furlough days and budget cuts are affecting UHS in several ways, according to the head of University High School James Bushman, Ph.D.
“We rely on Fresno State for maintenance and facilities. When there are furlough days nothing gets taken care of,” Bushman said. “There is a lot of trash everywhere, and we are still here.”
Bushman said that each UHS student will complete a minimum of 23 Fresno State units before entering college.
“Our students are spending less time in class for the same amount of units,” Bushman said.
The U.S. News and World Report recently ranked UHS 45th out of 21,500 public high schools in the country.
The rigorous subjects that high school students are required to take at UHS, as well as at Fresno State, ranked UHS as the 10th best charter high school in the country, according to the U.S News and World Report in December 2008.
“Since Fresno state cut so many classes, it meant a lot less sections were available for our students,” Bushman said. “Many of my students who were going to enroll in Fresno State classes couldn’t.”
Current Fresno State student and nursing major Erika Quitoriano attended UHS.
“I felt that the professors expected us to behave and work as if we were college students,” Quitoriano said. “As a college student now, I think that we were a little more mature than some of the students in my GE classes today.”
With Fresno State cutting classes it has become harder for UHS students to enroll in classes and meet their requirements, Bushman said.
“I don’t want Fresno State students thinking we are complaining because we have to deal with budget cuts,” Bushman said. “It is a fact, but it is also something we all are dealing with.”
UHS students are only allowed into Fresno State classes after college students have enrolled.
“We do not supplant regular students,” Bushman said.
According to Bushman, UHS Students were denied entrance into some college classes, which he says creates a huge burden for his students.
“For every student who is trying to take a class at Fresno State, the cost to do so has climbed tremendously,” said Bushman.
Bushman said that Fresno State asked him to pay more for the classes UHS students are enrolled in.
“The fees for us, in some cases, have doubled or quadrupled,” he said.
Bushman said that while UHS pays less for their students to enroll in classes than the average college student, they are the last ones to enroll and can only do so if there are open seats in a given class.
“It would be fallacious for Fresno State students to say that we’re keeping them out of classes, that we are getting them at a [better] deal than others, and somehow money is coming to us,” said Bushman. “I pay money to be on the Fresno State campus. I pay for everything that Fresno State provides for my students.”